English

How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain Published June 6, 2017

Co-authored by Joshua Brown, Ph.D., who is a professor of psychological and brain sciences at

Indiana University, and Joel Wong, Ph.D., who is an associate professor of counseling psychology

at Indiana University.

New research is starting to explore how gratitude works to improve our mental health. With

the rise of managed health care, which emphasizes cost-efficiency and brevity, mental health

professionals have had to confront this burning question: How can they help clients derive the

greatest possible benefit from treatment in the shortest amount of time? Recent evidence

suggests that a promising approach is to complement psychological counseling with additional

activities that are not too taxing for clients but yield high results. In our own research, we have

zeroed in on one such activity: the practice of gratitude. Indeed, many studies over the past

decade have found that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and

less depressed.

The problem is that most research studies on gratitude have been conducted with well-

functioning people. Is gratitude beneficial for people who struggle with mental health

concerns? And, if so, how? We set out to address these questions in a recent

research study involving nearly 300 adults, mostly college students who were seeking mental

health counseling at a university. We recruited these participants just before they began their

first session of counseling, and, on average, they reported clinically low levels of mental health

at the time. The majority of people seeking counseling services at this university in general

struggled with issues related to depression and anxiety.

We randomly assigned our study participants into three groups. Although all three groups

received counseling services, the first group was also instructed to write one letter of gratitude

to another person each week for three weeks, whereas the second group was asked to write

about their deepest thoughts and feelings about negative experiences. The third group did not

do any writing activity. What did we find? Compared with the participants who wrote about

negative experiences or only received counseling, those who wrote gratitude letters reported

significantly better mental health four weeks and 12 weeks after their writing exercise ended.

This suggests that gratitude writing can be beneficial not just for healthy, well-adjusted

individuals, but also for those who struggle with mental health concerns. In fact, it seems,

practicing gratitude on top of receiving psychological counseling carries greater benefits than

counseling alone, even when that gratitude practice is brief.

And that’s not all. When we dug deeper into our results, we found indications of how gratitude

might actually work on our minds and bodies. While not definitive, here are four insights from

our research suggesting what might be behind gratitude’s psychological benefits.

1. Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions

First, by analyzing the words used by participants in each of the two writing groups, we were

able to understand the mechanisms behind the mental health benefits of gratitude letter

writing. We compared the percentage of positive emotion words, negative emotion words, and

“we” words (first-person plural words) that participants used in their writing. Not surprisingly,

those in the gratitude writing group used a higher percentage of positive emotion words and

“we” words, and a lower proportion of negative emotion words, than those in the other writing

group. However, people who used more positive emotion words and more “we” words in their

gratitude letters didn’t necessarily have better mental health later. It was only when people

used fewer negative emotion words in their letters that they were significantly more likely to

report better mental health. In fact, it was the lack of negative emotion words—not the

abundance of positive words—that explained the mental health gap between the gratitude

writing group and the other writing group. Perhaps this suggests that gratitude letter writing

produces better mental health by shifting one’s attention away from toxic emotions, such as

resentment and envy. When you write about how grateful you are to others and how much

other people have blessed your life, it might become considerably harder for you to ruminate

on your negative experiences.

2. Gratitude helps even if you don’t share it

We told participants who were assigned to write gratitude letters that they weren’t required to

send their letters to their intended recipient. In fact, only 23 percent of participants who wrote

gratitude letters sent them. But those who didn’t send their letters enjoyed the benefits of

experiencing gratitude nonetheless. (Because the number of people who sent their letters was

so small, it was hard for us to determine whether this group’s mental health was better than

those who didn’t send their letter.) This suggests that the mental health benefits of writing

gratitude letters are not entirely dependent on actually communicating that gratitude to

another person. So if you’re thinking of writing a letter of gratitude to someone, but you’re

unsure whether you want that person to read the letter, we encourage you to write it anyway.

You can decide later whether to send it (and we think it’s often a good idea to do so). But the

mere act of writing the letter can help you appreciate the people in your life and shift your focus

away from negative feelings and thoughts.

3. Gratitude’s benefits take time

It’s important to note that the mental health benefits of gratitude writing in our study did not

emerge immediately, but gradually accrued over time. Although the different groups in our

study did not differ in mental health levels one week after the end of the writing activities,

individuals in the gratitude group reported better mental health than the others four weeks

after the writing activities, and this difference in mental health became even larger 12 weeks

after the writing activities. These results are encouraging because many other studies suggest

that the mental health benefits of positive activities often decrease rather than increase over

time afterward. We don’t really know why this positive snowball effect occurred in our study.

Perhaps the gratitude letter writers discussed what they wrote in their letters with their

counselors or with others. These conversations may have reinforced the psychological benefits

derived from the gratitude writing itself. For now, the bottom line is this: If you participate in a

gratitude writing activity, don’t be too surprised if you don’t feel dramatically better

immediately after the writing. Be patient and remember that the benefits of gratitude might

take time to kick in.

