If you want a long life, it may help to be grateful.
In research on gratefulness and longevity, using a pool of older women, the most grateful experienced a nine percent lower risk of death of any cause. The data came from nearly 50,000 women between ages 69 and 96 who completed a six-item gratitude questionnaire. ranking how much they agreed with the statements, “I have so much in life to be thankful for” and “I am grateful to a wide variety of people,” among others.
The more grateful women tended to be in better health, slightly younger and partnered, and participate in social or religious groups. But the research team tried to weed out the effect of those factors. “Those other things are important, but it doesn’t explain away the whole of the effect of gratitude,” said senior study author Dr. Tyler VanderWeele from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
When Sharon fell about seven feet while hanging a curtain she landed flat on her back, including the back of her head. When she was able to get up, her first thought was, "Oh this could have been so much worse," she says. "Miraculously, that thought stayed with me."
Gratitude is ideal in a crisis, as Sharon learned. "I was grateful that I happened to have someone coming to work on my kitchen that day—as I live alone. It hurt to breathe or move and I was grateful when he brought me a glass of water. I was grateful when I went to the ER and it was peaceful that morning, almost empty, and the doctors were kind. I was grateful I could afford to sit and not work for a week. I don’t know why I felt........