A Simple Rx for Happiness

You've heard how an apple a day can keep the doctor away? It seems that writing a letter every week or so could do the same for you, especially if you accept a correlation between happiness and health.

Kent State's Dr. Steven Toepfer enlisted students in a study exploring the impact of writing gratitude letters. The students were asked to write one letter every two weeks over a six week period to someone who had positively impacted their lives. The only directions were that the letters should be reflective, positive and contain a high degree of gratitude. Students were then asked to measure a number of factors, including their level of happiness. With each letter written, their happiness levels went up along with their sense of satisfaction and gratitude. 75% of the students mentioned that they were planning on continuing the gratitude writing habit after the course ended. Another study by Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California found that a group of people keeping a gratitude journal over a ten week period were happier, exercised more and even had less acne. Go ahead and tell your teenagers about the last benefit and see if they don't start thanking you more...

A longitudinal study on a group of Catholic nuns found that those that expressed thanks and gratitude regularly when they were younger lived up to 10 years longer than those who didn't. I recently started the nightly habit along with my husband of sharing 5 daily gratitudes. What I love about it is that often after hearing his list, I'm reminded of something else to be rejoice over. For more information on gratitude go to: http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/064/gratitude.html

I decided to check out the hypothesis behind gratitude letters for myself and the first letter goes out to you. I know it's cheating a little bit as it's not to an individual but to a community, but what the heck.

Dear fellow inner alchemists,

You continue to surprise and delight me! First, there was your tremendous response to my “name your own price” offer to the first ten people to register for the upcoming “Experiment in Living”course. Within a few hours, my inbox was filled with enthusiastic e-mails and the ten special offer slots were filled. (By the way, there are still some openings under the regular price...)

The letters were heart warming and encouraging, including those from folks outside of Jerusalem and even beyond the borders of Israel. I so appreciate your support. It gives me the faith to continue pursuing my dreams and partner with others seeking to do the same. I want to thank you as well for your comments on my brand new blog. I cherish your wisdom, your humor, your thoughtfulness.

Over the course of the next week or so I'll be posting a number of letters on the blog.The letters contain questions I posed and the answers I received while in meditative prayer during a period in which I was going through a challenging time in my life, about five years ago. Around the world people will soon be celebrating Christmas and Chanukah. Both faiths see these holidays as a time of miracles, a time of finding the light within the darkness. Perhaps some of you are going through a period of struggle, fear, or confusion about something in your life. While it feels a bit risky to share this part of myself as it's quite personal and could be considered too new-age, I know the answers I received gave me tools, hope and faith. I offer them to you in that spirit as my small thanks for your trust and friendship. In gratitude and love,

Tzippi