Give Thanks and Boost Brain Cells

At any age, showing appreciation can improve your life

Thank you cards are just 99 cents at Trader Joe’s and another way to express appreciation. Photos by R. Wayne

Expressing gratitude is important for your mental health, scientists and others say. But finding reasons to be thankful seems harder when you have more years behind you than ahead.

You’re likely dealing with health problems, ranging from the pains of aging bones to something more serious. Your friends from high school are dying. Wasn’t it just yesterday we were tooling around town in my Dad’s station wagon? Your favorite actors and singers are passing away every other week. Your kids live elsewhere, and you don’t see or hear from them as often as you might like. You reminisce about the great years in your career and as a young father. But you also worry about the future. What will happen to my Social Security? Why is it a political football?

Feeling and expressing gratitude puts you in the moment because you need to consider all that’s right about your life right now.

This article does a deep dive into how feeling gratitude can make big changes in your brain to improve your life. Here are the ways:

1. A surge of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in many vital functions, including pleasure, reward, motivation, attention, and bodily movements.