Fun and Fitness for the 40-Something

Researchers at Kent State have found that expressing gratitude in writing can improve health and happiness. They enlisted students to explore the effect of writing letters of gratitude to people who had positively affected the students’ lives.

Over six weeks, the students wrote one letter every two weeks that satisfied simple ground rules: the letters had to be positively expressive, require some insight and reflection, be nontrivial and contain a high level of appreciation or gratitude. The letters could not be mere thank-you notes. On average, the students spent 10-15 minutes on each letter.

After each letter, students completed a survey to gauge their moods, satisfaction with life, and feelings of gratitude and happiness. The lead researcher observed that the students’ happiness increased after each letter, meaning the more they wrote, the better they felt. He also reported improvement in their life satisfaction and gratitude throughout the study. Seventy-five percent of the participants said they planned to continue to write letters of gratitude.

Oprah would approve.