Corrections_Today_Winter_2024-2025_Vol.86_No.4

ACA WELLNESS COMMITTEE

Getting to neutral While there is encouraging and rigorous research, what are the practical steps to increase our abil ity to more consistently experience gratefulness and improve emotional wellbeing? The practice is vital in challenging and traumatic times and particularly beneficial when life is good, as developing this emotional muscle memory will become more automatic in times of stress which research supports and is shared within the article. One concept in challenging situ ations is to set a long- or short-term goal of “getting to neutral” rather than holding onto the negative emo tions to allow for personal healing, even if those feelings are perceived as warranted. Only we are injured by holding onto the hot coal of that which binds us. Visualizing a differ ent outcome is a tool to utilize with a goal to physically feel the future so it becomes the emotional reality we experience and within that can pursue a neutral mindset toward the challenging situation and make deci sions that will support our hopes and goals. Gratefulness is key to the pursuit of releasing the hot coal and “getting to neutral.” Vision brings life to corporate and personal endeavors creating a blueprint for what will exist. Then steps are taken to bring that vi sion into reality. This is the same concept. Mental rehearsal is part of a vision and assists in bringing it to reality. Specifically, the research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, “Does mental practice enhance performance?” Driskell, J. E., Copper, C., & Moran, A. (1994),

a roof over a beautiful home. It is important to guard our thoughts and the eight dimensions of well ness are similar to a beautiful home where they are all dependent upon each other to create an environment to thrive within. The focus of this article is on the emotional benefits, supported by research, of walking in a state of gratefulness and offers some ideas to increase those steps in your walk or practice to support your thoughts or the roof over your home. Nel son Mandela said, “Resentment is like drinking poison then hoping it will kill your enemies” (Interview with Ted Koppel of ABC News on ‘Nightline’ 1990). Let’s discover the benefits of gratefulness upon our souls as the antidote. Consider a Berkeley University study of 300 adults, mostly college students, who were pursuing mental health counseling at a university. A random assignment of three groups involved the creation of gratitude let ters and MRI scans of participants and non-participants. The compari son indicated a “greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when they experienced gratitude in the MRI scanner. This is striking as this effect was found three months after the letter writing began. This indicates that simply expressing gratitude may have lasting effects on the brain. While not conclusive, this finding suggests that practicing gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line and this could contribute to improved mental health over time.” www.greatergood. Berkeley.edu Greater Good Magazine, Mind & Body: How Gratitude Changes

You and Your Brain, Joshua Brown, Joel Wong, 6/6/17. Psychology Today discusses the neuroscience of gratitude with studies concluding a reduction in heart rate, as researchers measured heart rate effects between those with gratitude and resentment noting the work of the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems governing heart rates and digestion were likely key. A study in 2017 by Keyong et al., utilized functional MRI (fMRI) to observe brain activity during a gratitude practice of reframing a circumstance in a more positive way and found the amygdala (emotion controller) was positively impacted. In this same study the fMRI found that the part of the brain that is responsible for cognitive process ing and impacts depression was positively impacted through a grate fulness practice. Psychology Today Khorramshahr (2020) Visualizing a different outcome is a tool to utilize with a goal to physically feel the future so it becomes the emotional reality we experience and within that can pursue a neutral mindset toward the challenging situation and make decisions that will support our hopes and goals.

Winter 2024-2025 | Corrections Today

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