We’ve all heard about the power of gratitude and positive thinking. So what is this concept all about and more importantly, how does it affect your mood, your brain and your thinking?

The philosophy of positively visualizing the things you want in life and downplaying experiences and expectations that are negative is a concept that has been written about for at least 3,000 years. Great authors of all times have written about how our thoughts and how we choose to look at things condition the reality that we experience.

Epictetus, Greek Stoic philosopher, in the first century said that “The thing that upsets people is not so much what happens, but what they think about what happens”.

Today’s researchers are finding out how the concept actually works.

An article about brain imaging research in Psychology Today reports that research subjects who expressed gratitude on a regular basis had high levels of activity in the hypothalamus region of their brains and had higher concentrations of dopamine.

Leanne O’Neil of INDY Neurofeedback says, “Because the hypothalamus controls a vast number of vital bodily functions such as eating, drinking and sleeping, this area of your brain has a significant influence on your metabolism and stress levels. Feelings of gratitude also directly activate brain regions associated with the ‘reward’ neurotransmitter called dopamine.”

Dopamine floods the brain with positive emotions, which is why it is generally considered to be the brain’s reward neurotransmitter. Importantly, dopamine is also responsible for initiating action. In essence, increases in dopamine encourage your brain to repeat what you just did, in order to get that wonderful feeling again.

According to Psychology Today, “Gratitude has a powerful impact on your life because it engages your brain in a virtuous cycle. Your brain only has so much power to focus its attention. It cannot easily focus on both positive and negative stimuli. It is like a small child: easily distracted. Your brain looks for things that prove what it already believes to be true and dopamine reinforces that. So once you start seeing things to be grateful for, your brain starts looking for more things to be grateful for. That’s how the virtuous cycle gets created.”

Leanne O’Neil has seen the power of gratitude in the brain time and time again in her work with INDY Neurofeedback clients. “Positive thinking brain activity can be tracked, showing that improvements in gratitude can have wide-ranging effects, from increases in exercise and improved sleep, to decreases in depression and aches and pains.”

Here are 3 simple ways you can use the power of gratitude to help transform your life, health and physical well-being:

• Health and your happiness. Positive thinking has proven health benefits including minimizing stress, curbing depression, reducing both pain and the risk of heart disease.
• A good attitude improves coping skills. Sometimes simply feeling gratitude about being alive in this vast world can help put problems into perspective and provide better coping skills – especially if you have physical pain. Use gratitude to provide perspective on what’s important and what you truly value.
• Relationships thrive on gratitude. Gratitude reinforces bonds and provides proof of support for any difficult times in the future.

Positive focus can effect change to your health with a shift in perspective. INDY Neurofeedback can help you train your brain to actively respond to gratitude through proven non-medical biofeedback techniques. This not only works for you and your health but also helps those around you.

Gratitude is contagious!