We all know that being grateful is nice. But it’s more than nice. What if practicing gratitude actually improved the activity in certain parts of your brain? Multiple studies have concluded exactly that.

Experts tell us that our brains are really hardwired to the negative. So if we want to overcome that, we need to do a little work – and practicing gratitude has shown it can effectively increase happiness. Being happier offers physical benefits such as lower blood sugar and a strong immune system, and now we know it helps improve brain activity, too.

Writer Jessica Stillman, a contributor to Inc.com, has collected a lot of good information about the positive effects of gratitude. She quotes a study conducted by Northeastern, Harvard, and UC, Riverside that tested how people could be influenced to be more patient and delay immediate gratification. The most patient group turned out to be the people who were helped to feel grateful.

According to Stillman’s article, professor Ye Li of the UC, Riverside, School of Business Administration, said "Showing that emotion can foster self-control and discovering a way to reduce impatience with a simple gratitude exercise opens up tremendous possibilities for reducing a wide range of societal ills, from impulse buying and insufficient saving to obesity and smoking."

Feeling grateful, it turns out, has important implications for entrepreneurs, too. Gratefulness contributes to optimism, and feeling positive, according to Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, allows your brain to function better and more creatively. Obviously, that applies not only to entrepreneurs, but to anyone who wants their brain to be its best.

If “practicing gratitude” sounds a little vague, experts say that even something as simple as writing three things you’re grateful for at the end of each day can switch on your brain’s optimism. If you’re interested in more ideas, watch Achor’s Ted Talk.

As you begin trying some of the techniques mentioned above, you may notice a shift in how you respond to problems and dilemmas. You may start to find the silver lining in situations in which you previously would have viewed more negatively. You may also find yourself being less fearful in general. Fear is “a strong unpleasant feeling caused by being aware of danger or expecting something bad to happen”, but “practicing gratitude” will keep you feeling thankful for what you have today instead of worrying about what you don’t have tomorrow.  

Oprah Winfrey may have said it best- “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” So, go ahead and get that “gratitude list” started, and be sure to mention how grateful you are to have found this article.