Gratitude is a feeling.

Gratitude is the memory of the heart. - Jean Baptiste Massieu
Aristotle wrote in 350 B.C.E. that virtue is formed by habit: We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”

Scientists at the University of California studied how gratitude affects the brain. After three weeks of writing daily gratitude notes, participants’ prefrontal cortex — the brain’s center for focus and stress control — physically changed leading to the observation that Gratitude doesn’t just lift your mood — it rebuilds your wiring.

When gratitude stays in your head, it’s just manners, one researcher said. When it reaches your body, it becomes transformation. - anon

If you mechanically write or express your gratitude from ‘the head up’ there will be no change.  Instead you’ll express boredom.  On the other hand for those who took a few moments to stop, close their eyes and embody the warmth of gratitude in their hearts and elsewhere in their body, they triggered deep neural activation in the area of the brain tied to emotional memory.

After two months, these participants had lower cortisol, better sleep, and sharper focus. Their brain scans resembled experienced meditators.  But most importantly, their brains automatically started spotting good things throughout the day. Gratitude had become a perception.

As we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving this week I invite you to take a moment to sit and reflect on all that we are grateful for, relive the expression of gratitude from your fingers to your toes.