As we gather to celebrate Thanksgiving, the Mass General Department of Psychiatry extends warm wishes to our community. This season of thanks giving provides a meaningful opportunity to reflect on the positive impact that gratitude can have on our lives. Research from MGH Psychiatry has shown that expressing gratitude can significantly enhance well-being and health behaviors. Interventions encouraging individuals to focus on positive experiences may help to foster improvements in physical activity and overall mental health. Such findings underscore the transformative power of gratitude in promoting a healthier, more fulfilling life.
In celebrating Thanksgiving this year, we can embrace gratitude not only as a holiday tradition but as a daily practice that enriches our lives and strengthens our bonds with others. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at the MGH Department of Psychiatry!
Practicing Gratitude May Help Us to Live Longer
Previous research has demonstrated that expressing gratitude makes people feel good, but gratitude may lead to other long-term benefits. Studies have shown that higher levels of gratitude are associated with greater emotional and social well-being, lower risk of depression, better sleep quality, and healthier biomarker profiles.
In a recent study published in JAMA Psychiatry, Olivia Okereke, MD, MS, Director of Geriatric Psychiatry at Mass General Hospital and colleagues at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health examined the impact of gratitude on longevity.The team analyzed data from group of 49,275 older female registered nurses participating in the Nurses’ Health Study. Participants with gratitude scores in the highest third had a 9% lower risk of death compared to those in the lowest third. Gratitude appeared to have the most significant effect on death related to cardiovascular disease.
This study provides the first empirical evidence indicating that the experience of gratitude is associated with increased longevity in a group of older adults. Exactly how gratitude may improve longevity is not clear; however, the authors propose several potential mechanisms through which gratitude might influence longevity. Gratitude is associated with improved mental health and social well-being, factors that are associated with longevity. In addition, individuals with higher levels of gratitude may be more motivated to take care of their health. Previous research has also linked gratitude to improved cardiovascular health, reduced inflammation, and improved cholesterol levels, factors which are associated with improved health and longevity.
Gratitude and Heart Health
The research from Okereke and colleagues aligns with the work of other researchers in the department exploring the benefits of gratitude and other positive psychological practices on medical outcomes. Jeff Huffman, MD, Christopher Celano, MD and other researchers in the Cardiac Psychiatry Research Program are interested in better understanding the complex interplay between mental health, behavior, and medical outcomes, focusing on patients with heart disease and other chronic conditions. This multifaceted research encompasses several key areas: investigating the impact of mood and anxiety disorders on cardiac health, exploring the role of positive psychology in health outcomes, and developing interventions to promote well-being and healthy behaviors.
The Gratitude Research in Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) study, led by Dr. Huffman, investigated the impact of gratitude on biological markers and health behaviors in patients with heart disease. The study recruited participants during hospitalization for a heart attack and conducted follow-up visits at 3 and 6 months post-discharge.
The researchers found that higher levels of gratitude and optimism measured two weeks after the heart attack were associated at follow-up with higher health-related quality of life and improved adherence to health behaviors, such as diet and exercise. In addition, they noted an association between higher levels of gratitude and lower levels of some inflammatory biomarkers.
Moving forward, the team is particularly interested in determining if positive psychology interventions can be used to enhance gratitude and optimism, with the ultimate goal of improving health outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease.
How to Make Gratitude Feel Less Like a Chore
A growing body of research tells us that practicing gratitude improves our emotional and social well-being, reduces our risk for depression and anxiety, helps us to deal with crises, and even helps us to stay physically healthier and to live longer. So why can practicing gratitude feel like such a chore?
This is something that Robert Waldinger, MD, Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, addresses in a recent article published in TIME. He notes, “Like mindfulness and other similar wellness practices that are supposed to make us happier and healthier, gratitude can seem like one more ‘should’ that is totally out of reach when we’re in the doldrums. Depending on the culture we grew up in, expressing gratitude may even make us feel more sad and guilty.”
Waldinger comments that while some people are naturally disposed to being more positive, many of us have a tendency to focus on the negative:
All of us, to a greater or lesser extent, have what’s called a negativity bias. We pay more attention to what is negative about any situation than to what is positive, we give the negative more weight, and we have better memory for negative events and feelings than for positive ones. The experience of a beautiful meal can be spoiled by a single persistent fly, a supervisor’s extensive praise can be drowned out by one criticism, and the memories of a great vacation can be overshadowed by a marital squabble on the last day. This tendency to focus on what is wrong can impact how we make decisions, and how motivated we are to take risks. Although the negativity bias may be corrected and even reversed as we grow older, it shapes our views of ourselves and the world around us for much of our lives.
Interestingly, some hypothesize that this ability to focus on the negative — to pay attention to what goes wrong and to use that information to predict future catastrophes — may have an evolutionary advantage. Those that tend to interpret events as more threatening or urgent have a better chance of surviving and reproducing. While this outlook may have its advantages in terms of survival in a hostile environment, holding onto the negativity bias can take its toll on our health and emotional well-being.
Waldinger notes that gratitude acts as a kind of “course correction”, shifting us away from the darker thoughts to which our minds gravitate and reminding us of the more positive aspects of our daily lives. In this article, he provides some helpful (and surprisingly easy) strategies for practicing gratitude and comments that expressing gratitude creates an “upward spiral”; feeling more gratitude increases our satisfaction with life, and more satisfaction with life increases our gratitude.
Back to Basics: Cherishing the Family Dinner
At the heart of the Thanksgiving holiday is the meal, an opportunity to gather and celebrate with family and friends. While we may not expressly view this event as an act of giving thanks, the mere act of sharing a meal can have beneficial effects. Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Family Dinner Project, Anne Fishel, PhD notes, “In 21st-century America, mealtime is really the most reliable time we have to connect with one another.” Furthermore, several decades of scientific research has consistently highlighted the many benefits of regular family dinners for children, including improved academic performance, higher self-esteem, and lower risk of substance abuse.
A recent study co-authored by Fishel and Melinda Morrill, PhD examined changes in family meals that occurred during the COVID pandemic. While the closure of schools and workplaces created significant disruption in our lives, there may have been something of a silver lining, at least when it comes to the family dinner. This study revealed that the frequency of family dinners increased during the pandemic, with over 60% of the families reporting more frequent shared meals.
Although parents did not sign up to have more family meals, this survey demonstrates that the increased frequency of family dinners during the pandemic was associated with significant increases in positive behaviors: expressing gratitude, laughing, and feeling connected. These benefits were observed across income levels, education, age, gender and race.
Dr. Fishel refers to Thanksgiving as “the mother of all family dinners.” She notes that with all the preparations and pressure to provide the perfect meal, it’s easy to lose sight of the real meaning of the holiday: thanks + giving. You can find some creative ideas for making Thanksgiving a fun and meaningful (and hopefully less stressful) event HERE at the Family Dinner Project website.
