The Brain Benefits of Gratitude

What does gratitude have to do with improving life with an ADHD brain? It's about the science of neuroplasticity. When we focus on what we're grateful for, we engage the prefrontal cortex (PFC), or the "learning" part of our brain. The more we explore and consider what we’re grateful for, and the longer we do so, the greater the benefit.

When the PFC is engaged, the "survival" part of the brain is NOT engaged—it’s essentially shut off. The survival brain is where all of those lovely ruminations come from, all the negative thoughts, feelings and emotions that plague us throughout the day, thoughts like,

• “I can’t seem to get anything done, I must be the stupidest person in the world.”

• “I think my friend is mad at me because she hasn’t returned my text yet.”

• “I forgot AGAIN to drop that box off at Value Village, more evidence that something is WRONG with me!”.

Those thoughts typically have free reign in the back of our minds because the brain tends to filter for danger and threats, and can almost go undetected if we don’t stop and pay attention.

When we regularly engage in a gratitude practice, we build new neural pathways in the PFC. The PFC is where our executive functions operate from (short term memory, attention, planning, etc.), and any amount of time we spend building new neural pathways there benefits us by improving our ADHD challenges, lowering our stress, and building fierce self-compassion. We literally increase the amount of gray matter we have.

So! What are you grateful for today? What went well this past week?

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