The importance of being grateful

Thanksgiving is our last sacred holiday. People interpret it differently but most everyone seems to respect it, regardless of religion. And I don’t this is an accident. Because researchers are finding that gratitude doesn’t just make you feel all warm and cuddly.

“Higher levels of gratitude are related to higher good cholesterol, and lower bad cholesterol,” said Dr. Wendy Mendez of UC San Francisco.

So gratitude actually improves your vital signs.

“People who are higher in gratitude have lower resting blood pressure,” she said.

Lower blood pressure!

Dr. Robert Emmons, who teaches psychology at UC Davis asked test subjects to keep a gratitude journal where every day they wrote down three things they were grateful for. He saw similar results.

“When people keep a gratitude journal, they actually become more active and exercise more. They sleep better; their sleep is more efficient,” Emmons said. “It relates to kidney function, in creatinine, which is a measure of waste product in the kidneys. Studies show that gratitude relates to less of that.”

Translation: being thankful even makes you pee better.

As to why this happens, my guess is that it probably developed as a mechanism for reducing the number of people likely to become your enemies. And when you have less to fear &#8212 when people who smile at you instead of raise their spear as you approach &#8212 you can relax more.
Over at Eastern Washington University, Dr. Philip Watkins posed a question to his students.

“‘How does gratitude enhance well being?’ And one of my students who had migrated to the Northwest from the South said in his thick, South, Louisiana drawl, ‘I think it just makes you nicer,” Watkins said.

So if for some reason you weren’t planning a moment of thanks today there’s still time &#8212 even if you just take a minute to write down three good things that happened today.
I like to think hearing this piece might end up being one of them. And if it is, feel free to thank me. Which will make you feel even better!