Another holiday season has come and gone. We have visited with
family, given and received gifts, and our bank accounts are empty. Considering
how much stress the holidays can cause, why do we go through this cycle year
after year?
Perhaps it is because for the most part, the holidays fill
us with gratitude. We are grateful for the events of a great year or for the
end of a challenging one. Interestingly, research is showing that this
feeling of gratitude is an important part of the human experience.
The experts say that grateful people are happier, have more
satisfaction with life, feel less materialistic, and are more likely to have a
healthy lifestyle. Also, when people acknowledge that someone has done something
nice for them, it makes them feel valued and important, and this boosts
self-esteem (because who doesn’t like to feel important?).
Grateful people are more generous and more considerate. This
helps to strengthen our relationships with others both at home and at work. In
fact, researchers are investigating whether making people participate in
activities that focus on gratitude can help with health and wellbeing.
In a sense, then, the holidays are a yearly gratitude
therapy session, helping us to re-focus on what’s important to us. January can
be a bleak month. But if we carry over our holiday gratitude into the new year,
we can have a healthier, happier year!
