In recent years I found only a few discoveries in modern psychology to be really meaningful.

In order to feel better about oneself one should

1] count his or her blessings in life

2] act unto others out of kindness, do good deeds and

3] practice an optimistic outlook on life.

Now giving one the advice to count ones blessings when feeling stressed or agitated really does not work so well. One is too stressed or agitated. On the other hand, during times of feeling good noones really gives it another thought. Who needs it when he or she is feeling fine?

The answer of course is that you need to practice. Here is gratitude meditation for you.

Article: Gratitude meditation

dinsdag 8 september 2020

11:04

Sci Rep

. 2017 Jul 11;7(1):5058.

 doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-05520-9.

Effects of gratitude meditation on neural network functional connectivity and brain-heart coupling

Sunghyon Kyeong 1, Joohan Kim 2, Dae Jin Kim 2, Hesun Erin Kim 3, Jae-Jin Kim 4 5 6

Affiliations expand

• PMID: 28698643
• PMCID: PMC5506019
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05520-9

Free PMC article

Abstract

A sense of gratitude is a powerful and positive experience that can promote a happier life, whereas resentment is associated with life dissatisfaction. To explore the effects of gratitude and resentment on mental well-being, we acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging and heart rate (HR) data before, during, and after the gratitude and resentment interventions. Functional connectivity (FC) analysis was conducted to identify the modulatory effects of gratitude on the default mode, emotion, and reward-motivation networks. The average HR was significantly lower during the gratitude intervention than during the resentment intervention. Temporostriatal FC showed a positive correlation with HR during the gratitude intervention, but not during the resentment intervention. Temporostriatal resting-state FC was significantly decreased after the gratitude intervention compared to the resentment intervention. After the gratitude intervention, resting-state FC of the amygdala with the right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex were positively correlated with anxiety scale and depression scale, respectively. Taken together, our findings shed light on the effect of gratitude meditation on an individual’s mental well-being, and indicate that it may be a means of improving both emotion regulation and self-motivation by modulating resting-state FC in emotion and motivation-related brain regions.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.