4. Gratitude has lasting effects on the brain

About three months after the psychotherapy sessions began, we took some of the people who

wrote gratitude letters and compared them with those who didn’t do any writing. We wanted to

know if their brains were processing information differently. We used an fMRI scanner to

measure brain activity while people from each group did a “pay it forward” task. In that task,

the individuals were regularly given a small amount of money by a nice person, called the

“benefactor.” This benefactor only asked that they pass the money on to someone if they felt

grateful. Our participants then decided how much of the money, if any, to pass on to a worthy

cause (and we did in fact donate that money to a local charity). We wanted to distinguish

donations motivated by gratitude from donations driven by other motivations, like feelings of

guilt or obligation. So we asked the participants to rate how grateful they felt toward the

benefactor, and how much they wanted to help each charitable cause, as well as how guilty

they would feel if they didn’t help. We also gave them questionnaires to measure how grateful

they are in their lives in general. We found that across the participants, when people felt more

grateful, their brain activity was distinct from brain activity related to guilt and the desire to

help a cause. More specifically, we found that when people who are generally more grateful

gave more money to a cause, they showed greater neural sensitivity in the medial prefrontal

cortex, a brain area associated with learning and decision making. This suggests that people

who are more grateful are also more attentive to how they express gratitude.

Most interestingly, when we compared those who wrote the gratitude letters with those who

didn’t, the gratitude letter writers showed greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex

when they experienced gratitude in the fMRI scanner. This is striking as this effect was found

three months after the letter writing began. This indicates that simply expressing gratitude may

have lasting effects on the brain. While not conclusive, this finding suggests that practicing

gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the

line, and this could contribute to improved mental health over time.

Though these are just the first steps in what should be a longer research journey, our research

so far not only suggests that writing gratitude letters may be helpful for people seeking

counseling services but also explains what’s behind gratitude’s psychological benefits. At a time

when many mental health professionals are feeling crunched, we hope that this research can

point them—and their clients—toward an effective and beneficial tool. Regardless of whether

you’re facing serious psychological challenges, if you have never written a gratitude letter

before, we encourage you to try it. Much of our time and energy is spent pursuing things we

currently don’t have. Gratitude reverses our priorities to help us appreciate the people and

things we do.

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Requirements for a Paragraph Response Begin with a topic sentence to state your main idea that addresses the prompt.  Develop and organize the paragraph's evidence by weaving in explanation, an integrated, cited, explicated quotewhere appropriate, and an example/illustration from your experience to connect. See lesson below that explains how to integrate, cite, and explicate a quote to meet the requirements.  End the paragraph with a summary statement sentence that reinforces the significance of what was proven in the paragraph. Edit your writing for grammar and mechanics as well as point of view: Write in 3rd person (people, everyone, etc.) when explaining the article. Write in 1st person (I, me, my) when writing about your views or experience.  Do not write in 2nd person (you, your).

  Example Paragraph Response  Question answered is "What is the point of giving gratitude?"  Topic Sentence > Quote Integration for Quote > Citation > Quote Explication > Example/Illustration to Connect > Summary Statement 

Building a life with meaning and purpose often requires people to give thanks for what they have, thus offering gratitude. By expressing appreciation each day, it can improve one's mental well-being helping"people refocus on what they have instead of what they lack. [...] [T]his mental state grows stronger with use and practice. [....] Pick a time every week to sit down and write about your blessings — reflecting on what went right or what you are grateful for. [...] [B]e specific and think about the sensations you felt when something good happened to you" (Jones, par. 12-13). Using this approach, the goal is to think about the good things that make a person feel better; this reinforces what's going well in one's life, and everyone has times when things are not going well, so this practice helps people consider what is working. Doing this consistently can impact one's mood when practiced over a period of time, so this can be a great way to develop a healthier outlook, especially when times are challenging. It can give people hope. When I read this idea about the right kind of focus, it really resonated with me. I've been struggling with achieving a work/home balance, and when I'm at home, I want to be in the moment with my kids becuase they are most important, so this crystalized the idea that I need to let go of the stress at work on my drive home by thinking about three things that make me grateful at home, so the moment I walk in the door, I am fully present for my family. As a result, making a point to give gratitude can make room for what really matters. 

  Quote Integration Integrate the quote into your short answer response by introducing the IDEA that the quote will then explain, letting the quote complete the sentence's thought, like these examples show. Quote length should not exceed 3 lines per quote when placed in your paragraph.  Examples 

By expressing gratitude, "quote the podcast or article assigned" (Author's last name, Location).

