The Thanksgiving Holiday is upon us. For some of you this might mean rushing around picking up last minute groceries, cleaning the house for guests, preparing for football fun game watches, setting a table for more family than normal, dreaming of black Friday sales events, and maybe taking some much-needed time off. Although the name of this Holiday implies what we should be focused on, we can easily forget as we juggle many cultural expectations. Therefore, a quick recap of the history of Thanksgiving might be helpful as we think about the true nature of this celebratory event, which is gratitude.
When the Mayflower ship left England in September 1620, carrying 102 passengers, it eventually anchored near the tip of Cape Cod, MA in what is now known as our great country, the United States. Eventually crossing Massachusetts Bay, the passengers settled in Plymouth, and became known as the Pilgrims, or the first European Colonists to arrive in the USA. Only half of the passengers survived the brutal winter months and the following spring the survivors were greeted by a member of the Abenaki tribe, who happened to speak English. Ironically, this Native American returned several days later with another Native American named Squanto, who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain, sold into slavery, and then escaped and returned to his homeland (now the USA). Even though Squanto had been kidnapped by an Englishman he taught the Pilgrims, who were ill and malnourished, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, and catch fish in the rivers to avoid poisonous plants, among many other helpful/lifesaving skills. Rightly so, the Pilgrims had much to be ‘thankful’ for and were forever grateful to the Native Americans who taught them so much. The very first Thanksgiving was celebrated in November 1621, after the Pilgrims produced their first successful corn harvest. The Pilgrims invited a group of their Native American friends to celebrate with them because of their great generosity over the past year and this feast of gratitude is what we now know as Thanksgiving.1
Little did the Pilgrims know that this small act of gratitude had larger implications than improving their friendship with their Native American neighbors. What they likely didn’t know is that this act of gratitude and thanks was contributing to an increase in their overall wellbeing. There are numerous empirical research studies showing the association between gratitude and an individual’s wellbeing. Researchers Emmons & McCullough, from the University of California Davis, authored one of the more notable studies. Participants were divided into three groups (i.e., one group was asked to journal about negative events or hassles, a second group about the things for which they were grateful, and a third group about neutral life events) and were required to journal either daily or weekly. The gratitude subsample consistently evidenced higher wellbeing in comparison with the other two study groups.2 Their study further showed that those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events. 3
This Thanksgiving try expressing your gratitude to people in your life, especially the cook who prepares your feast. This act will not only make the person receiving your thanks feel good, but it will also increase your own wellbeing. Try turning the concept of gratitude into a daily practice as you exit the holiday and notice your mood, happiness levels, ability to reach your goals, and even desire to exercise improve. If you see a lift in any or all these items, don’t be surprised. The research supports this too.4
1“Thanksgiving 2022,” History.com, 15, Nov. ’22, Editors, https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving
2“Gratitude and Wellbeing”, National Library of Medicine, 7 Nov ’10, R. Sansone, L. Sansone https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3010965/
3“Gratitude Works”, UC Davis, R. Emmons, https://emmons.faculty.ucdavis.edu/gratitude-and-well-being/
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