A few weeks ago I was having a cup of coffee with my friend Mohsen. He was telling me of a good article on letter writing he read that shaped his communication with others.
After reading it, I noticed that I have written many types of letters. But in recent times, my letters of gratitude haven’t been as plentiful. So over the past few days, my mornings have been spent writing letters of thanks to folks who we have been privileged to know during our time in the Northwest.
My day usually starts around 5:30 and I’ve been using about a half an hour a morning recently to write these letters. Funny thing, I’ve began noticing how much it has improved my mood as I enter in to the day. There’s a reason for this. While I’m a Christian and see spiritual reasons behind this, I’m also aware that there’s an abundance of scientific studies on the benefits of positive thinking. For instance.
According to the Mayo Clinic, positive thinking is linked to a wide range of health benefits including:
- Longer life
- Lower stress
- Lower rates of depression
- Increased resistance to the common cold
- Improved stress management and coping skills
- Lower risk of cardiovascular disease-related death
- Increased physical well-being
- Better psychological health
One study of 1,558 older adults found even that positive thinking could also reduce frailty during old age. Now those benefits are remarkable.
My encouragement to you this week is to take some time to write letters of gratitude. Do this for your family, friends, bosses and even teammates. You’ll find doing this will be good for your health, good for others and will make the world a better place.
So take a moment and think of who you could write short note of gratitude or appreciate to. Who is coming to your mind? Go ahead and take five minutes to write that note. I’d love to hear how it goes.