The Science of Thankfulness and Forgiveness Clearly Explained

Gratitude helps us overcome our hard-wired negativity bias—our tendency to focus on negative events rather than positive ones. Think about your most memorable air travel experience. Not “best,” necessarily, but the one that sticks out from the others. Why do you remember that trip in particular? A missed connection, lost baggage, or nauseating turbulence, perhaps? The trips that saw us through to our destination without incident are the first to fade from our memories because negativity bias is always at work. Earlier in human history, negativity bias had an important survival function. Perceiving a threat more strongly than a benign encounter could have been the difference between life and death. But today, when the most dangerous things we do are drive on the freeway and eat cholesterol-laden food, negativity bias just makes us unhappy and anxious. Practicing gratitude also requires slowing down long enough to think and reflect—which seems harder and harder in our “always-on” culture. Many of us are so overscheduled, overstimulated, and focused on the future that we struggle to see what’s right in front of us. Or, we’re so obsessed with improving our situation—chasing a promotion, trying to lose weight, or getting oOne study of nurses found that gratitude consistently predicted less exhaustion, fewer sick days, and higher job satisfaction.ut of debt—that all we can think about is what we lack (there’s that pesky negativity bias again).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2021/11/22/the-science-of-gratitude-how-thankfulness-impacts-our-brains-and-business/?sh=1ff7c40920cc