Thank You Letters

I know from my personal experience that I feel happier when I am aware of being grateful for what I already have in my life. And I feel good letting people know that I appreciate them and/or what they have done for me.

Well now a professor at Kent State has conducted a study that indicates writing letters that demonstrate our gratitude can improve our own happiness. And I thought writing thank you letters was just good manners--and for the "other guy". Now we have a selfish reason to write our thank yous!

Steven Toepfer, the prof, had students write letters thanking people for the positive influence they had provided. The students didn't write a lot of letters, just one every other week for six weeks. That's only 3 letters!

The ground rules were pretty simple, be positive, express appreciation and (no doubt the most challenging part) include some "insight and reflection, not venture into trivial waters"...in other words, they had to put some thought into it!

After writing the letters the students were surveyed to gauge their mood, feelings of happiness, gratitude and overall life satisfaction.

The study showed that happiness levels were higher after each letter. According to the professor, 75% of the students want to continue writing letters--even after the study ended.

Our "social network" is important--large or small is not the key. But having and maintaining a few significant relationships has great benefits. According to Toepfer these benefits are both psychological and physical!

This appears to agree with the information we learned earlier this month about happiness being "contagious" and the importance of social networks for our happiness!