Thanksgiving: a day when we’re supposed to stop and be thankful for the things in our lives. Be thankful for all of the food in front of us, the family and friends around us, and whatever else you feel you should be thankful for. But while we’re watching football and eating our turkey, it’s too easy to forget all the value that we probably have in our lives. We overlook so many great things and focus too much on what we see that we’re lacking, missing, or apparently don’t have enough of. Chances are, many of us will go through Thanksgiving without really stopping to be thankful. And while it’s great if this Thanksgiving you do stop and be thankful for something in your life, that just isn’t enough.
Why? Because science tells us otherwise. Surprisingly, just being grateful for the good in your life makes you much more likely to be happier.
“…the more a person is inclined to gratitude, the less likely he or she is to be depressed, anxious, lonely, envious, or neurotic.”
In one study seen in this TED Talk, participants spent just two minutes every day writing down three things they were grateful for over a 21-day span of time and their lives actually improved because of that. Harvard psychologist, Shawn Achor, said about the study:
“we can actually rewire your brain, allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically and more successfully. […] At the end of that [21 days], their brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world not for the negative, but for the positive first.”
On an intuitive level, it makes sense too. If you’re thinking about the good in your life, then you’re focusing on the perceived bad. You can’t care that much about whatever you think is bad if you’re focusing on being grateful for all the positive things around you.
In, Gratitude Works!: A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity, Robert Emmons states:
“Gratitude has one of the strongest links to mental health and satisfaction with life of any personality trait—more so than even optimism, hope, or compassion. Grateful people experience higher levels of positive emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, love, happiness, and optimism, and gratitude as a discipline protects us from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, greed, and bitterness. People who experience gratitude can cope more effectively with everyday stress, show increased resilience in the face of trauma-induced stress, recover more quickly from illness, and enjoy more robust physical health.”
The trick, of course, is that you have to feel grateful frequently to actually see the effects, and you have to change it up frequently. One big event in your life that you feel grateful will lose its strength eventually because eventually it’ll wear off.
So this Thanksgiving don’t just think about being thankful, feel grateful. And don’t just feel grateful once, keep it up and work toward living a happier and better life with the simple practice of gratitude.
