Gratitude as Medicine: How “Thank You” Helps Your Body Heal
I love Thanksgiving because the whole holiday centers around family, closeness and sharing a meal together; and it reminds me of one of my favorite practices for improved mental health and physical health. One of the most powerful tools for healing is subtle, ancient, and accessible:
Gratitude.
Not the forced “I should be grateful for…” but the quiet noticing of all that we HAVE. Even in moments of hardship or challenge, we always have the option of feeling grateful for something. Running water. A roof over our heads. The way your dog’s tail wags furiously when you come home after a long day. The fact that you have a car or a job or kids to take care of.
Have you ever made a list of things you are grateful for and then closed your eyes to pay attention to how that energy feels in your body?
Light, expansive, bright. That is the energy of gratitude. And this is a healing, nourishing energy to bring to our cells on a daily basis.
As an integrative and functional medicine doctor, I see gratitude as a form of medicine for the nervous system, one that gently rewires stress patterns and supports the foundations of health from the inside out.
Here are the ways that a practice of gratitude can uplift, ground and contribute to shifting your body, on a cellular level, to a more healing state:
Gratitude shifts the nervous system
Most humans in our modern society live in a a state of chronic sympathetic (or fight or flight) activation (stress is not all bad, as we have discussed before but we want to be able to easily shift into a more restful state when the need for activation is over). Juggling work, kids, healing journeys, finances, and the mental load of modern life over time can start to take a toll. This keeps the body in a stress-dominant mode, driving:
Hormonal imbalance
Blood sugar swings
High blood pressure
Inflammation
Fatigue and burnout
When we take a moment to feel grateful we are sending our body the signal that it is ok to relax and thus helps us shift to a more parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) state in our nervous system. Even a brief moment of genuine appreciation can lower heart rate, deepen the breath, and shift your physiology into a calmer, more regulated state.
It’s not magic — it’s neurobiology. And it is one of the best free tools to incorporate into your day!
2. Gratitude is clinically proven to make us happier (thus improved mood and mental health)
Gratitude does not mean pretending it is “all ok” but is a practice of acknowledging what is hard and choosing to focus, even for a moment, on what is going right or well or makes us feel good. Gratitude and grief or suffering can co-exist. Gratitude practices have actually been shown to help us cope during extremely challenging times such as after the death of a loved one. People who practice gratitude regularly show:
Lower symptoms of anxiety and depression
Increased resilience
Greater feelings of hope, joy, and social connection
This is partly because gratitude changes where the brain focuses its attention. Instead of scanning for danger or lack (the default human setting), we begin to recognize what's supportive, safe, and meaningful (again leading to a more balanced nervous system).
Gratitude doesn’t erase stress — it changes the lens through which we meet it.
3. Gratitude has actually been shown to improve cardiovascular health
A review of literature published in 2023 by Wang et al. in Frontiers in Psychology reported improvements in not only mental health and general outlook on life but on actual cardiovascular markers in those practicing “gratitude therapy”. Inflammation is the main reduction reported in the study is decrease in inflammatory markers which we know is a big driver of all chronic diseases.
When you feel more connected and content in your life by noticing the positives, your health improves.
4. Gratitude improves sleep
If you tend toward a busy mind that can spin out of control and keep you awake in all hours of the night, gratitude is an excellent practice to do before bed to start to shift this (you can combine this with the “worry journal” exercise I often give to patients to do before bed). Practices of thinking or writing down 3 things you are grateful for before bed can help reduce rumination, calm the stress response, and make it easier to fall asleep. Over time, this regular practice can improve the quality of your sleep as it helps bring your nervous system into that precious rest and digest state.
Think of gratitude as a “mental diffuser” that shifts your internal environment before sleep.
5. Gratitude can help boost immunity
Chronic stress can depress your immune system, but this simple practice can do the opposite. By lowering stress and inflammation, gratitude can:
Improve immune markers
Decrease physical symptoms
Lead to improved recovery after illness or surgery
Your body functions better when it feels safe, connected, and supported.
How to practice gratitude (in ways that feel good and not forced)
You don’t need a journal (though you can use one). It’s not about being positive all the time (this is known as toxic positivity and is not helpful); and it’s not about ignoring what is difficult or challenging. You can accept what is hard and still choose to spend some moments of your day focusing on what is going well. Most of us miss the small moments of goodness and joy in our lives— gratitude practice is training your brain to notice these!
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
The 3- things practice:
This can be in a journal, or written in a notes app or actual gratitude app on your phone (or you can just think it!)
Each day, write down or mentally note:
3 specific things you’re grateful for
Why each one matters to you
The “why” shifts the brain from thinking → feeling.
2. Gratitude in your body
Take a moment to ask yourself “what feels good in my body right now?”
Maybe it’s the warmth of your hands, the steadiness of your breath, or the feeling of sitting down after a long day.
Pause and acknowledge it.
This builds body-based safety.
3. Express it
Try to take moments to thank those around you— the barista, your parents, your kid. Send a voice memo to a friend just because telling them what you appreciate. Thank the bagger at the grocery store for taking extra care with your eggs etc.
4. Micro-moments
Take time to notice the small joys in your day (this is my favorite and is such an amazing tool for bringing more mindfulness and presence into your day).
Throughout the day, notice small things:
A patch of sunlight
The sound of your child laughing
A cup of coffee in both hands
Someone holding a door
A song you’ve loved for years
Tiny moments count — often more than the big ones.
5. Make it a family practice
Lately we have been taking a moment to say a prayer or thank-you at dinner and my kids have happily joined in listing the things they are thankful for each day. If we don’t do it at dinner we try to say our “thankfuls” before bed. This is such a sweet way to connect with your family.
Again, even in the hard moments, gratitude can be supportive. It is saying “this is hard, but there is one thing that is supporting me that I can focus on for a moment that feels good”.
A 7-day gratitude experiment:
This holiday season, I encourage you to try this with me:
Pick one of the above practices and commit to it for 7 days. It doesn’t have to be long, it can be 1-2 minutes.
Then after the 7 days take stock of your sleep, your body, you mood and stress levels. Do you feel even the tiniest bit more grounded and hopeful? This is a win!
Gratitude is a practice of cultivation. Of training our mind and nervous system to notice what is going well, what feels good, the blessings that surround us often taken for granted until it is too late. It helps us land right here, in our lives on our own two feet.
And in a world that constantly pulls our attention toward what’s wrong, gratitude draws us gently back to what’s still right.
I’m grateful you’re here, in this community, walking your own healing path.
With appreciation,
Dr. Natalie Gould, DO
Durango Integrative Medicine & Osteopathy
