A growing number of studies indicate that saying 'thank you' or expressing gratitude otherwise is good for your health.
Almost every foreign language class offered has a common thread beyond declension and verb forms, and that common thread is courtesy. Traveling around the world, in almost every locale basic please and thank you is nearly a second nature practice.
But for some reason this is less likely the case when we learn our own language. And even though there is a national holiday dedicated to the idea of giving thanks, it often ends up being a study in the glory of gluttony, a day of feast and football.
Gratitude: It's good for you
As it turns out, if actually taken as the Thanksgiving Day holiday's name implies, it can be a matter of public health. It could almost be part of a campaign, "Stop smoking, eat healthy foods, exercise and say thank you."
More and more studies are backing this up with evidence that expressing gratitude is good for your health and well being.
In an article Rx for life: Gratitude (click) Greg Easterbrook delineates:
* People who describe themselves as feeling grateful to others and either to God or to creation in general tend to have higher vitality and more optimism, suffer less stress, and experience fewer episodes of clinical depression than the population as a whole. These results hold even when researchers factor out such things as age, health, and income, equalizing for the fact that the young, the well-to-do, or the hale and hearty might have "more to be grateful for."
* Grateful people tend to be less materialistic than the population as a whole and to suffer less anxiety about status or the accumulation of possessions. Partly because of this, they are more likely to describe themselves as happy or satisfied in life.
* In an experiment with college students, those who kept a "gratitude journal," a weekly record of things they should feel grateful for, achieved better physical health, were more optimistic, exercised more regularly, and described themselves as happier than a control group of students who kept no journals but had the same overall measures of health, optimism, and exercise when the experiment began. (Researchers use frequency of exercise as a barometer for general well-being because it is an objective measure that links to subjective qualities; people who exercise three or more times per week tend to have better indicators of well-being, even when health conditions that affect the ability to exercise are factored out.)
* Grateful people are more spiritually aware and more likely to appreciate the interconnectedness of all life, regardless of whether they belong to specific religions.
It is becoming a major area of the study of psychology and the contributing factors to mental health.
In another article the at the American Communications Project, Gratitude Theory is discussed:
The results of the study indicated that daily gratitude exercises resulted in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism and energy. Additionally, the gratitude group experienced less depression and stress, was more likely to help others, exercised more regularly and made more progress toward personal goals. According to the findings, people who feel grateful are also more likely to feel loved. McCollough and Emmons also noted that gratitude encouraged a positive cycle of reciprocal kindness among people since one act of gratitude encourages another.
It is interesting to note that psychology really doesn't focus on peoples' problems until it is in a clinical setting. The rest of the field is analytical and studies what is in human behavior -- that people generally are designed to know satisfaction and to be happy.
A key to happiness
Being thankful is a key to happiness, another area of expanded psychological study. A UC Davis study by Robert Emmons cites evidence that gratitude contributes to both a higher level of happiness, but also a greater sense of physical well being.
The study itemizes characteristics of people who incorporate a sense of gratitude into their lives:
* Well-Being: Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality, optimism and lower levels of depression and stress. The disposition toward gratitude appears to enhance pleasant feeling states more than it diminishes unpleasant emotions. Grateful people do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life.
* Prosociality: People with a strong disposition toward gratitude have the capacity to be empathic and to take the perspective of others. They are rated as more generous and more helpful by people in their social networks (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002).
* Spirituality: Those who regularly attend religious services and engage in religious activities such as prayer reading religious material score are more likely to be grateful. Grateful people are more likely to acknowledge a belief in the interconnectedness of all life and a commitment to and responsibility to others (McCullough et. al., 2002).
* Materialism: Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods; they are less likely to judge their own and others success in terms of possessions accumulated; they are less envious of wealthy persons; and are more likely to share their possessions with others relative to less grateful pesrons.
Many of the techniques used by researchers and psychologists include keeping a gratitude journal, which one speculates is just a way of getting people in the habit of having this frame of mind. One may be able to regain the habit of gratitude in a variety of ways.
Benefit to all
Benefit to all
An interesting factor in expressing gratitude is that it is mutually beneficial. The idea of expressing anything implies that one is giving something away, and that can be a concept adverse to many. But in this case a commodity is given or shared where both members of the transaction benefit.
Seems like a good deal.
Thanks to all,
Lloyd
1 comment:
I always like this is type of article. Thank you.
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