Thanksgiving offers the opportunity to do something we should really be doing every day of the year: Thinking about, and expressing, what we're grateful for.
And really, there's a whole host of reasons why we should make gratitude a daily practice - research has shown that being thankful confers a whole host of health benefits, from improved immune systems, to feelings of connectedness, even higher team morale.
We gathered some of the biggest health benefits - both physical and mental - of gratitude. Tell us in the comments: What are you most grateful for this year?
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Good For Teens' Mental Health
Grateful teens are happier, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the
American Psychological Association this year. Researchers also found that teens who are grateful - in the study, defined as having a
positive outlook on life - are more well-behaved at school and more hopeful than their less-grateful peers. "More gratitude may be precisely what our society needs to raise a generation that is ready to make a difference in the world," study researcher Giacomo Bono,
Ph.D., a psychology professor at
California State University, said in a statement.
Boosts Well-Being
Being constantly mindful of all the things you have to be thankful for can boost your well-being, research suggests. In a series of experiments detailed in a 2003 study in
the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, daily exercise practices and listing off all the things you are thankful for are linked with a brighter outlook on life and a greater sense of positivity. "There do appear to exist benefits to regularly
focusing on one's blessings," the researchers wrote in the study. "The advantages are most pronounced when compared with a focus on hassles or complaints, yet are still apparent in comparison with simply reflecting the major events in one's life, on ways in which one believes one is better off than comparison with others, or with a control group."...
