I heard that gratitude is a key element of a good life. And what is the point of living longer if life isn’t any good? Here is an excellent TedTalk that unexpectedly gave me a sense of gratitude, as well as hope for the future. It isn’t about gratitude, but I hope you like it.
Yes - a ton of research that practicing gratitude regularly is very good for mood and mental health:
This is Water by David Foster Wallace
I have listen to this 100+ times
When Giving is All We Have by Alberto Rios
Let me practice that.
Thank you for the post.
Have a high school buddy who is an inveterate complainer on the chat group. Another classmate replied:
“Did you wake up this morning? So what are you complaining about?”
Great thread, thank you!
I like to combine Thanksgiving with the Day of Atonement. We all have much to be grateful for and something to atone for.
Ah - yes, Arthur Brooks is more focused not directly related on gratitude, more about happiness. But this seemed to be a thread with related topics.
The study was published July 3 in JAMA Psychiatry.
The researchers used data from the Nurses’ Health Study to assess levels of gratitude and mortality among 49,275 older women. In 2016, participants, whose average age was 79, completed a six-item Gratitude Questionnaire in which they provided scores to agree or disagree with statements such as “I have so much in life to be thankful for” and “If I had to list everything that I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list.” In 2019, the researchers followed up to identify deaths among the study population, noting all-cause mortality as well as specific causes such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory diseases, neurodegenerative disease, infection, and injury. They observed 4,608 deaths over the course of the study period; of the specific causes studied, cardiovascular disease was most common.
The study found that participants whose Gratitude Questionnaire scores were in the highest tertile had a 9% lower risk of all-cause mortality over the following four years than those who scored in the bottom tertile. Gratitude appeared protective against every specific cause of mortality studied, most significantly against cardiovascular disease.