Thank Your Way to a Happy Heart

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By Rachel Hauser

Keep your chin up in stressful situations, and appreciate the good parts of life. Your heart will thank you.

Life in a high-pressure environment of noisy cell phones, never-ending deadlines, and long work hours has become the new normal for many people. While the fast pace of modern life can sometimes feel exhilarating, most people probably don't know they're being bombarded all day long by elevated stress hormones—hormones designed to help the body manage stress.

"For the heart, the end result of chronic stress can be constricted coronary arteries, which can cause angina," says Mimi Guarneri, M.D., cardiologist and medical director of Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine in La Jolla, California. "Stress hormones, like adrenaline, raise cholesterol and blood pressure and can cause arrhythmia-skipped heartbeats."

Studies show, however, that giving thanks—making a point to show appreciation and share your gratitude with others—can boost your happiness and affect your body in the exact opposite way that stress does. In short, optimism is good for your health.

"Stress is always an emotional response," explains Rollin McCraty, director of research at the Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, California. "It's the emotions that are driving activity in the nervous system as well as the type and quantity of hormones that are released."

For instance, if someone cuts you off in traffic, your reaction might be to get angry or anxious. These particular emotions create a shift in the autonomic nervous system, your body's way of reacting to outside stimuli. Sensing a crisis, your sympathetic nervous system leaps into action.

But, McCraty says, such negative emotions lead to a desynchronization in nervous-system activity. He likens this to driving a car with your foot on both the brake and the gas: It works, but it takes a toll on the car, and gas mileage is terrible.

"This is similar to what happens in the human body," he says. "If we're stranded in those negative emotions enough, it leads to depletion and we go into autonomic exhaustion. And guess what the symptoms of that are? Sleep disorders, headaches, ulcers, and, in the extreme, heart attacks."

Studies show that the heart is affected by positive emotions such as gratitude, appreciation, and love in the opposite way. By shifting emotions from frustration, anger, and tension, it's possible to shift the body's system from a sympathetic to a parasympathetic state, both experts say.

This parasympathetic state is much easier on a person physiologically, and it allows the heart to work in a more coherent, regular rhythm. This enhances function of the entire cardiovascular system, and it kicks the body's natural regenerative system into gear. Your body is much better able to heal and rejuvenate in this state, which may help harmful health issues from cropping up, McCraty says.

"To me, gratitude, forgiveness, and acceptance are just extensions of spirituality," Guarneri says. "There are so many studies that show that people who are spiritual or religious tend to do better and live longer. I think this is because a strong spiritual practice leads to strength, contentment, and optimism as well as a social support network, all of which decrease stress hormones."