The Biological Reason to Practice Gratitude
A top expert who taught
me a lot about gratitude is Dr. Elissa Epel, who is a professor at UCSF who
studies how stress can impact our biological aging via the telomere/telomerase
system and how meditation modalities may buffer stress effects and boost physical
and spiritual well-being.
To learn the origin of
these differences, the researchers took an inventory of the participants' daily
lives and asked them questions such as: From the moment you wake up, how much
are you looking forward to the day? How much are you worrying about the day?
How happy are you? How stressed or anxious are you? They were looking not just
for the participants' affect and emotion but for their appraisals of what was
going to happen to them, good or bad. In other words, were they locked in a
cycle of always anticipating a threat, or did they also experience hope and
gratitude? They checked participants' mitochondrial enzymes in the morning,
after a moment of stress, and then again in the evening. They found that the
people with the most mitochondrial enzymes had a higher positive affect when
they woke up and when they went to bed, especially around bedtime. It was their
recovery mood and whether or not they held onto the residue of everything that
happened to them throughout the day that determined how well their mitochondria
were functioning.
To help people improve
their mood and not wake up anticipating stress, Dr. Epel suggests that they
think of something they are grateful for in the evening before bed. That simple
gratitude exercise could potentially boost the participants' mitochondrial
enzymes and made them happier.
Although it's
understandable that mothers of sick children might be prone to fearing the
worst, Dr. Epel explains that many of us anticipate moments of stress without
even realizing it. The question is: Are you carrying that perceived danger or
threat with you throughout the day and ruminating over it? Are you putting
yourself into a state of fight or flight by anticipating stress before it
happens? Or are you bathing yourself in cues of safety by feeling grateful? An
easy way to tell if you are spending your days anticipating threats is by paying
attention to how you feel in the evening. At night, your mood is really
important because it reflects how well you've recovered from your stress. How
positive is your mood when you get home from work in the evening and before
bed?
Several years ago, I
instituted a gratitude practice at Bulletproof. Our weekly executive team
meetings begin with each team member sharing what he or she is grateful for.
Sometimes it's a big win at work. But, most often it's time with family, a
volunteer project or maybe a Seahawks win. Starting a meeting with gratitude
makes for a more powerful interaction and builds connection among the team
members. I see it as an act of service I can offer to the people who so
passionately support the company's mission: to help people tap into the
unlimited power of being human.
I value gratitude so
much that I don't save it for Team Bulletproof. Every night before bed since my
kids were old enough to talk, I've been asking them to relate an "act of
kindness," something they did that day to help another person. Their vagal
tone increases when they recall something nice they've done. We follow with a
nightly gratitude practice. Lana and I ask them for three things they're
grateful for. Sometimes it's a little thing, such as being grateful for having
had grass-fed rib eye for dinner. (I love having foodie kids!) But, sometimes
it's profound. Once when my son was five, he got a strange look on his face and
said, "Daddy, I'm grateful for the Big Bang because without it there
wouldn't be anything." Then he rolled over and happily went to sleep with
his nervous system calm and his mitochondria running at full power. It works
for adults, too. Try it.
source:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/324527
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