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The Healf Source
Is Gratitude The Greatest Biohack?
The wellbeing world spent the last decade obsessing over cold plunges, cortisol hacks, and sleep trackers. But at HX26, the conversation kept drifting back to something far simpler.
Written by: Ed Cooper
Written on: July 8, 2026
Whether it was panels on peptide use, speakers sharing game-changing approaches to gut health, or practitioners outlining the most exciting developments in self-care, one far simpler idea kept surfacing throughout Healf Experience 2026 (HX26), Healf’s second immersive wellbeing and longevity event on June 20 and 21.
Opening the weekend, neuroscientist and podcaster Andrew Huberman labelled it as appreciation, while Manifest author and 'The Manifestation Queen' Roxie Nafousi called it her most powerful daily practice. Writer and spiritualist Peter Crone spoke about the freedom that comes from it, and bestselling author Poppy Delbridge built an entire framework around why we block it.
Throughout all these talks, the common ground was surprisingly simple: the philosophy of gratitude, not as a mood or a platitude, but as a practicable, measurable biological tool. Here’s how it works, described by those who know it best.
What gratitude actually does to your body
The science on gratitude has deepened in recent years, with the emotion and practice now linked to several key biomarkers, including lower blood pressure, improved immune function and better sleep quality. Additionally, research published in the Journal of Research in Personality found that consistent gratitude practice correlated with 23% lower cortisol levels, while a 2025 study in Frontiers in Sleep confirmed that even simple gratitude interventions — daily lists and short journals, for example — reduced anxiety, depression and insomnia symptoms, with gains maintained at six-month follow-up. How’s that for a return on investment?
Gratitude also activates the prefrontal cortex, the region that manages negative emotions and triggers the hypothalamus, which regulates sleep and effectively touches almost every marker the wellness world currently spends considerable amounts of money trying to move even slightly. Here’s what the experts said, and how you can do it yourself.
What went down at HX26
During HX26, Nafousi cited research in which participants who practised gratitude three times a day for four days strengthened their immune system by 50%. “That for me was when wisdom met science,” she said. “The way we think is not just impacting how we feel, but the way that our cells are behaving.”
Gratitude is one of the seven steps in her manifesting practice, and the one she'd put above all others. “If people did nothing else, made no other change, but introduced a gratitude practice into their life, everything would transform for them,” she said during her talk. Her mother used to repeat a phrase to her in Arabic: for every thanks you give, you get 1,000 in return. “It describes this so beautifully.”
Huberman, for his part, approached the concept of gratitude from a neuroscientific perspective, and still found himself arriving in the same place. He talked about a form of neuroplasticity — the brain's remarkable capacity to adapt, reorganise and rewire itself via neural connections — that doesn't come from effort or deliberate focus, but from “zooming out” and being more present — what he called “coming off the gas pedal.” His advice? “Be present to whatever it is you're going through,” he said. “Even in moments of discomfort, when we're just present to those and then we pivot to the next thing, that's really what our nervous system and spirit seem to thrive on."
The Huberman Lab podcast host then cited Grammy-winning producer Rick Rubin, a close friend, as someone who embodies this philosophy — spending long stretches horizontal, eyes closed, entirely still, and letting ideas arrive. There's something about that state of full presence and receptivity, Huberman noted, that the brain responds to in a way that no protocol quite replicates.
“If you want to be a happier person, the data is very clear,” Huberman continued. “Be present to whatever it is you're going through.”
Alternatively, Crone, who works with everyone from elite athletes to CEOs, framed gratitude through the lens of mental freedom. The biggest shift he sees in clients is when they stop simply trying to survive their life, and start feeling grateful to be experiencing it. He asked the HX26 audience: “Who could you be in the absence of all your concerns?” After taking a beat to consider, the room was unanimous: they would feel free. For Crone, that sense of freedom is inseparable from appreciation and from recognising that life is for you rather than happening to you.
During her HX26 keynote, Delbridge made an interesting neurological argument about gratitude: real belief change requires an elevated emotional state to work, and gratitude is one of the most reliable ways to get there. “If your emotions are not elevated to a point where you're feeling nurturing to yourself, the very thing you're trying to say could be empty words.” You can't update your nervous system from a place of constriction. The openness has to come first. And when it does, she said, “we start to actually notice that we can choose our beliefs.”
Why the standard practice fails — and what to do instead
During HX26, one of the most impactful things Nafousi described was why the default gratitude practice tends to fade out. Writing “health, family, roof over my head” every morning feels dutiful rather than transformative, because the brain acclimates quickly to repeated tasks. That feeling — the thing that does the neurological work — can quickly become lost in the day-to-day operation of our lives.
Her fix is a play on that practice: every night before bed, write down, in chronological order, every good thing that happened from the moment you woke up to the moment you went to bed. This means specific moments, sensory details, and small wins. “I woke up, and the sun was shining. I could hear the birds outside my window. My morning coffee tasted delicious. I made it to the gym when I said I would,” were just a few examples of how the author practices this comparatively analogue side of neuroscience.
What you’ll begin to realise, she posited, is that each day is filled with ordinary moments of joy that otherwise go completely unnoticed. After a few weeks of it, she found herself noticing things she'd driven past every day without seeing. “I became so annoying with how positive I was,” she laughed, “but I would rather be annoying and positive, because it is so incredible to be able to feel appreciation."
Naturally, it stuck and, today, she does four gratitude practices throughout the day. With the final piece penned before she sleeps, her positivity journal bookends the day, because it’s here when the brain is most receptive to new information. A 2011 study published in Applied Psychology found that people who practised gratitude journalling fell asleep faster, slept longer, and woke up feeling more refreshed.
If Huberman's framing resonates more, his version is a touch simpler: when you catch yourself in your head — planning, worrying, performing — consciously step back and take in the wider scene with curiosity rather than agenda. “You kind of loosen the bolts on your desire to control everything,” he described at HX26. “When you’re not always in that top-down [approach], you realise that you were trying to control something in the situation.” At this time, Huberman said, “your brain is split into two places and [when] you decide to appreciate what's around you without having to be in it, suddenly you're back in it again. That's a sort of appreciation that I try to practice.”
Inevitably, the wellness industry will always generate new tools. But what HX26 kept returning to was that the most powerful, fundamental intervention might cost nothing, takes just 10 minutes before you go to sleep and has been hiding in plain sight the whole time. All you have to do is take a deep breath, and start looking around you.
This article is for informational purposes only, even if and regardless of whether it features the advice of physicians and medical practitioners. This article is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice. The views expressed in this article are the views of the expert and do not necessarily represent the views of Healf
Ed is a freelance journalist and former Men’s Health digital editor, with bylines in Red Bull, BBC StoryWorks, Guardian Labs, Third Space, Natural Fitness Food and Form Nutrition, among others. Having run marathons, conducted sleep experiments on himself and worked with some of the world’s most in-demand experts — from sleep scientists and strength athletes to high-performance trainers and elite-level nutritionists — one thing remains clear for The Healf Source contributor: fitness trends come and go, but as long as you keep turning up for yourself, consistency will win every time.
