We think of gratitude as a gift to others, but it's often a wonderful gift to ourselves. Dr. Hanson and Forrest move on to the fifth of the twelve strengths they’ll be covering during this series: Gratitude. During this episode they explore the role of positive emotions generally, and particularly the value of “thankfulness.”

If you'd like to start making real, positive changes to your brain and your life, but you don't have a lot of extra time, then you may want to check out Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price.

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The material in this podcast comes in large part from our book Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness. If you like the podcast, you'll love the book!

Timestamps:

1:00: Why use “gratitude” as a blanket term for positive emotions?

1:45: What benefits do positive emotions have for mental health?

5:55: Why did you choose to focus your work on increasing positive experiences rather than reducing negative ones?

8:15: What are the psychological benefits of “thankfulness?”

12:20: Critiques of telling people to ‘just be grateful for what they have.’

17:00: Dealing with blocks to thankfulness.

23:30: How can we become more thankful?

28:25: Using gratitude to move into agency.

31:00: Recap

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