A gratitude practice is an important component to our daily routines. It has the significant benefit of promoting an optimistic outlook.
Dr. Darin Davidson partners with Learner+, a CME/CE reflective learning platform for healthcare providers. For the opportunity to reflect on this article and earn CE/CME credits, Launch here. Check out all past articles which are also eligible for reflections and CE/CME credits.
A previous article discussed the importance of gratitude and optimism within our daily lives. Across all domains, recommendations to be at our best and perform at our highest level include a gratitude practice. It is important to not only understand the components of such a practice, but also the impact that it can have on our biological states.
Typically, a gratitude practice is recommended to increase the degree of optimism within our lives. It is important to note that an optimistic outlook is not synonymous with an unrealistic expectation that no matter the situation or circumstances, things will always turn out to meet our desires or goals. Rather, an optimistic perspective is one in which we typically believe, in a realistic and appropriate fashion, that we will be able to accomplish our goals and things will generally turn out for the best. The other end of the spectrum is a pessimistic perspective in which our outlook is one in which we believe something negative or disadvantageous will always and inevitably occur. It can be readily appreciated how an optimistic outlook is very necessary if we are to push the limits of our potential and pursue our best across all aspects of life.
The gratitude practice itself involves identifying positive events and experiences on a regular, ideally daily, basis. In addition, it is advised that we recognize those aspects of our life for which we are grateful. It is ideal that the events and situations that we identify are those of true importance and are associated with a physically or psychologically based sensation of appreciation, gratitude, or thankfulness. In addition, it is important to fully experience and embody the sensation and feeling of gratitude when we are recognizing these situations and events. The practice can be done at any point in the day, with some recommending doing so first thing in the morning and others towards the end of the day. It is often advised that the events we recognize are written down and while doing so we take the opportunity to fully experience the sensations associated with those particular events.
With an understanding of the mechanics of a gratitude practice and importance of an optimistic mindset established, we will now discuss their impact from the perspective of the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete. When we are able to recognize an experience with gratitude and shift our outlook towards one of optimism, this is associated with an increase in the strength of our grounded and anchored states. One explanation for this is that the process of identifying the sensations associated with gratitude frequently are associated with connection to those events. This is particularly the case when we identify experiences along the external and relational pathways. By nature of this sense of connectedness, we increase our social engagement and inherently shift towards anchored and grounded states.
In addition to the impact of gratitude on strengthening our anchored and grounded states in and of itself, there is an association between gratitude, optimism, and oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone and neuropeptide which is often associated with the feelings of love, as well as increased trust and prosocial behaviors. Furthermore, oxytocin is associated with decreased reactivity, improved immune function, as well as better recovery and repair, including wound healing. There appears to be a significant interplay between gratitude and increased levels of oxytocin. A further exploration of oxytocin will be the focus of an upcoming article. Given the effects of increased oxytocin, it can be appreciated how its presence further contributes to biological state shifts towards anchored and grounded states.
In addition to the above mentioned impacts of a gratitude practice on our neurophysiology, it is also the case that a regular gratitude practice effectively teaches the brain to identify and place importance as well as pay increased attention to those positive events and aspects of our lives. There is a strong overlap between this concept and the practice of manifestation, which will be the topic of an upcoming article.
It is important to recognize the ability of a gratitude practice to increase the capacity for our brain to pay attention to and increase recognition of positive events, given the default nature of our brain is essentially geared towards threat detection. This is for the purposes of survival, as discussed in past articles. When our biological state shifts towards activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states the associated neurophysiological shifts result in our salience network placing greater attention on that which may be considered threatening or risky along each of the three pathways. This process is for our survival. It is also, however, associated with a strong negativity bias, which would tend to lead towards a more pessimistic outlook. In order to increase our degree of optimism and its associated strengthening of anchored and grounded states, it is therefore important to facilitate a shift in our salience network towards identification of positive experiences and events. A gratitude practice is an important exercise in this regard.
As noted above, one important aspect to a gratitude practice is to truly feel and experience the sensations of appreciation and gratitude for the events we identify. In a sense this refers to embodiment of these experiences. As discussed in the previous article, it is very important that we increase our degree of embodiment of our experiences in conjunction with the mind-based and body-based skills within the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete in order to increase our nervous system flexibility through greater integration between our physical and psychological experiences. By embodying gratitude, we are able to further train this important trait.
A gratitude practice and the resulting increased degree of optimism has many important benefits as discussed above. By following the mechanics of a gratitude practice, we are able to shift our salience network towards identification of positive events, strengthen our anchored and grounded states, and increase our degree of nervous system flexibility. Perhaps most importantly, we can use this practice as an exercise to further develop embodiment through integration of our mind-based and body-based skills and experiences.
To learn more, including about polyvagal informed coaching for healthcare professionals and others in high demand domains, please visit www.darindavidson.com.
Dr. Darin Davidson partners with Learner+, a CME/CE reflective learning platform for healthcare providers. For the opportunity to reflect on this article and earn CE/CME credits, Launch here. Check out all past articles which are also eligible for reflections and CE/CME credits.