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When positivity becomes problematic, "quote the podcast or article assigned" (Author's last name, Location). A great question to ask is "quote the podcast or article assigned" (Author's last name, Location). One way to practice gratitude is to "quote the podcast or article assigned" (Author's last name, Location). 

Avoid Do NOT identify the name of the author, article title, source, or location of the quote as your quote integration. Some of that information is in the parenthetical citation, so using it to introduce a quote creates an "empty integration."  Avoid!

  Parenthetical Citation Cite your quote using a parenthetical citation that identifies the source by name and location of the quote. This shows your readers where the quote is located in the article:

When quoting an article, you cite by author's last name(s) and the paragraph or page number. When an article lacks page numbers, that is when you need to use par. #:

"Quote" (Author's Last Name, page #). "Quote" (Author's Last Name, par. #). Like these examples show: "Quote" (Brown and Wong, par. 17). OR "Quote" (Brown and Wong, page 4).  Like these examples show: "Quote" (Smith, par. 17). OR "Quote" (Smith, page 4). 

  Quote Explication for a Paragraph Response When writing quote explication for a paragraph response, your quote explication should be richer and more substantive, like 2-3 sentences where you focus on an idea or ideas in the quote in order to explain and interpret the quote's meaning to your audience in your own words.   Example Quote Explication 

Building a life with meaning and purpose often requires people to give thanks for what they have. By expressing appreciation each day, it can improve one's mental well-being helping "people refocus on what they have instead of what they lack. [...] [T]his mental state grows stronger with use and practice. [....] Pick a time every week to sit down and write about your blessings — reflecting on what went right or what you are grateful for. [...] [B]e specific and think about the sensations you felt when something good happened to you" (Harvard Health, par. 12 and 16). Using this approach, the goal is to think about the good things that make a person feel better; this reinforces what's going well in one's life, and everyone has times when things are not going well, so this practice helps people consider what is working. Doing this consistently can impact one's mood when practiced over a period of time, so this can be a great wat to develop a healthier outlook, especially when times are challenging. It can give people hope. 

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  Brackets and Ellipses to Shorten Quotes OR Signal Minor Change

Using [...] in a quote means a few inessential words were cut from the quote. Using [....] in a quote means a sentence or sentences were cut from the quote.  You can also use a bracket to signal a change to a verb ending, capitalization, etc. to make the quote readable as well as grammatically and mechanically accurate. Changes to a quote need to be shown in this way. 

How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain Published June 6, 2017

Co-authored by Joshua Brown, Ph.D., who is a professor of psychological and brain sciences at

Indiana University, and Joel Wong, Ph.D., who is an associate professor of counseling psychology

at Indiana University.

New research is starting to explore how gratitude works to improve our mental health. With

the rise of managed health care, which emphasizes cost-efficiency and brevity, mental health

professionals have had to confront this burning question: How can they help clients derive the

greatest possible benefit from treatment in the shortest amount of time? Recent evidence

suggests that a promising approach is to complement psychological counseling with additional

activities that are not too taxing for clients but yield high results. In our own research, we have

zeroed in on one such activity: the practice of gratitude. Indeed, many studies over the past

decade have found that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and

less depressed.

The problem is that most research studies on gratitude have been conducted with well-

functioning people. Is gratitude beneficial for people who struggle with mental health

concerns? And, if so, how? We set out to address these questions in a recent

research study involving nearly 300 adults, mostly college students who were seeking mental

health counseling at a university. We recruited these participants just before they began their

first session of counseling, and, on average, they reported clinically low levels of mental health

at the time. The majority of people seeking counseling services at this university in general

struggled with issues related to depression and anxiety.

We randomly assigned our study participants into three groups. Although all three groups

received counseling services, the first group was also instructed to write one letter of gratitude

to another person each week for three weeks, whereas the second group was asked to write

about their deepest thoughts and feelings about negative experiences. The third group did not

do any writing activity. What did we find? Compared with the participants who wrote about

negative experiences or only received counseling, those who wrote gratitude letters reported

significantly better mental health four weeks and 12 weeks after their writing exercise ended.

This suggests that gratitude writing can be beneficial not just for healthy, well-adjusted

individuals, but also for those who struggle with mental health concerns. In fact, it seems,

practicing gratitude on top of receiving psychological counseling carries greater benefits than

counseling alone, even when that gratitude practice is brief.

And that’s not all. When we dug deeper into our results, we found indications of how gratitude

might actually work on our minds and bodies. While not definitive, here are four insights from

our research suggesting what might be behind gratitude’s psychological benefits.

1. Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions

First, by analyzing the words used by participants in each of the two writing groups, we were

able to understand the mechanisms behind the mental health benefits of gratitude letter

writing. We compared the percentage of positive emotion words, negative emotion words, and

“we” words (first-person plural words) that participants used in their writing. Not surprisingly,

those in the gratitude writing group used a higher percentage of positive emotion words and

“we” words, and a lower proportion of negative emotion words, than those in the other writing

group. However, people who used more positive emotion words and more “we” words in their

gratitude letters didn’t necessarily have better mental health later. It was only when people

used fewer negative emotion words in their letters that they were significantly more likely to

report better mental health. In fact, it was the lack of negative emotion words—not the

abundance of positive words—that explained the mental health gap between the gratitude

writing group and the other writing group. Perhaps this suggests that gratitude letter writing

produces better mental health by shifting one’s attention away from toxic emotions, such as

resentment and envy. When you write about how grateful you are to others and how much

other people have blessed your life, it might become considerably harder for you to ruminate

on your negative experiences.

2. Gratitude helps even if you don’t share it

We told participants who were assigned to write gratitude letters that they weren’t required to

send their letters to their intended recipient. In fact, only 23 percent of participants who wrote

gratitude letters sent them. But those who didn’t send their letters enjoyed the benefits of

experiencing gratitude nonetheless. (Because the number of people who sent their letters was

so small, it was hard for us to determine whether this group’s mental health was better than

those who didn’t send their letter.) This suggests that the mental health benefits of writing

gratitude letters are not entirely dependent on actually communicating that gratitude to

another person. So if you’re thinking of writing a letter of gratitude to someone, but you’re

unsure whether you want that person to read the letter, we encourage you to write it anyway.

You can decide later whether to send it (and we think it’s often a good idea to do so). But the

mere act of writing the letter can help you appreciate the people in your life and shift your focus

away from negative feelings and thoughts.

3. Gratitude’s benefits take time

It’s important to note that the mental health benefits of gratitude writing in our study did not

emerge immediately, but gradually accrued over time. Although the different groups in our

study did not differ in mental health levels one week after the end of the writing activities,

individuals in the gratitude group reported better mental health than the others four weeks

after the writing activities, and this difference in mental health became even larger 12 weeks

after the writing activities. These results are encouraging because many other studies suggest

that the mental health benefits of positive activities often decrease rather than increase over

time afterward. We don’t really know why this positive snowball effect occurred in our study.

Perhaps the gratitude letter writers discussed what they wrote in their letters with their

counselors or with others. These conversations may have reinforced the psychological benefits

derived from the gratitude writing itself. For now, the bottom line is this: If you participate in a

gratitude writing activity, don’t be too surprised if you don’t feel dramatically better

immediately after the writing. Be patient and remember that the benefits of gratitude might

take time to kick in.

4. Gratitude has lasting effects on the brain

About three months after the psychotherapy sessions began, we took some of the people who

wrote gratitude letters and compared them with those who didn’t do any writing. We wanted to

know if their brains were processing information differently. We used an fMRI scanner to

measure brain activity while people from each group did a “pay it forward” task. In that task,

the individuals were regularly given a small amount of money by a nice person, called the

“benefactor.” This benefactor only asked that they pass the money on to someone if they felt

grateful. Our participants then decided how much of the money, if any, to pass on to a worthy

cause (and we did in fact donate that money to a local charity). We wanted to distinguish

donations motivated by gratitude from donations driven by other motivations, like feelings of

guilt or obligation. So we asked the participants to rate how grateful they felt toward the

benefactor, and how much they wanted to help each charitable cause, as well as how guilty

they would feel if they didn’t help. We also gave them questionnaires to measure how grateful

they are in their lives in general. We found that across the participants, when people felt more

grateful, their brain activity was distinct from brain activity related to guilt and the desire to

help a cause. More specifically, we found that when people who are generally more grateful

gave more money to a cause, they showed greater neural sensitivity in the medial prefrontal

cortex, a brain area associated with learning and decision making. This suggests that people

who are more grateful are also more attentive to how they express gratitude.

Most interestingly, when we compared those who wrote the gratitude letters with those who

didn’t, the gratitude letter writers showed greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex

when they experienced gratitude in the fMRI scanner. This is striking as this effect was found

three months after the letter writing began. This indicates that simply expressing gratitude may

have lasting effects on the brain. While not conclusive, this finding suggests that practicing

gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the

line, and this could contribute to improved mental health over time.

Though these are just the first steps in what should be a longer research journey, our research

so far not only suggests that writing gratitude letters may be helpful for people seeking

counseling services but also explains what’s behind gratitude’s psychological benefits. At a time

when many mental health professionals are feeling crunched, we hope that this research can

point them—and their clients—toward an effective and beneficial tool. Regardless of whether

you’re facing serious psychological challenges, if you have never written a gratitude letter

before, we encourage you to try it. Much of our time and energy is spent pursuing things we

currently don’t have. Gratitude reverses our priorities to help us appreciate the people and

things we do.