Thankful Thoughts

Thankful Thoughts

While driving to work I heard an interesting report on the radio. It was about the one characteristic all happy people have in common. They took quite a few calls and no one guessed what it was. The key to happiness is so simple, yet it eludes most people. Billions of dollars are spent every year on antidepressant drugs and therapy trying to find happiness in life. Well, if you are or know someone who is in search of happiness, stay tuned…

There's an ancient tale of happiness that appears in many cultures, and it goes something like this: Once there was a prince who was terribly unhappy. The king dispatched messengers to find the shirt of a happy man, as his advisers told him that was the only cure. They finally encountered a poor farmer who was supremely content. Alas, the happy man owned no shirt.

We see this in every day life. Money and possessions do not equal happiness! Things can be nice, but they are not the answer. Happiness is an inside job. So how do we start to work on that job?

In recent years, many scientists have begun examining the links between religion and good health, both physical and mental. Now two psychologists are working to unlock the puzzle of how faith might promote happiness. Dr. Michael McCollough, SMU in Dallas, Texas, and Dr. Robert Emmons, of the University of California at Davis, say their initial scientific study indicates that gratitude plays a significant role in a person's sense of well-being.

Scientists discovered what many knew all along. People who describe themselves as feeling grateful 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.

Gratitude gives us a perspective and focus on what we have vs. what we don’t have. This creates a sense of happiness and contentment. We all have so much to be grateful for! You probably have your basic needs met…food, clothing, shelter. Most likely you have someone who loves you and someone you love. We live in a country where there is freedom to follow our dreams and share them with others. All that is more than enough for gratitude!

Take the time today to express your gratitude. Not only will it make you a more pleasant person to be around, it will help make you happier. Now, isn’t that what we really want in life?