Daily Expressions of Gratitude Can Boost Mental Health

It’s not uncommon to express gratitude on a day like Thanksgiving, but what should happen if we practice expressions of gratitude everyday such as keeping a daily gratitude journal?

- By Yuleisy Cardoso, M.A., MFT.

Neuroscientists reveal there are lots of mental health benefits when we keep a daily gratitude journal, it helps us create a happier and healthier mental state. A center called Mindfulness Awareness Research Center based out of UCLA tells us that expressing gratitude on a daily basis changes the way we re-wire our brain. We are no longer creating brain cells and reinforcing neuropathways between those cells that make us behave and perceive our world like “Negative Nancies” or with the glass half-empty. Instead, our brain begins to create brain cells and reinforce connections between these cells that help us see our world in a more positive and rosie-colored way. Now we begin to behave, think and experience emotions like a “Positive Patty,” and we begin to perceive our world with the glass half-full, we are happier and healthier beings.