In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explore the science of gratitude and how to develop an effective, research-supported gratitude practice.
I explain why common gratitude practices (like simply listing things you’re grateful for) are far less impactful than engaging in story-based gratitude practices. I also explain how being grateful activates specific brain regions, which enhance calm, social connection and motivation, while reducing anxiety and inflammation. Finally, I share why we can’t simply trick our brains into feeling grateful and describe a practical weekly gratitude practice that will improve both your mental and physical well-being.
Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com.
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Timestamps
(0:00) Gratitude
(0:30) Gratitude Practice Benefits
(3:22) Pro-Social vs Defensive Behaviors, Gratitude
(6:25) Sponsor: Eight Sleep
(8:07) Serotonin, Brain & Context, Gratitude Mindset
(14:02) Context, Can You Lie to Yourself?
(14:48) Effective Gratitude Practice, Tools: Receiving Gratitude, Story
(21:18) Sponsor: AGZ by AG1
(22:47) Tool: Find & Revisit Inspirational Stories
(27:30) Heartfelt Intention, Genuine Thanks
(29:42) Sponsor: Our Place
(31:03) Gratitude Practice Benefits for Anxiety, Fear & Motivation
(33:29) Gratitude Practice Benefits for Immune System
(36:02) Recap: Establishing an Effective Gratitude Practice
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One response
+most people are doing gratitude practice the wrong way – expressing gratitude is only minimally effective; rather, receiving gratitude has more powerful positive results, even if just indirectly experiencing it by witnessing someone else receive it
+a gratitude practice is a very, very potent way
in which you can steer your mental and physical health
in positive directions,
and that those effects are very long lasting.
+Your knowledge that you are making the choice, that it’s you that’s deciding to do something
uncomfortable has been shown to create a very different and positive effect on things like dopamine, on things
like anti-inflammatory markers in your immune system, et cetera, compared to if someone pushes you into
doing it, or because someone insists that you do it and you really, really don’t want to.
+You can’t simply lie to yourself, you can’t simply say, oh, well, every experience is a learning experience, or, you know, a terrible thing that happens, oh, good, I’m just going to say good, and that your body will react as if it’s good for you.
That’s a myth, and frankly, it’s a myth that’s fairly pervasive in the self-help and self-actualization literature.
+the human brain, especially, is so oriented towards story.
We have neural circuits that like to link together past, present, future, have different characters, protagonists and antagonists.
From the time we’re very young until the time we’re very old, story is one of the major ways that we organize information in the brain.
There does seem to be storytelling and story listening circuits in the brain.
+an effective gratitude practice has to be repeated from time to time.
The most effective protocol or tool is going to be either to think into when somebody was thankful for something that you (or someone else) did and really start to think about how you (they) felt in receiving that gratitude.
Or, and, or I should say, imagining or thinking about deeply the emotional experience of somebody else receiving help.
It’s just about what happens to move you.
Now this could be done literally for one minute or two minutes or three minutes.
This is not an extensively long practice.
And that’s very different than a lot of other practices out there.
+If you have a good gratitude practice and you repeat it regularly, you reduce the fear anxiety circuits, you increase the efficacy of the positive emotion, feel good circuits, and the circuits associated with motivation and pursuit are actually enhanced as well.