This month is all about gratitude. However, it can sometimes seem trite and even callous to encourage feelings of gratitude and thanks, especially when the world is burning in so many places and on so many levels.
Nevertheless, holding an attitude of gratitude is incredibly healing for yourself and the world. Here's why:
Gay Hendricks, a spiritually awake therapist and entrepreneur, discusses in his books how brain studies have shown that worry, guilt, and shame all trigger a hit in the pleasure center of the brain.
In other words, when we have anxiety, guilt, or shame, it gives us a smallish good feeling on some level we usually aren’t aware of. Perhaps this is because we’re doing something in the face of a situation that we feel powerless in. And so doing SOMETHING, even if it’s feeling guilt, shame, anxiety, helps us feel a teeny bit more in control and the brain gets a feel good hit. And since then your brain knows it’ll feel a little tiny bit better if you feel anxiety, guilt, or shame again, and again, and again…, a pattern is born. A habit is born. Even an addiction to these kinds of emotional and thought patterns can be born. These habits might feel tiny bits of good in your brain, but you probably know from experience that living in guilt, shame, or worry overall feels awful.
So what to do? The good news is that, according to Hendricks, brain studies have also shown that feelings and thoughts of gratitude trigger a much bigger hit in the pleasure center of the brain. So gratitude trumps anxiety, guilt, and shame in being a more powerful writer of brain code, if you will. It overwrites any previous programming of habitual anxiety, guilt, or shame, to stimulate stronger feel good feelings of pleasure in the brain. And when you feel and think better, you generally do better for yourself and others.
So remind yourself that it’s not self-indulgent to count your blessings this Thanksgiving season. When we have more people thinking and feeling better, and therefore doing better, more of the world will feel and follow that light and be better. Count your blessings, feel that gratitude as deeply and as richly as you can, and hold that vibratory frequency as much as possible to help lift a hurting world into its own divine nature.
Nevertheless, holding an attitude of gratitude is incredibly healing for yourself and the world. Here's why:
Gay Hendricks, a spiritually awake therapist and entrepreneur, discusses in his books how brain studies have shown that worry, guilt, and shame all trigger a hit in the pleasure center of the brain.
In other words, when we have anxiety, guilt, or shame, it gives us a smallish good feeling on some level we usually aren’t aware of. Perhaps this is because we’re doing something in the face of a situation that we feel powerless in. And so doing SOMETHING, even if it’s feeling guilt, shame, anxiety, helps us feel a teeny bit more in control and the brain gets a feel good hit. And since then your brain knows it’ll feel a little tiny bit better if you feel anxiety, guilt, or shame again, and again, and again…, a pattern is born. A habit is born. Even an addiction to these kinds of emotional and thought patterns can be born. These habits might feel tiny bits of good in your brain, but you probably know from experience that living in guilt, shame, or worry overall feels awful.
So what to do? The good news is that, according to Hendricks, brain studies have also shown that feelings and thoughts of gratitude trigger a much bigger hit in the pleasure center of the brain. So gratitude trumps anxiety, guilt, and shame in being a more powerful writer of brain code, if you will. It overwrites any previous programming of habitual anxiety, guilt, or shame, to stimulate stronger feel good feelings of pleasure in the brain. And when you feel and think better, you generally do better for yourself and others.
So remind yourself that it’s not self-indulgent to count your blessings this Thanksgiving season. When we have more people thinking and feeling better, and therefore doing better, more of the world will feel and follow that light and be better. Count your blessings, feel that gratitude as deeply and as richly as you can, and hold that vibratory frequency as much as possible to help lift a hurting world into its own divine nature.
And for some Thanksgiving humor,
Kramer from Seinfeld as the Turkey.
Kramer from Seinfeld as the Turkey.
