How Creating and Feeling Gratitude Helps You
4 MINUTE READ
As parents, we often teach our children to say “thank you.” But what if gratitude isn’t just a lesson for our kids? What if it’s a simple, powerful practice that helps us too—especially in the messy, beautiful, emotionally intense reality of raising little humans?
Science is starting to show that gratitude isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a biological and emotional superpower that can help calm our nervous systems, ease anxiety, lift our moods, and even support our physical health.
Here’s what recent research tells us—and how you can bring more gratitude into your everyday life in small, doable ways.
What Gratitude Does in the Brain
In a fascinating brain imaging study, researchers asked people to imagine receiving life-saving help during incredibly difficult times—like being given shelter or food in a moment of crisis. As participants reflected, the parts of their brains linked to empathy, trust, and moral reasoning lit up. Gratitude, it turns out, doesn’t just feel good. It activates circuits in the brain that help us feel connected, seen, and supported.
These areas—the medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex—are also involved in how we assess what’s meaningful and important. So when we feel truly grateful, our brains are helping us recognize that someone went out of their way to care for us, and that it mattered.
Gratitude Can Calm the Body’s Stress Response
Another study looked at what happens in the body when we regularly practice gratitude. A group of midlife women wrote about what they were grateful for over six weeks. The surprising result? Those who also started showing more supportive behaviors—checking in on friends, helping others, expressing care—had less reactivity in their brain’s “alarm center,” the amygdala.
Even more impressive, that calmer brain response was linked to lower levels of inflammation in the body. Inflammation is something we often hear about in relation to chronic illness, but it also plays a big role in how stress shows up physically—fatigue, aches, trouble sleeping.
So, practicing gratitude doesn’t just feel nice—it might actually help your body feel safer and less on edge.
And It’s Proven to Help With Anxiety, Depression, and Mood
A large-scale review of 64 studies confirmed that gratitude interventions—like journaling, writing thank-you notes, or simply pausing to notice the good—can lead to:
Greater satisfaction with life
Better mental health
Fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression
More optimism and emotional resilience
Importantly, these benefits were seen across all kinds of people: kids, teens, adults, healthcare workers, and people facing serious health challenges. That means whether you’re juggling diaper changes or college applications, gratitude can still help.
What This Means for Parents
Parenting is a lot. There are days that feel magical, and others that feel like you’re just trying to make it to bedtime without crying (again). Amid the chaos, gratitude can be a grounding force. It doesn’t mean ignoring the hard parts. It means making space to notice the small, good things that are also true.
✨ The moment your child curls into your lap with their head on your shoulder.
✨ The cup of tea you actually got to finish.
✨ The friend who texted just to check in.
✨ The stranger who held the door while you wrangled a stroller and a toddler.
These aren’t “Instagram-worthy” moments. They’re real, ordinary gifts. And when we pause to notice them—even just for a moment—we're helping our brains shift from survival mode into connection and calm.
Simple Gratitude Practices for Parents
You don’t need a 30-minute meditation session to start. Here are a few low-lift ways to bring more gratitude into your day:
🧠 Create the feeling of receiving gratitude using story telling. LINK
📝 3 Things – Before bed, jot down three things you’re grateful for. Even better, do it with your child.
💌 Send a Note – Text or message someone to say thanks—your partner, a neighbor, your child’s teacher.
📷 Capture the Ordinary – Snap a quick photo of a small, happy moment. No need to post—just keep a little gallery of goodness.
🎙️ Gratitude Out Loud – Say it out loud: “I’m so thankful we had a slow morning,” or “I really appreciated your help today.” Your kids are listening—and learning.
Final Thought
Gratitude isn’t about pretending everything’s okay. It’s about noticing what is okay, even when not everything is. And science is telling us what we often feel in our bones: when we make space for gratitude, we soften. We open. We breathe a little deeper.
