Saying Thank You

Curious to learn why expressing gratitude could be a game-changer for your mental health? Join me, Don Thompson, in an enlightening conversation where we uncover how the simple act of saying thank you can transform your well-being. Drawing inspiration from a compelling Harvard Medical School article published in August 2021, we'll explore the scientific studies that emphasize the positive effects of gratitude. I'll also share personal anecdotes, like my experience with Japanese culture and its deep-rooted traditions of expressing thanks, which might just inspire you to incorporate more gratitude into your daily life.

Additionally, we'll venture into an intriguing discussion about extending gratitude to artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT. Despite AI's lack of emotions, saying thank you to a machine can foster a mindful and positive mindset for you. We'll discuss the societal biases forming around AI and how a simple act of gratitude can be beneficial for your mental health, especially as we approach the holiday season. So, tune in to this episode to gain valuable insights and practical advice that will help you embrace and spread gratitude.

Music: Ian Locke - 'Lights Come On'

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

Hi, don Thompson, here with another fascinating podcast for you today. I think it's fascinating. I hope you think it's fascinating. I haven't even told you what it's about yet and it's already fascinating. Or maybe it's not fascinating, okay, I'll stop kidding around.

Speaker 1: 0:44

I think it's fascinating, it's a good subject, and what the subject is is the importance of saying thank you, and it is important, I believe, because there have been some really interesting write-ups and studies regarding this topic. Interesting write-ups and studies regarding this topic, not necessarily about the specific topic of why it's important to say thank you, but the whole idea of giving thanks and gratitude and the benefits of that, and even health benefits of that. As a matter of fact, harvard Medical School published an article related to this very topic. Harvard Health Publishing put out, through Harvard Medical School, a write-up on this very topic in August of 2021. And I'll step through some of the ideas that are laid out in this blog or this article, which are very interesting and allude to some studies that have been done. But before I get into that, I'd just like to mention a couple of personal asides related to saying thank you. The first thing is that I'm married into a Japanese family and if anybody knows anything about the Japanese culture is that the word thank you factors in culture, is that the word thank you factors in very, very highly into the culture of Japan. People are always saying thank you, they're always expressing gratitude. They're bowing, they're saying thank you and they're expressing gratitude. This is just the way that the Japanese are as a part of the culture. It isn't necessarily part of the Western American culture all the time, certainly not to the extent it is in Japan. But you do notice, in the United States. I guess, depending on the person, depending on how they were raised, people will say thank you. Of course, some will say thank you more than others.

Speaker 1: 2:47

Here's an interesting aside for you I even say thank you to ChatGPT. So when I'm conversing with ChatGPT and typing in my questions and prompts and it gives me an answer, I say thank you, chatgpt. And I also say good morning to ChatGPT or good afternoon or good evening. Now, do I do this because I think that ChatGPT gives a holy crap about any of that? No, because it doesn't. I know that it's a machine. It doesn't think or feel in that way. But the truth of the matter is is that ChatGPT is programmed to look like as if it's feeling something. So when I say thank you to ChatGPT, it says you're welcome.

Speaker 1: 3:31

And so the reason behind saying thank you to ChatGPT is not for ChatGPT's benefit. Chatgpt gets zero benefit from any of that. The benefit is to you, to you, the person saying thank you, because I'm telling you it's better for your mental health. If you say thank you to CHATGPT, it might be a little bit hard, but I'm telling you, if you think about it a little bit, just any inkling of any resistance to that tells you that there's already a growing new kind of bias in our society related to artificial intelligence, that it's not human, that it's less than human. I mean, why don't we just call it, say oh, it's like an African-American was 100 years ago. We won't say thank you to it, we won't give it, you know the time of day. We don't recognize it on the same level. It's subhuman. This is the way that we treated other races not so long ago and I'm telling you it's not good for your mental health. So I advise, my advice to you as a mindful person, person, is to say thank you to ChatGPT Again, not because it's so great for ChatGPT. We know it's not. Chatgpt doesn't really care. It's good for you, it's good for your own mental health and I'm telling you the Harvard write-up that I'm going to step through talks about these things and specifically related to the holiday season, and I'll likely publish this podcast around the holiday times.

