Grounded in Gratitude: How Thankfulness Resets the Mind and Body

Thanksgiving is a time for… well… giving thanks!

We do this by sharing copious amounts of food, spending time with the people we love, and trying our best to be present in the chaos. Some families even take it a step further and create intentional moments, like going around the table, saying what they’re grateful for, or playing gratitude-themed games with the kids.

What many people don’t realize is that this is actually practicing gratitude. And practicing gratitude isn’t just a “feel-good holiday activity.” It’s one of the most powerful tools we have for strengthening mental health, building resilience, and improving our overall human experience.

Gratitude is more than just a feeling. Gratitude is a powerful tool for emotional resilience—strengthening new positive neural pathways and improving empathy, emotional regulation, and connection. It literally helps regulate the nervous system and keeps us more grounded in a world that often moves too fast.

Gratitude and Emotional States: Why Negative Feelings Lose Power in the Presence of Gratitude

As humans, we can absolutely experience mixed emotions—joy and sadness, excitement and anxiety, pride and fear. Emotional complexity is part of being human, and the holidays tend to activate all of it at once.

But here’s the interesting part:

When you drop into a genuine, embodied moment of gratitude, your brain cannot remain in an active threat state at the same time.

You may still have sadness, worry, or frustration in the background of your day, but in the moment you’re truly feeling gratitude:

• your amygdala quiets

• your stress hormones decrease

• calming neural pathways activate

• your nervous system shifts toward regulation
  

  
  

Gratitude gives the brain a competing signal, that reminds you that you are safe.

Because of this, gratitude reduces overwhelm, interrupts spiraling, and turns the emotional volume down. Negative emotions don’t disappear, but they cannot dominate in the exact moment gratitude is fully present.

Gratitude becomes a grounding anchor.

A Simple Exercise to Understand This

Try this right now:

1. Look around the room and find everything that’s the color yellow.
Take a moment and really scan for it.

Got it?

2. Now, without looking around again, try to name everything in the room that’s red.

Most people can’t.

Why?

Because your brain was focused on finding yellow—and it filtered out everything else. Even if something bright red was right in front of you, your brain didn’t register it because it wasn’t what you were searching for.

This is exactly how the mind works emotionally.

When you move through life scanning for the negative—problems, threats, disappointments—life will not disappoint you. Your brain will hand-deliver more of whatever you’re looking for.

But when you orient yourself toward gratitude, you begin training your brain to notice what is supportive, comforting, meaningful, or safe. Not in a “pretend everything is fine” way, but in a way that creates balance.

Gratitude helps your brain stop treating every uncomfortable moment as a threat.

It widens your field of vision so you can see all of what’s there, instead of just the yellow.

Over time, this shift teaches your brain to notice the red, the gold, the soft, the hopeful and all of the things that nurture you rather than drain you.

The Neuroscience of Gratitude: How Thankfulness Rewires the Brain

Gratitude is a measurable brain-and-body experience. When you practice gratitude, even in small doses, your brain begins to shift out of survival mode and into a more regulated, balanced state.

1. It Activates the Medial Prefrontal Cortex (Your Meaning-Maker)

This part of the brain is responsible for reflection, connection, empathy, and emotional regulation. Gratitude strengthens the pathways that help you notice what is supportive instead of only what feels threatening.

2. It Boosts Dopamine and Serotonin

Acts of gratitude release dopamine (motivation and reward) and serotonin (mood stability). The more you practice, the more your brain seeks out opportunities to feel it again.

3. It Lowers the Stress Response

Gratitude reduces cortisol and calms the amygdala—the brain’s smoke alarm. This decreases intensity and reactivity of harder emotions.

4. It Strengthens the “Resilience Network”

Research shows gratitude activates regions associated with empathy, emotional flexibility, problem-solving, connection, and self-soothing.

5. It Encourages Neuroplasticity

Every time you practice gratitude, you reinforce a neural pathway. With repetition, these become your brain’s default direction—not because life is perfect, but because your nervous system becomes more skilled at recognizing what is good, supportive, and meaningful.

Practical Gratitude Exercises You Can Use Anytime

Gratitude is most powerful when it’s simple, consistent, and honest.

1. The “Three Moments” Check-In

Identify:

• one moment that felt peaceful

• one moment that felt meaningful

• one moment that felt surprisingly good
  
  

This retrains the brain to notice nuance instead of perfection.

2. The Grounding Breath + Body Gratitude

Place a hand on your chest or abdomen, take one deep breath, and ask:

• What part of my body feels supported right now?

• What part feels softer than yesterday?

• What did my body carry me through today?

3. Gratitude Through the Hard Stuff

Reflect on:

• a challenge that grew you

• a boundary that protected you

• a loss that reshaped you

• a difficult moment you found your way through

4. The 10-Second Micro-Gratitude Pause

When overwhelmed, name one thing in your environment that brings ease: a soft texture, sunlight, a comforting smell, a moment of quiet.

Small gratitudes accumulate like drops of water that eventually fill the cup.

5. Future-Self Gratitude Letter

Write a 2–3 sentence note beginning with:
“Thank you for not giving up on me.”

This strengthens hope pathways in the brain.

Closing Thoughts

As humans, we are naturally wired to scan for the negative. It's an ancient survival strategy. But when you intentionally align yourself with gratitude, you begin teaching your brain to notice more than the problems. You start seeing the possibility,  connection, and the good that was there all along.

Gratitude shifts the lens so that life becomes more balanced, grounded and reminds you of what an awesome human journey you are living!

I wish you well on your journey of life, love and gratitude!

Cristina Chinchilla, LCSW

P.S. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!