Everyone needs gratitude and reciprocity. To give and receive positivity assists each day's progress. How do we add more positivity to life amidst the negative onslaughts? When do expectations get in the way of reciprocity?
Neuroscientists studying the amygdala, an area of the brain involved with emotional attention and memory, have discovered a trend toward emotional positivity with age. They believe the older an individual grows, the less active the limbic system becomes in response to negative feedback.
Christina Karns, University of Oregon neuroscientist, studies gratitude and discovers that the brain experiences it differently than happiness. Happiness occurs in the brain’s immediate reward systems. Gratitude involves the cortical structures associated with cognition and social reasoning.
A positive outlook does not automatically make people happy or grateful, but it helps set the stage. Karns says, "The happiness you feel when you bite into a delicious cake is a different phenomenon than feeling grateful toward the person who baked it for you."
The ability to experience and express gratitude kicks in around 7 to 10 years of age, according to psychologist Jeffrey Froh, co-author of the Making Grateful Kids: The Science of Building Character. Fro says that gratitude becomes stronger and expressed more spontaneously as children grow.
The ability to take on the perspective of another person begins to develop around the ages of 3 to 5 years. Fro explains, "In order to feel grateful toward someone, you must to be able to understand that they intentionally went out of their way to do something kind for you."
The ability to experience and express gratitude kicks in around 7 to 10 years of age, according to psychologist Jeffrey Froh, co-author of the Making Grateful Kids: The Science of Building Character. Fro says that gratitude becomes stronger and expressed more spontaneously as children grow.
The ability to take on the perspective of another person begins to develop around the ages of 3 to 5 years. Fro explains, "In order to feel grateful toward someone, you must to be able to understand that they intentionally went out of their way to do something kind for you."
Laura Carstensen, psychology professor at the Stanford Center on Longevity, reveals increasing positivity with age occurs because individuals' time horizons grow shorter as they approach later years. Young adults in their 20s tend to see their futures as limitless. Older adults perceive more constraints on time.
Older individuals find it easier to feel gratitude because they have experienced life on many levels and recognize their blessings. "Encountering sad and difficult experiences over a lifetime makes one more sensitive to good ones," says psychology professor Susan K. Whitbourne of the University of Massachusetts. “Because then, you know it’s not just that life is going to hand you a bunch of happiness and success.”
Some people feel more grateful regardless of age. Everyone begins life dependent on others and most end life that way. In between, individuals learn awareness of this dependency. Some choose to look at life with a grateful perspective; others with one of entitlement.
Take time for gratitude today. Get beyond expectations and live in the moments that create possibility. Notice how it increases your happiness.
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