Approaching Thanksgiving With Thanks

By Cindy Williams, RN

Coordinator, Health Ministries

Thanksgiving. It kicks off a holiday season filled with uncertainty. Our nation and the world face a resurgence of COVID cases with the accompanying restrictions, anxiety, and fear. There is tension about how to celebrate safely with family and friends and continuing confusing information about the virus and associated risks. The cold, long, dark days of winter don’t help!

There is something we can do about it. It will lift your spirits and improve your health. It’s built into the holiday – expressing thanks or gratitude. “The word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratia, which means grace, graciousness, or gratefulness (depending on the context) … Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible.”

Giving thanks can make you healthier and happier. A study done on asymptomatic heart failure patients, published in 2015 in the journal Spirituality in Clinical Practice, reported that higher gratitude scores were associated with better mood, higher quality sleep, more self-efficacy, and less inflammation. Patients who kept gratitude journals for eight weeks (writing down three things they were thankful for most days of the week) showed reduce levels of inflammatory biomarkers and an increase in heart rate variability. In other words, they reduced their cardiac risk.

Other studies have demonstrated that gratitude can reduce stress and anxiety, promote better sleep, steady blood sugar levels, and enable a person to eat less and still be satisfied. These things all have a positive impact on our immune system. Expressions of gratitude also improve relationships which impact our health and well-being.

Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord or fully declare his praise? Psalm 106:1-2 NLT

Let’s not wait until Thanksgiving day to begin expressing our gratitude – to God, to our family and friends, and those we meet each day. It’ll do me good!

References

https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier#:~:text=In%20positive%20psychology%20research%2C%20gratitude,express%20gratitude%20in%20multiple%20ways

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12585811/

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~daneis/symposium/2012/readings/Seligman2005.pdf

https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/scp-0000050.pdf

This article is part of a continuing series of health during these COVID times. For other articles, please see www.uccsda.org/healthministries.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash.