The Book of Joy

and depression.
Gratitude may stimulate the hypothalamus, which is involved in
regulating stress in the brain, as well as the ventral tegmental region,
which is part of the reward circuits that produce pleasure in the brain.
Research has shown that the simple act of smiling for as little as twenty
seconds can trigger positive emotions, jump-starting joy and happiness.
Smiling stimulates the release of neuropeptides that work toward fighting
off stress and unleashes a feel-good cocktail of the neurotransmitters
serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. Serotonin acts as a natural
antidepressant, dopamine stimulates the reward centers of the brain, and
endorphins are natural painkillers. Smiling also seems to reward the
brains of those who see us smiling making them feel better, too. Smiling
is contagious, stimulating unconscious smiling in others, which in turn
spreads the positive effects. Did the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop
smile because they were happy, or were they happy because they smiled?
It sounded a little like a Zen koan. Likely, both were true. Whether we
frown in displeasure or smile in appreciation, we have enormous power
over our emotions and our experience of life.
Impermanence, the Dalai Lama reminds us, is the nature of life. All
things are slipping away, and there is a real danger of wasting our
precious human life. Gratitude helps us catalog, celebrate, and rejoice in
each day and each moment before they slip through the vanishing
hourglass of experience.
Perhaps it was no surprise to Sonja Lyubomirsky that gratitude is a
factor that seems to influence happiness along with our ability to reframe
negative events into positive ones. The final factor she found was our
ability to be kind and generous toward others, which the Dalai Lama and
the Archbishop saw as two separate but related pillars: compassion and
generosity. When we recognize all that we have been given, it is our
natural response to want to care for and give to others.