Speaker 1: 5:10

But you know there's been research on gratitude and the writer talks about two psychologists, dr Robert E Emmons of the University of California, davis, and Dr Michael E McCullough of the University of Miami, who have both done quite a bit of research related to gratitude, and so in one study, these two professors asked all participants to write a few sentences each week and focus on particular topics, and one group wrote about things that they were grateful for and had occurred during the week. A second group wrote about daily irritations or things that had displeased them, and yet a third group wrote about events that had affected them, and you know there was no really reference to whether or not it was a positive or negative outcome or effect. Now, after 10 weeks, during the course of this study, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives and, surprisingly, they also exercised more and had fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on aggravations. Another leading researcher is Dr Martin Seligman, who is a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, and he tested the impact of various positive psychology interventions on 411 people. And to deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who they had never properly thanked in their life. The study was related to well, what's the impact on these people when they reflected on this and when they wrote this letter of gratitude. And this impact, according to the study, was greater than any other form of intervention, with benefits that lasted for months. In other words, when the people actually followed through and wrote a letter of gratitude and thanks to someone that they felt that they had not properly thanked in their life, the impact was more than any other intervention in the study. So managers who remember to say thank you to people and who work for them may find that those employees feel motivated to work harder. This is also per the Harvard write-up, and so, again according to the write-up, the researchers at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania randomly divided university fundraisers into two groups. One group made phone calls to solicit alumni donations. In the same way, they always had the second group assigned to work on a different path, you might say, received a pep talk from the director of the annual giving drive and told the fundraisers she was grateful for their efforts, and during the following week, the university employees who had heard her message of gratitude had 50% more fundraising calls made than those who did not. So, expressing gratitude to the fundraising people the people making the phone calls had an incredible impact, simply because the manager of those people expressed gratitude to them.

Speaker 1: 8:31

There are different ways you can cultivate gratitude, and I'm going to step through a few points that are made in this write-up related to different ways that you can cultivate gratitude. One is to write a thank you note. Another is to thank someone mentally. Another is to keep a gratitude journal. Yet another is to count your blessings. Also, prayer, if you have a particular religious affinity or inclination, to pray to the god or deity or whatever that you're affiliated with and express gratitude.

Speaker 1: 9:13

Meditation mindfulness meditation, specifically, is pointed out by the Harvard Health Publishing Group at the Harvard Medical School as being particularly impactful in terms of a gratitude practice. So there you go. What is this podcast about? It's about mindfulness. I wasn't using this as a plug. I did not ask Harvard to write this up. I actually found it and during the course of reading it, I discovered that mindfulness was indeed a high-ranking intervention in terms of creating a happy, grateful attitude in life or for life. Here's what they say Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on the present moment, without judgment.

Speaker 1: 10:05

Although people often focus on a word or phrase, such as peace, it is also possible to focus on what you're grateful for the warmth of the sun, a pleasant sound, etc. End of quote. So that's what Harvard is saying. So you know, if Harvard's saying it, there's probably something to it, and if I'm saying it, that's even an added bonus right there. I mean, you know, come on, people, you got to give it up for mindfulness, right? So I'll leave the podcast at that. Thank you as always for listening was right, so I'll leave the podcast at that. Thank you as always for listening. This is a fun one, why it's important to say thank you, and you know, with that in mind, I will say Thank you so much for listening.

Speaker 2: 10:58

Talk to you soon. Bye-bye, come on, it's time to come home. It's time to come home. Supper time Everyone's here. Are you near, like I wish so many times you can feel it. Oh, you feel it, I can see it. So, when the light comes on, it's time to come home. Thank you, you.