By Eric Dickson | Mindful Mountain Wellness
We’ve all heard it: “Just be grateful.”
It’s one of those well-meaning suggestions that can sound a bit shallow, or even irritating, when you are struggling. But real gratitude-embodied, felt, lived gratitude-is so much more than polite manners or a throwaway “thanks.”
It’s not just a social nicety. It’s an energetic state that changes us at the deepest levels of mind, body, and spirit. Today, let’s go beyond the surface and explore why gratitude has real energetic power, and how you can begin to truly experience it in your life.
What Do We Mean by “Energy”?
When I say energetics, I’m not talking about anything necessarily mystical or woo-woo. Although it can feel spiritual, it’s really just biology and science.
Think of it this way: everything is energy. Our emotions are really just a form of energy that flows through us. Our thoughts not only influence our mood, but also our entire biology. Even our posture and our breathing can change the energy we carry into a room.
We have all felt it before, whether it’s walking into a room and feeling tension in the air, or coming home and feeling instantly relaxed once we enter our own personal space.
Gratitude isn’t just a word, it’s an energetic frequency you can learn to tune into. When you hold gratitude in your body, your nervous system, your heart, you’re literally shifting your state of being.
The Science of Gratitude’s Energy
Let’s talk practical.
Research shows that gratitude lowers your stress hormones, like cortisol. Being in a state of gratitude can also increase the levels of dopamine and serotonin our body produces, which are the chemicals that make us happy and feel good. It has also been clinically proven to improve your heart rate variability, which is an indicator that your nervous system is in balance and functioning properly.
This isn’t magic. Its biology responding to emotion. When you truly feel gratitude, your body moves into a state of safety and connection. Your heart rhythms smooth out, your breathing slows, and your brain shifts out of hypervigilance.
Gratitude isn’t passive, it’s an active shift in your internal landscape.
More Than Words: Embodying Gratitude
Here’s the thing.
Just saying “thank you” without feeling it doesn’t create this energetic shift. We can autopilot through those words all day and never change how we feel, or the energy we give off. But when we slow down enough to embody gratitude – to feel it in our chest, our breath, our whole being – something changes.
It’s like your heart says “I see this gift. I let it in.”
That moment of genuine receptivity has a vibrational quality. It radiates outward. People can feel it. You can feel it in yourself. It creates a sense of comfort.
Practices to Access the Energetics of Gratitude
You don’t need anything fancy to start. Here are a few simple ways to move from thinking gratitude, to feeling it.
Pause and breathe. Place a hand on your heart. Take a long slow inhale, and an even longer exhale. Let yourself settle, gratitude needs space.
One thing, deeply felt. Choose one thing you’re grateful for. Not ten, just one. Close your eyes and really see it, think about what it feels like, or smells like. Notice how it makes you feel. Warmth? Relief? Joy?
Let it land in the body. Where do you feel this gratitude? Chest? Belly? Face? Breathe deeply into that area. Allow it to expand.
Daily ritual. At the end of the day, ask, “What today felt like a gift?” Don’t rush, let it land before you move on.
Gratitude is less about listing blessings than about letting blessings change you.
Why This Matters
We live in a world that encourages constant wanting, comparing, and consuming. Gratitude disrupts that cycle. It says, “This is enough. I am enough.”
That simple energetic shift has ripple effects:
- Better health
- Calmer mind
- Deeper relationships
- Greater creativity
- A sense of meaning
You’re not just being polite when you practice gratitude. You’re rewiring your nervous system. You’re tuning yourself to a state of receptivity, connection, and peace.
Closing Invitation
Gratitude isn’t about ignoring what’s hard. It’s about finding what is still good, even in difficulty. It’s not a denial of pain, It’s a widening of perspective. I invite you to try it – not as another task to check off, but as a gift to yourself.
Breathe. Feel. Let it in.
Return to your breath. Return to your truth. Return home. You always have a place here on the Mindful Mountain.
If this resonated with you, I’d love to hear about your own gratitude practices or experiences. Share in the comments, and let’s support each other in living more deeply, more energetically, and more gratefully.
Mindful Mountain Wellness 