One of the biggest aspects of Thanksgiving culture is the food. A good, hearty meal releases dopamine into the bloodstream due to the brain’s pleasure and reward systems, especially during holiday meals. Simply looking forward to a Thanksgiving-day meal can activate the brain’s reward system, as many of us associate comfort and nostalgia with its common dishes, such as mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.
Additionally, seeing family during the holidays can release immense amounts of dopamine. While family life in and outside of the holiday season can be stressful, enjoying shared traditions and anticipating these traditions (like we do with food!) can do wonders for our mental health.
However, one of the most overlooked sources of joy during the Thanksgiving season is the gratitude for which this holiday is named. It is an easy misconception and common fallacy that gratitude is a result of joy and peace.
Within student interviews, this was a common acknowledgement. Freshman Grace Schuster answered in an interview that while she doesn’t believe people need to be happy to give thanks, she is most commonly grateful when she’s happy. When asked why that is, she answered, “When you’re happy, I feel like your brain is more clear, so you have more opportunities to think of what you’re grateful for, and when you’re upset, your brain is more occupied and you can take your time for granted and forget what you’re grateful for.”
Surprisingly, science actually demonstrates that showing gratitude can create this joy and peace: like Schuster said, you don’t have to be happy to show thanks–but showing thanks actually can make you happy!
An article by Harvard Health titled “Gratitude enhances health, brings happiness–and may even lengthen lives” revealed that the act of expressing gratitude is linked to positive health effects. The effects indicated in the article included:
- Greater emotional and social well-being
- Better sleep quality
- Lower depression risk
- Improved cardiovascular health
These health benefits of gratitude were measured by a JAMA Psychiatry study, where participants completed a gratitude survey and were ranked by their levels of gratitude. Four years later, researchers followed up on their medical records and used these rankings to determine a correlation between a higher ranking and morbidity rate. Incredibly, they found that patients in the top third of gratitude levels at the start of the study had a nine percent lower risk of dying in the four-year term of the study than those who were in the bottom third of the gratitude levels, even with an account for physical health, financial background, and other mental health and well-being factors. This study revealed that increased gratitude lowered the burden of every single cause of death afflicted upon participants, including cardiovascular disease, the most common cause of death among them. Supplementing this, a long-term Nurses’ Health Study confirmed that, in addition to improving quality of life, gratitude can extend one’s life as well.
Time is the most yearned-for commodity that humans have, and as studies have shown, showing gratitude, just as we do in the spirit of Thanksgiving, can help us live longer. So how can we make every day more like Thanksgiving?
When freshman Derek Phan was asked, “Do you think you’re grateful only when you’re happy, or always grateful?” he reported that he tends always to be grateful. When asked a follow-up question about what helps him always to be grateful, he shared, “I always think of the best, most positive opportunities and outcomes of whatever situation it is. Just always be happy and think of the best outcome of any situation you’re in, and just greet everyone and make everybody’s day better.”
Phan’s approach is actually expert-approved! Tyler VanderWeele, the co-director of the Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is cited in Harvard Health’s article as a testimony of how simple it is to incorporate gratitude into our daily lives. VanderWeele states that he and his family deliberately pause and share something simple that they are grateful for at dinnertime several days a week, and that “[e]ven on those bad days where life seems difficult, the effort is worthwhile.”
As you settle into the holiday spirit and get excited for your upcoming Thanksgiving traditions, think of how you can take at least one of these traditions past November 27th. Can you cook more foods that you enjoy? Can you prioritize spending more time with friends and family? Or can you make an effort to show gratitude more often?
Your lifespan will thank you for it!
