Mid-Month Mini Episode: Gratitude

[0:00:00 Speaker 1] We’re a resource for learners, including every member of the live strong cancer institutes on track educational pipeline from middle school to residency. We’re growing collection of interviews, talks and experiences the uncover the myths and the uncertainties of cancer and careers and cancer in order to empower and inspire generations of thinkers and leaders. This is cancer uncovered, uneducated in an empowerment podcast by the live strong cancer institutes.

[0:00:49 Speaker 2] Welcome to the very first midmonth many episode of Cancer Uncovered. I am Kristen Win with the live strong Cancer Institutes and Emerging Cancer Center at Del Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. We’re excited to bring you these new, shorter episodes every other month or so that focus on skills and personal tools that are listening learners can consider and take with them as they pursue their careers and enrich their lives. In our first many episode, as we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving here in the United States, we will focus on the benefits and science of gratitude. The first many episode is led by Patty Prato. Patty is a leadership coach celebrating more than 15 years of working at UT Austin. She’s led teams in the Office of Admissions, the School of Nursing and now manages leadership development initiatives at Del Medical School. With a master’s degree in human dimensions of organizations, she enjoys working with others to be their best Selves, focusing on emotional intelligence and mindful communication. Outside of work, she volunteers with the Jeremiah program and dress for success, empowering and educating women to gain self confidence and thrive in life.

[0:02:12 Speaker 0] I’m Patty Prato, and I’d like to spend a few minutes talking about gratitude. Right now, we are all experiencing a variety of emotions, stress and uncertainty. Feeling in control and calm might sound out of reach. We have a lot vying for our attention on much of its pretty negative. However, by incorporating more gratitude in your life, you can achieve positive emotional and physical benefits. You can feel better where you place your attention and focus creates your reality. So choosing to make gratitude of priority can really improve your mood and perspective. Small actions like writing a thank you note filling out of gratitude journal or making it a point to tell someone directly that you appreciate them. Our experiences that can feel good and create a sense of happiness and connection with others. But why is that what’s going on in our brain and body when we experience gratitude? Let’s take a shallow dive into the science behind gratitude and specifically how gratitude affects our brains and promotes will be thankfully. And I do say that on purpose, there’s a growing body of research on gratitude and its benefits for our mind and body. Functional MRI scans were first used to study our brains and gratitude as an experienced emotion In 2000 and 81 study discovered that gratitude activated multiple brain regions at the same time, igniting our brain’s hypothalamus and reward pathways. In 2014, researchers learned that people who frequently experienced gratitude had more gray matter and the area of our brain connected with interpreting other’s intentions. The right inferior temporal cortex. Another neuroimaging study of gratitude so increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the region of our brain connected with decision making and learning. This collective research suggests that the act being grateful and expressing gratitude is activating our brain in positive ways. Practicing gratitude builds on itself, so the more you express gratitude or experience being grateful, the more natural and easier it becomes. This is because when you practice gratitude, your dopamine production increases, urging your brain to seek out more of that positive feeling and experience. Dopamine, a chemical messenger, is released when we have pleasurable experiences and activities. In these pleasurable moments, our brains neural pathways can get stronger and form new connections easier. This is called neuro plasticity, the extraordinary ability for your brain to reorganize and change itself by forming new neural connections. The psychologist pioneer of neuro psychology, Donald Hebb, is who we can thank for the now commonly known rule of neurons that fire together, wire together or heads law. So with repetition and persistence, your gratitude practice becomes a natural habit, wiring you to be grateful on expressed gratitude, leading you to appreciate more of life on a consistent basis. This phenomenon is much like strengthening a muscle through training. The more effort, time and energy you put into exercising, the more results you see, it’s the same with gratitude. There’s power and repeatedly practicing gratitude as you may gratitude regular habit in your life, you actually find more things to be grateful for. You can become what you think and Dio. It feels pretty reassuring to know that this is an opportunity to shape our brain and our lives for the better. Okay, maybe you’re thinking I don’t have time to write a gratitude journal. I don’t really want to write a gratitude letter to someone, and that’s okay, too, According to neuroscientists Dr Alex Core. But U C L. A. Just thinking about things you’re grateful for can also be beneficial. When you think about what you’re thankful for, you end up reflecting on on many positive things in your life, happy memories, and that increases your brain serotonin production. Serotonin, sometimes called the Happy Chemical, is a hormone and neurotransmitter that helps to regulate levels of anxiety and enhanced mood and overall happiness. So, quite frankly, it just feels good in our body to experience gratitude. There are a variety of physiological benefits to expressing gratitude and experiencing the emotion itself. Many of us struggle to get a good night’s sleep and can’t help but ruminate on negative thoughts, a replay, a variety of worst case scenarios when we’re headed to bed when we wake up in the middle of the night, Two separate studies looking at the effect of experiencing gratitude prior to going to sleep. Both resulted in sleep benefits falling asleep faster, staying asleep longer and feeling more refreshed in the morning. So by thinking of what you’re grateful for and focusing on positive aspects of your life before you fall asleep, you’re able to go to sleep easier and rest longer. Part of my own gratitude practice includes thinking of three things I’m grateful for a soon as I wake up before I even get out of bed. But now I’m going to add my mental thank you list as part of my wind down routine before asleep. Two studies have also shown that practicing gratitude can decrease blood pressure for patients with hypertension gratitude. Journaling is now commonly being studied, and evidence is showing that individuals who constantly right down with their grateful for see a reduction in depressive symptoms. A 2012 study focused on the idea of gratitude practice promoting physical health. Its findings suggested that grateful people are more likely to take care of themselves by exercising frequently on attending regular checkups, both behaviors which contribute tau long term physical health benefits in appreciation of your time you’re listening to this episode, I’d like to share with you a powerful, evidence based gratitude practice called mental subtraction. It’s based on research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2000 and eight and can be found online at the U. C. Berkeley Greater Good Science Center’s website. Instead of thinking of what you’re grateful for, mental subtraction creates an imagined experience of not having something meaningful to you. Let’s try it out first. Take a minute to think about a positive event in your life, possibly a memorable trip, maybe an important achievement in school or work or a special time with the loved one. As

[0:09:12 Speaker 2] you

[0:09:12 Speaker 0] reflect on this positive event, think about the circumstances that made it possible. Now consider how it might not have ever happened mentally. Subtract it from your life. Think through or better yet, write down all of the possible events and decisions big and small, that could have gone differently and prevented this event from happening. Imagine what your life would be like now if you hadn’t experienced this positive event and all of the gratification and wonderful memories that have come from it. Shift your focus to remind yourself that this event actually did happen and reflect upon the benefits it’s brought you now that you considered how things might have turned out differently. Appreciate that these benefits were not inevitable in your life. Allow yourself to feel grateful that things happened as they did this practice of mental subtraction, counter acts or inclination to take for granted positive events in our life. Thinking through the many conditions and factors that led to an event happening, it can be surprising that it actually happened at all. You may feel quite lucky that it happened as it did. I’ve found a quick way to practice mental subtraction after I buy groceries. I imagine what it would be like not to have the money needed to purchase these items, not to have easy access to a grocery store near my house or with delivery options. Not to have a fridge to store my food or different appliances in my kitchen to cook my food. I then find myself really thankful for a lot of different things. The more you try this mental subtraction gratitude practice, the more you realize how much you have to be grateful for. As we continue to live through constant change and uncertainty. We confined refuge. And one thing for sure. We have an opportunity every day to practice gratitude. And in doing so, we have the power to create positive feelings and improve all being and mood. As Albert Einstein famously said, there are only two ways to live your life, one as if nothing is a miracle and the other as if everything is a miracle.

[0:11:38 Speaker 2] Thank you so much to Patty for your time and expertise. If you have questions about this episode or have ideas for future midmonth, many episodes or more cancer questions that we can uncover, please email us at Livestrong cancer institutes at del med dot utexas dot e d u. Please make sure institutes is plural. You can also follow our chair and director Dr Gail Eckhart on Twitter at S. Gail Eckhart Eckhart s spelled e c k h a R D T. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to subscribe. I am Kristin Winn, and I want to thank you for your on going support of cancer uncovered Happy Thanksgiving and we’ll catch you next month