Another Thanksgiving is here – and another opportunity to express gratitude for all God has given us. While, in reality, everyday we’re alive offers that same opportunity, it’s good to have a day (actually a glorious four-day weekend for many) dedicated to reminding us to grateful.

Besides being “right,” research shows being grateful is actually good for us in all kinds of tangible ways. Here’s some research findings on how gratitude can improve our daily lives from the Emmons Lab which studies the effect of gratitude at UC Davis in California:

• In an experimental comparison, those who
  kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported
  fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more
  optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or
  neutral life events (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).
  

• A related benefit was observed in the realm
  of personal goal attainment: Participants who kept gratitude lists were more
  likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic,
  interpersonal and health-based) over a two-month period compared to subjects in
  the other experimental conditions.

• A daily gratitude intervention (self-guided
  exercises) with young adults resulted in higher reported levels of the positive
  states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy
  compared to a focus on hassles or a downward social comparison (ways in which
  participants thought they were better off than others). There was no difference
  in levels of unpleasant emotions reported in the three groups.
  

• Participants in the daily gratitude
  condition were more likely to report having helped someone with a personal
  problem or having offered emotional support to another, relative to the hassles
  or social comparison condition.

• In a sample of adults with neuromuscular
  disease, a 21-day gratitude intervention resulted in greater amounts of high
  energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more
  optimistic ratings of one’s life, and better sleep duration and sleep quality,
  relative to a control group.

• Children who practice grateful thinking
  have more positive attitudes toward school and their families (Froh, Sefick,
  & Emmons, 2008).

So, it seems God, in His Divine Wisdom, has wired us to function better when we’re grateful. Being grateful feels good and is good for us. That’s something to be grateful for.

As for me, I am thankful for God’s unbounding mercy in my life. I’m thankful for a great wife, family and friends who have put up with me and helped me during times when I felt helpless and didn’t even want to put up with myself. There have been a few priests who have shown me kindness and wisdom during tough times in my life, as well. I’m thankful to them and to everyone else who has helped me along the way — including those I may have forgotten. I’m thankful for the enjoyment I get from writing and the sense of purpose it gives me. I’m thankful to be working and for my overall health. I’m thankful to be living in a free country where we are all free to express our opinions. I’ve also had some great pets over the years, including a cute little dog named Charlie who joined our household this year. I’m thankful for the inspiration I get from all the truly good people in this world. And I’m thankful for the beauty of the world itself. I should remember all these things the next time my computer acts up or some other triviality gets under my skin.    

Here are some pretty good quotes on the subject of gratitude QuoteGarden.com:

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would
suffice.  ~Meister Eckhart

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at
Christmas time.  Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with
legs?  ~G.K. Chesterton

The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped
you.  ~John E. Southard

Gratitude is an art of painting an adversity into a lovely picture.  ~Kak Sri

As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself
daily.  The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning
upon a blessed world.  ~Terri Guillemets

If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for
what he’s going to get.  ~Frank A. Clark

The unthankful heart… discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep
through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every
hour, some heavenly blessings!  ~Henry Ward Beecher

Praise the bridge that carried you over.  ~George Colman

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but
rejoices for those which he has.  ~Epictetus

Gratitude is the best attitude.  ~Author Unknown

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of
our thanksgiving.  ~W.T. Purkiser

If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness.  It will change your
life mightily.  ~Gerald Good

There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude.  It is
accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently
rewarded by the performance.  ~Joseph Addison

Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.  ~Estonian Proverb

Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, – a grateful
heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare
days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise.
~George Herbert

There is no greater difference between men than between grateful and ungrateful
people.  ~R.H. Blyth

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation
is not to utter words, but to live by them.  ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. 
~Cynthia Ozick

Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.  ~Horace

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not
giving it.  ~William Arthur Ward

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone.