Thanksgiving is the one day a year we set aside to reflect on the people and the things we’re grateful for. At least that’s the idea. The reality of feast, family, friends, fun, and football isn’t entirely off the mark. All those warm, festive feelings are good for us and good for each other. At least they have the potential for keeping us out of trouble. But the giving thanks part of Thanksgiving can easily fall by the wayside, especially in light of another characteristic of the holiday: frenzy.

Yes, it’s nice to have a day that’s focused on people getting along, eating good food together, and thinking about what we’re grateful for. But it’s hard to stuff a year’s worth of gratitude into a single day. Gratitude is more powerful and more effective when undertaken as a regular practice than when treated as an annual event.

Multiple studies confirm that gratitude can improve your health, happiness, and wellbeing. Among other things, a regular gratitude practice can help you:

• Sleep better and longer
• Exercise more
• Be more optimistic
• Decrease aches and pains
• Lower anxiety and depression
• Increase resilience

How? Well, researchers at the National Institute of Health (NIH) observed that people who felt gratitude had higher activity in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is an area of the brain responsible for controlling such bodily functions as eating, drinking, and sleeping, as well as influencing stress levels and metabolism.

Gratitude also activates the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is involved in the brain’s reward system. The release of dopamine fills us with a feeling of pleasure. It’s the reward we get for the behavior we just engaged in. The purpose of the brain’s reward system is to help ensure that we learn—and remember—behaviors that enhance our chances of remaining alive. That’s why so many of the things we naturally find rewarding are related to food and reproduction. In addition to food and sex, lots of things trigger the release of dopamine, including social interactions, generosity, and—as it turns out—gratitude.

Dopamine plays a role in:

• Movement
• Memory
• Behavior and cognition
• Attention and alertness
• Motivation
• Sleep
• Mood
• Learning

It’s part of a brain circuit called the mesolimbic pathway, which connects behaviors to feelings of pleasure, resulting in the formation of habits. When dopamine is released, emotional and learning circuits are activated to increase the likelihood we will remember what we did so we can repeat the behavior. The hit of dopamine we get from feeling grateful engages our brain in what neuroscience researcher Alex Korb calls “a virtuous cycle.” Once we begin practicing gratitude, our brain actively looks for things to be grateful for. How cool is that?

Find a Gratitude Practice that Works for You

There are several different ways to practice gratitude. You can choose one, mix and match, or modify one or more to suit yourself. The keyword is “practice,” which means doing it on a regular basis.

• Gratitude Journal: Keep a gratitude journal in which to record things you experience that you’re grateful for. You can do it by hand, on a computer, or with an app.

• Gratitude List: Think of—or record—one or more things you’re grateful for, either every day or once a week. Interestingly, there’s evidence that doing this weekly is more effective than doing it daily.

• Expressing Gratitude: Create a daily practice of conveying your gratitude to other people—friends, family, co-workers, service people, even strangers—verbally or in writing.

• Gratitude Meditation: Begin your meditation by acknowledging what you are grateful for in the present moment.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. —Albert Schweitzer  

Gratitude is an appreciation for what is meaningful and valuable to us. Simply experiencing feelings of gratitude can enhance our wellbeing by changing our brain. But since we’re social animals, it makes sense that sharing those feelings by expressing our gratitude whenever possible is even more rewarding.