Dr. Michael McCullough and Dr. Robert Emmons did a 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. 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 exercised more regularly which is super weird.
A (perhaps) much-needed refresher course on last year's gratitude minisode. As a friend of a friend's hairdresser once said: "It's hard to be hateful with a plateful of grateful." Is it? In this pre-holidays quickie episode, Alie is grumpy as hell and decides to research the neuroscience of gratitude. Does it work? Who's studying it? Does she need to buy a journal? Find out how jotting down things you don't hate on the back of a receipt or opening a secret Twitter account may be worth more than whatever you get in your office Secret Santa exchange.
Learn more about the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley
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Sound editing by Steven Ray Morris
Theme song by Nick Thorburn
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