SHEC: Reflecting on Thanksgiving

Alon Coret
The Silhouette

Living a thankful, grateful, appreciative life has numerous benefits.

It was found that people who are thankful tend to perform better in school, have fewer mental health problems, sleep better, and build stronger relationships.

The holiday we call Thanksgiving is celebrated in various ways and at different times around the world.

In sixteenth century England, various days of fasting and Thanksgiving were an integral part of the English Reformation; celebrated by the Puritans, these special days sought to replace the various existing church holidays – including Christmas and Easter. The American version of Thanksgiving is generally traced to a celebration of good harvest, which took place in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. This initial celebration, inspired by Puritan pilgrims who immigrated to the United States, became a regular holiday in New England by the late 1660s.

In Canada, the roots of the Thanksgiving holiday are unclear. Some attribute it to the explorer Martin Frobisher, who, in 1578, celebrated his safe journey across the North Atlantic. Others claim that early French settlers, who held harvest feasts throughout the fall and winter, inspired the holiday. The Thanksgiving holiday is also celebrated in Germany (Erntedankfest), Japan (Kinro Kansha No Hi), the Netherlands, and Liberia. Although celebrated differently, Thanksgiving is a universal holiday, at least in terms of its name: Gratitude. Appreciation. Recognition. Indebtedness. A sense of humility…

I think everybody could celebrate it as a very human holiday. The notion of Thanksgiving calls upon us to look beyond ourselves, and say ‘thank you.’ Whether that appreciation is directed at a family member, at a friend, at oneself, or whoever and whatever else – it’s important that we express it somehow.

Being thankful should be a daily practice, something beyond plain etiquette. It is a quality that often needs to be nurtured, dusted off; you could even argue that the ability to feel thankfulness is a talent. During stressful and difficult times, being thankful becomes difficult; it is simply so much easier to fixate on the problems (real or ‘first-world’), and it can be far more fun to bitch and complain than to take note of all the good things taking place around us. Thanksgiving teaches us to celebrate the full half of the glass – as should be done in the remaining 364 days of the year.

A quick Google search can show you that living an appreciative life has numerous benefits. For example, it was found that people who are thankful tend to perform better in school, have fewer mental health problems, sleep better, and build stronger relationships. Of course, one could argue that these are reversible causations and instead say that people who perform better in school, experience good mental health, sleep well, and have close friends tend to be more thankful in life. It would be difficult to disagree.

So for the more skeptical readers, consider the following examples. The first is a study on gratitude conducted by Emmons and McCullough, who asked groups of participants to write a few sentences each week. One group wrote about things they were grateful for, a second group wrote about daily irritations or things that had upset them, and the third group simply wrote about events that had affected them (in a neutral tone). After ten weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. They also exercised more and had fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on sources of aggravation. Another study showed that managers who remember to say "thank you" to workers tend to have more motivated employees. Researchers at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania randomly divided university fundraisers into two groups. One group made phone calls to solicit alumni donations in their usual way. The second group received a pep talk from the director of annual giving, who expressed her gratitude for their efforts. During the following week, the university employees who heard her message of gratitude made 50% more fundraising calls than those who did not.

Although neither of these studies necessarily points to cause and effect, they certainly show an association between thankfulness (whether to oneself or to others) and positive outcomes. Thus, I encourage you to make thankfulness a greater part of your daily life. Whether you say ‘thank you’ explicitly, think appreciative thoughts or write them down, pray, or practice mindfulness or meditation – it all counts.