Give Thanks! Being Grateful
Creates A Strong Mind And Body

by Darline Turner Lee, Physician Assistant, ACSM Exercise Specialist

Article Last Reviewed: Sept. 9, 2006

I have many fond memories of Thanksgiving. In my family Thanksgiving was a massive food fest. We had dinner with the majority of my dad’s twelve siblings and their families and enough food to feed a small African nation. Before gorging on the feast, each person said what he or she was grateful for. With typical kid-like impatience, I sputtered out something tactful. I really wanted to say, “Thanks for the food, now let’s eat!”

Over the years, I’ve had many things for which to be grateful at Thanksgiving. One of my favorite Thanksgivings I spent with a half dozen single friends in the San Francisco Bay Area. Unable to visit with our families, we gathered together for a hike in the East Bay hills and then returned to a friend’s place for a potluck meal. The meal was anything but traditional. The closest things to turkey were chicken wings someone had brought. But I was grateful not to be alone on a day that held such a family connotation for me, and I still walked away with a full belly and some cherished memories.

In light of the many storms and trials of this year, I wonder how many folks will take the time to reflect and to give a heartfelt thanks for their blessings? It will be a difficult task for the many who have lost all of their worldly goods and a few loved ones. I’ve learned that it is important, even in the face of adversity, to count your blessings. It helps heal the hurt within you. But it’s not just a spiritual thing. Scientists are now able to show effects on the brain and immune system from emotional displays like gratitude.

So how do you give thanks when life really sucks and you really want to curse God for the hell you are currently enduring?

I posed this question to Nancy Oelklaus, Ed.D, an Executive coach here in Austin who works with adults who are trying to make major changes in their personal and professional lives. She has done extensive research in adult thinking, systems change and the neuroscience behind how behavior change works.

“Gratitude is a tool to move you to a different place,” says Oelklaus. “But the gratitude has to be genuine or else it can have a detrimental effect on brain chemistry. The key is to start being grateful, truly grateful, for little things. Over time you are able to be grateful even in the face of great adversity.”

“But why is gratitude so important,” I asked.

“Because research shows that kind, affirming words cause chemical changes in the brain that work much like antidepressants-bringing on a sense of peace and calm.”

Quantum physics explains the neurological changes we experience with our emotions and this is the premise of the movie What the Bleep Do We Know? I’ll attempt to simplify the neuroscience but a far more interesting and thought provoking explanation is offered in the movie. As a positive message travel along a nerve in the brain and reaches the end of the nerve, it releases chemicals that are picked up by the next nerve allowing the message to be carried on. These chemicals, called neurotransmitters, have a calming effect on the brain by increasing levels of other chemicals such as serotonin, known to produce a feeling of peace and calm. The more genuinely positive messages that are sent, the more neurochemicals are released and received allowing for the peace and contentment.

“Can you fake gratitude and still get the chemical release, the calmness?” I asked Oelklaus.

“Faking emotions and “staying positive” will release brain chemicals, but not the calming chemicals associated with gratitude,” says Oelklaus. “Nor will the brain develop new pathways in which to cope. When an event happens, it is necessary to fully experience it, the good and the bad aspects. Each emotion works to create and strengthen pathways within the brain so that with each successive event, you’re better able to cope. Going through adversity truly does make you stronger-physically and emotionally and you become more resilient. People who avoid the negative aspects of a situation, repressing the negative emotions, eventually lose the ability to experience a full range of emotions. They don’t build up the brain circuitry or neurochemical pathways needed to cope with adversity.”

“Emotional repression is seen as stress and our bodies release cortisol, a stress hormone designed to guard the body against injury. When we continually repress our emotions cortisol levels increase to dangerous levels and eventually begin to erode the immune systems leaving us vulnerable to illness and injury. Simply stated, we’ll eventually crack under pressure.”

The act of being grateful is necessary for our health and well being, but it is a choice. You can choose to wallow in a situation and grow increasingly bitter and resentful. You can ignore certain aspects of a situation and eventually become numb, ill or maybe even die. Or you can move through an event and eventually reach a place where you say, “Hey, I learned something.” Then the next time adversity hits, you’re armed not only with knowledge, but a neurological and physical resilience that is the result of the previous experience. At that point, you can strongly state, “I know I’ll be okay” and you truly are able to give thanks and be grateful.

Darline is grateful for her ever-growing resiliency. E-mail her at