Your Gratitude Story Can Change Your Brain

One minute, three times per week

Philosopher Sam Keen says, “The human animal is the only animal where there is an indissolvable marriage between biology and stories … stories can change our chemical structure, and perhaps even the very structure of our brain."

Happy 2023! May it be a year of joy, peace, and gratitude.

Neuroscience studies tell us that the brief, repeated practice of telling yourself a gratitude story is the most powerful producer of the benefits of gratitude. The process of repeating it only takes only a minute or so and repeating it three times a week can change your brain.

So, what is a gratitude story?

Counterintuitively, it isn’t a story about your being grateful for something someone else did for you … it’s about your receiving sincere, powerful gratitude for something you did for someone else. These stories don’t have to be big and dramatic.They don’t have to be about saving a life or donating a large sum of money; it only matters how powerfully what you did affected the other person and how they expressed it to you.

Here’s an example of a story I’ve used for myself most of the past year. A young man I worked with many years ago sent me a thank you note for something I barely remembered doing, and which seemed like nothing at the time. He worked in the mail room and when I had computer issues, he would help me. He was bright and during our time together, I often encouraged him to go back to school. Period. That was it. 

His note, sent decades later, touched me as he thanked me for changing his life. He did go back to school, got a good job working with computers, got married and had a family. He connected what I said to him to his having the courage to make the changes needed to live the life he wanted to live.

When I crafted this into a story and started using it, I was skeptical. What I did was small; the story was small. However, as I repeated it three times a week (it was built into Gratitude Mojo so the reminder was always there), it began to expand. I saw how the words I gave him rippled out to his family and friends, affecting his children, his co-workers, his community. I imagined him encouraging his children to follow their dreams, telling others how he changed his own life and encouraging them to change theirs. My words changed him; now his words were changing me. Repeating that story and feeling the power of our words, brought me to tears often as it made me feel powerfully connected far beyond the life I could see.

Our brains are wired for stories.

To create your own story, think of a time when someone said “thank you” in a sincere way that surprised and delighted you. Especially when it felt like what you did was so insignificant at the time. Answer these questions:

1. Who was helped?

2. What needed help was given?

3. What gratitude was expressed?

4.  How did it make you feel?

Write your story in your journal where you will be able to see it every week so you can explore and expand on it as you repeat it regularly. We’d love to hear your gratitude story and what happens as you repeat it to yourself regularly.

For the next thirteen weeks, this newsletter will focus on two posts:

Sunday: focusing on gratitude and each of the thirteen themes of personal development included in Gratitude Mojo.

Thursday: dedicated to a deeper dive into journaling with tips, stories and illustrations.

Thank you for reading gratitude mojo. We love your “hearts” and please feel free to share this post if you think any of your friends and family would like it.

And if you would like to see other Gratitude Mojo posts, click here:

In good times and challenging ones, practicing gratitude helps us recognize the good things in our lives and build resilience for the challenges that come our way. Gratitude journaling is one of the best ways to better understand yourself and deepen your practice of gratitude.

Any journal will do … however, we have a bias toward Gratitude Mojo, which comes to you free with your annual paid subscription … including one copy for a friend because having a Gratitude Buddy makes the journey better.

We want to help everyone develop a deeper practice of gratitude, therefore, all posts are always free. … And, we always appreciate paid subscriptions as they help support this work.