Thankful People Live Longer

Thankful People Live Longer

There are studies that show that ‘thankful’ people live longer. Even people who can barely get ‘thankful’ words out of their mouths have a longevity benefit too.

This says something about our human makeup. Our bodies, minds and spirits apparently find some harmony when thankfulness becomes part of the daily vocabulary and experience. The body, mind and spirit want to keep going – together.

Living longer therefore means you better find something to be thankful about or those extra minutes, hours, days or years may actually be, might we say, miserable?

All the efforts to improve ourselves and our situations sink into quicksand if we can’t find a reason to be thankful. Giving thanks places an anchor in our ocean and provides a renewal point to recognize where we are in life. It also helps us to get a clearer picture of where we want go in life too. Is your life purpose any clearer today? Do you know where your passion lies? Are you struggling with feelings of failure against success?

Abraham Lincoln declared the fourth Thursday of November an American national Day of Thanksgiving after the Civil war victory at Gettysburg in 1863. He and a nation had a fairly good grasp on the meaning of failure and success. Lincoln could see success at the end of the road albeit with heavy experience of failure and national suffering.

Giving thanks prepares us to keep moving, growing, maturing. Giving thanks is the dynamic life elixir. It never allows us to accept any situation as an accomplished fact that noone can influence or change. Giving thanks induces a hunger and thirst to find the better way in life. That is, if we are ‘giving thanks’.

The Thanksgiving celebration as a national holiday brought the United States into a new era. It institutionalized a religious concept of thankfulness and made it an integral part of the secular mindset.

That’s not to say every experience is made pleasant or productive or helpful.  It does confirm that learning how to give thanks enables us to have fresh perspective on struggles and challenges in life. Giving thanks opens the door to finding new or renewed purpose, focus and direction.

Jesus, as the leader of the pack reminded us humans to be thankful in all things. Eating, drinking, talking, serving, working, playing, building, singing, laughing, even dying.

Make giving thanks an integral part of your daily living. The Researchers may say it will lengthen life. I would go further. Giving thanks is the spice, the essence needed in every moment in life to grasp how wonderful the mystery of human life truly is.

God bless you as you give thanks. And as always, have a Happy Thanksgiving.