GIVING THANKS CAN LEAD TO BETTER HEALTH AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES

EACH NOVEMBER or December, this column takes a seasonally correct stance and, therefore, focuses on thanks. Past columns have described ways to display appreciation with gifts that range from elf dolls that blink with flashing LED lights (not my finest moment) to words that are worth more than a thousand pictures. If there has been a gap in this focus, it has been in explaining the “why” of showing gratitude.

BENEFITS FOR WHICH TO BE THANKFUL

For those who regularly give thanks, the explanation of why is simple. But if the reason “gratitude just feels right” doesn’t pass muster, let’s look at facts. For example, you always feel better when you are appreciated. Otherwise, why would every sports team from the Miami Heat to Anchorage Glacier Pilots host fan appreciation nights?

Psychotherapist Amy Morin identifies reasons for appreciation in “7 Scientifically Proven Benefits Of Gratitude That Will Motivate You To Give Thanks Year-Round” in a column posted on Forbes.com . She offers evidence that appreciation helps build relationships (thank-you notes to a colleagues “can lead to new opportunities”), improves physical and psychological health (thankers report “fewer aches and pains and feel healthier”) and improves mental strength and sleep.

These same benefits are echoed on websites, such as healthline.com and psychologytoday.com . Happierhuman.com diagrams the benefits of gratitude (spoiler alert: Gratitude makes you a happier human).

Another benefit: Grateful people can show significantly more patience than those who feel neutral or even happy, according to a study by David DeSteno, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University. In this respect, gratitude “offers an important new tool for long-term success,” he writes in “Gratitude Is the New Willpower,” in Harvard Business Review.

Gratitude costs little, so even a “Scrooge” has no excuse not to express thanks. Charles Dickens might agree. He once wrote, “Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men some.” OM