Grateful-ology (GRATITUDE) is not totally a real word

but this is a timely episode. It was originally released last November when Ologies was just a tiny, maybe infant podcast, so so many of you may have missed it and I just listened to it and the refresher course on this topic was helpful as hell, so it might be worth your fifteen minutes. Maybe have a re listen. Okay,

here we go. Allie warned, you're gonna record how many sald Maybe people will like it, maybe they won't, so what Okay, Hey, it's long weekend here in America and y'all might be on trains or buying butter or talking to your aunt. So I made you a short episode so you can listen while hiding in the bathroom in case you need some alone time. And also one fun offshoot of this podcast is making and selling cool merch Boy, Howdy is there a sale you're gonna want to get

up in? Starting on Black Friday, which is the day after Turkey Day, all weekend until eleven fifty nine pm on Cyber Monday. Ready for this thirty sale thirty d percent off ologismerch dot com. There's enamel pins, tots, shirts, mugs, some insane science y holiday sweater pattern shirts, weggings, all of it thirty percent off. I can't even deal. They'll need a discount code, I'll say at the end of this minisode, so that you have time right now to

find a crusty pen in your parents junk drawer. You can write it on the back of a receipt for potatoes, so stand by. You're gonna want the code. I'm just gonna give it to you now. Also, it's black Fritology b l A C K frid O l O G Y. Got it great. I'll say it again at the end of the episode. Okay, first the minisod, let's do some free association. I'm going to say the word Thanksgiving. What do you think of first Thanksgiving? You got it? Okay,

I myself, I think of gravy. You say Thanksgiving, I immediately conjure an image of a hot gravy dish that's kind of growing skin by the moment. Maybe you thought about layovers in a crowded airport or an itchy turtleneck. I can tell you that one of the last things I think about, to be honest, is gratitude. Because I felt like a garbage this week, and I don't know

it's I don't know. Maybe I had the flu and I've just been feeling like like if you took a burlap sack and you sighed heavily into it, but it had eyes and hair, that would be me. So I was going to make a mini episode this week, just a quickie about how cells recognize each other. But I was in such a bad mood I googled is there a Science of Gratitude? And an article written by a husband and wife team of clinical psychologists, doctors Blair and

Rita Justice, popped up. It was called grateful Ology, and I rolled my eyes so hard I think I sprained one. Then I read on because clearly I was paying a little bit. So this episode is a quickie about what dumb holidays are supposed to be about, Thanksgiving and gratitude, and why it's not just a thing that Oprah uses to sell a blank journal. Sixteen years ago, I started a gratitude journal, and I will have to say it was the single most important thing I believe I've ever done.

But why. Neuroscientists say it's a good way to be less annoyed, less unhappy, and overall live longer. If you're into that kind of thing, just buckle up. I promise you it's worth it. Just me and you chit chatting privately about this. You don't even have to tell anyone that you listen to this. Okay, So grateful Oology heavier.

in the White House. And sadly, doctor Blair Justice has since passed away. But he and Rita were married over forty years and that's amazing and adorable. So they were doing something right when together. They were huge advocates for gratitude in general, and they also study the effects of mood and emotional wellbeing on physical wellbeing. There wrote books on it. Now. Other players in the scientific field of appreciating your shit are doctor Robert Emmons, he goes by

Bob Hi of the University of California Davis. He wrote a book called Thanks, How Practicing Gratitude can make You Happier. And doctor Michael mcculloff of the University of Miami. And together these two doctors just did a dumb truck or their research, and I mean that in a good way about how taking stock of the good stuff can help you be less miserable. Doctor mcculloff and doctor Emmons did

one study that had three sets of participants. Those who were asked to write down weekly the things they were grateful for, or compose a letter of thanks to a person. They don't have to send it. They could eat it didn't matter. Another group wrote down their hassles of the week, and then another just jotted down neutral events. They found that those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis

exercise more regularly, which is super weird. They reported fewer physical ailments, they felt better about their lives as a whole, like twenty five percent happier, which is yeah, and they were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events. Now, participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important goals over a two month period compared to the other subjects. So, how how does it do this?

How does saying I'm really I really like mustard or this is flower snows gay like? How does this? How does this help keep you healthy? How does it help you reach your goals? What's the deal? Well? According to UCLA neuroscience researcher doctor Alex Korb, the benefits of gratitude start with the dopamine system, and he says, feeling grateful

activates the brain stem region that produces dopamine. He also says that gratitude can boost serotonin, and trying to think of things you're grateful for makes you focus on positive aspects of your life and that increases serotonin production in the anterior singulate cortex, which is something that is bobbing around in your skull. He also said that it's not finding gratitude that matters most, it's remembering to look. So

it's just remembering to look that's important. So even if you're like, what's something I'm grateful for and then there's just like a long pause and then you say, horseshit, nothing, that's still better than not thinking. Isn't that great? They say? Just looking for things to be grateful for found that it actually affected neuron density in certain parts of the brain, and it suggests that as emotional intelligence increases, the neurons

become more efficient. So with higher emotional intelligence, it takes less effort to be grateful and it has some lasting effects. How much of all of this is weird fringe research, It's actually not like UC Berkeley has a whole arm

dedicated to positive psychology. It's called the Greater Goods Science Center at Berkeley, and they have also found that people who practice gratitude consistently have stronger immune systems, less depression, more joy, optimism, happiness, they have better relationships, and they have less feelings of isolation or loneliness. So they gave out three million dollars in research grants a few years ago on the topic, and there were fourteen winners, and

they went on to use that money to study. Here are some of the papers that they published, Cultivating Gratitude and a Consumerist Society, the impact of gratitude on biology and behavior in persons with heart disease, a model of bullying based on gratitude and its effects on social bonds, and even friend a Wall noted primatologists used some research money and studied gratitude and partner preference in chimpanzee cooperation. So people are working on it. People are like, yeah,

there's something to this. You got to force yourself to look on the bright side. Now. Doctor Emmons, we talked about him before, says that the choice of gratitude doesn't come without effort. You got to put some effort. But each time we make the effort, it does get easier because remember we're making those neural highways more efficient. He also says there's two types of gratitude. There's relational and conditional, and relational is focused on the giver and conditional on

the gift, and relational is more potent. So, hey, thanks for being so thoughtful for the thing you did is more important than thank you for this bag of bees that you gave me, assuming that you liked bees. I myself, if you gave me a bag of bees, I'd be like, whoo. That might not be you anyway, but you know what I'm saying. So I was researching this episode and writing today, and I wish I ha thought of the topic sooner,

and I wish I had an interview for you. But I did the next best thing, and I gently stock doctor mmns on Twitter and I lobbed a question at him. He doesn't know who I am, so what? And I said, Hey, this must be the busiest time of year for you, but how can people stay grateful with the deluge of tough news lately? And he he tweeted me back. I felt it was so exciting. I felt like Bett Middler saying hello or something. Oh, he said, gratitude is undentable,

joy time's good, Celebrate time's tough, find the opportunity. It's an attitude. It's not based on circumstances. So snap, okay. So he was like, even though things are garbage, it's very important to look for things to be appreciative of. Stay aware as you need to be, be as active in the community as you need to be. Resist what you need to, but make time to appreciate the good. This is like doctor's orders. It will make you a better fighter of wrong. So how do you do this?

Nart in his book Thanks Doctor Emmon suggests keeping a gratitude journal daily and you can record in writing what you're grateful for. One time, it was just two squirrels eat and I said, I better write that down. Come to your set is so count bodily related things like being able to see here, walk, eat, breathe, listen to podcasts. Use visual reminders like pictures of loved ones or scenes

of nature, and think outside the box. So think of the non obvious things to be grateful for, like the fact that aliens haven't come down on our planet yet, or maybe they have and you're thankful for them. I don't know. There's also this site called thanks for dot org and it's t h n x four dot org. It's the opposite of Twitter. You can just sign up and have a twenty day challenge and just post and

write things that you're thankful for. You open it up and just see what everyone's thankful for, and it's it, honestly is It's like a weird Seinfeld.

You look like you're scrolling, but really you're just tweeting things that you're like, Eh, pretzels are pretty good, and then later you can scroll through them for like an instant mood boost. But apparently try and find a couple things today that you're like thumbs up and about so happy started the holidays. If you're having a tough time, No, you're not alone. It's kind of a weird time of year for a lot of people. It's a weird year

for a lot of people. It's weird. And just know the list of what's good might bring you almost as much joy as a lackey. It might change your life even more than a nosehair trimmer and you're stalking. Oh, speaking of gifts, if you're looking to do any shopping again, Black fried Oology on ologiesmerch dot com. That's the code. I told you, I'd tell you at the end B L A C K F R I D O l O G Y all one word thirty percent off your order. Okay, I told you, i'd tell you. I hope you got

a pen. Thanks to Shannon Feltis aka Urban Farm Foods on Facebook and Bonnie Dutch b O n I Dutch on Etsy and Amazing Artist for helping me with merch. Thanks to Hannah Lippo and Aaron Talbert for being awesome friends and running the Facebook group, and my parents and sisters for listening and pretending that the swear words don't bother them. So go ask smart people dumb questions, maybe even via Twitter, because it's the only way to learn. I'm on Instagram and Twitter as Ali Ward and ologies

on Instagram, ologies pot on Twitter. So go, I don't know, grab a journal, make a secret Twitter shot, some stuff down on a gravy stained paper napkin. Just look for things that are good. It will change your brain. All right, you got this? Okay? Hi, Okay, this was before I recorded Secrets at the Ends. Also, it was before I had Stephen Ray Morris helping me do all the edits, and I'm grateful for him so much. Also, okay, I'm going to give you for my secret at the end.

Five things I'm thankful for pine incense, frozen berries, dusk and or dawn. When one of my sisters remembers a movie line from like decades ago that I totally forgot about and it kills me dead laughing. And when I hear my parents in another room and they're still giggling at each other's jokes after like fifty years of marriage,

which is cute as hell. Also ice craffee okay, bayebye, pacadermatology, hombiology, ydo zoology, lithology, technology, meteorology, paratology, anthology, seriology, seminology, listen to yourselves. All you can do is complain about what you don't have. What about being thankful for all the things you do have?