As the holiday season approaches, surveys show Americans are experiencing higher levels of stress than usual. But what if gratitude is the key to a different worldview?
The Monitor reached out to people whose jobs can be especially challenging: police officers, firefighters and lawyers. What they told us may surprise you.
Jordan Rabani-Jenkins, an immigrant lawyer in Santa Barbara, California, says she copes with competing pressures by journaling, spending time with loved ones and, above all, expressing gratitude.
Why did we write this
Everyday life or important events can dim the light of the holidays. Many Americans say expressing gratitude can help people unlock the joy of the season.
When her job seems hopeless, she reminds herself that she is grateful to be doing meaningful work that can help others navigate a very difficult process.
When you do something you believe in, “there's essentially less stress in the moment. The client's chances of winning are much better if they're represented by an attorney. I'm grateful that at least I can be there to help.”
Using gratitude to improve well-being is not a completely new idea, but researchers are paying closer attention to it as a powerful tool. Centers for Disease Control and PreventionFor example, it has been reported that expressing gratitude can help relieve stress. And a 2024 survey conducted for a mental health provider, Mission for Michaelfound that while 70% of Americans reported experiencing stress during the holidays, 84% of Americans found that expressing gratitude brought relief.
There are also signs that a growing number of Americans are finding that the holidays provide the relief they were intended to provide, according to the annual Healthy Minds study by American Psychiatric Association (APA), 44% of Americans said the holidays had a positive impact on their mental health, up from 38% in 2024 and 2023.
The holiday season can be difficult due to finances, family relationships or grief, APA President Teresa Miskimen Rivera said in a press release about the study. “It’s important to remember that…sometimes the best gift we can give ourselves and our loved ones is to live in the moment and remember to nurture our personal connections.”
In the new podcast, sociologist Arthur Brooks says that people mistakenly believe that gratitude is an innate personality trait that a person is born with. He argues that gratitude is a skill that can be trained and becomes stronger the more you practice it.
“When you're a grateful person, when you genuinely express gratitude, you're happier, and so is everyone else. It's a real win-win,” he says. Citation research According to numerous scientists, Dr. Brooks says gratitude interrupts bad moods and shifts attention from what we lack to what we have.
If gratitude can be taught, one Ohio school can model a way to do this. Monroe Local Schools installed a microphone in the hallway that read, “Tell us something good that happened today.” One student said he woke up on time and missed the bus. Another said she passed her German test with 100%. A third said she and her sister were finally getting along.
Christopher Rudder/Brattleboro Reformer/AP
For first responders and others who regularly face difficult situations during their workdays, personal contact can be a source of support.
This Thanksgiving, a police officer named Sean and his team will be on duty in College Park, Maryland. And at the end of the day they will do what they always do: have a picnic at the police station.
Sean says he'll grill the turkey and the others will bring the sides. It's normal to have close personal connections with the people on whom your life depends, and the team treats each other like family, he said.
“We always look out for each other,” he says. A veteran officer, Shawn says he's accustomed to the daily task of keeping peace on the University of Maryland campus. Besides cooking, which he calls his “happy place,” he also plays a lot and finds meditative relaxation by building large Lego sets. His team recently gave him a Star Wars Millennium Falcon set for his birthday.
When incidents occur, Sean and his fellow officers sit together and discuss the situation. “The stereotype is that cops fall into alcoholism. Everyone has their own way of dealing with stress. Some people need to talk about it. Some people are not affected at all. Most of the time we like to go out and get food.”
A firefighter named Patrick from Washington, D.C., says that after 22 years on the job, he knows what he does makes a difference in people's lives. His strategy for dealing with accumulated work stress is to lift weights and practice jiu-jitsu. After a particularly difficult day, he may talk to his wife, a registered nurse, to clear up the situation, although he is careful not to speak in front of their young daughter.
In more tragic cases, Patrick, who like Sean asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media, says his team gathers around the firehouse kitchen table to talk. “We talk about what happened, both for the other guys and for ourselves,” he says.
In Santa Barbara, Ms. Rabani-Jenkins says she's been busy this holiday season. She works with 15 families who have applied for asylum. Typically, asylum seekers are given two to three years to process their cases in immigration court, but she says immigration authorities told her in February that all 15 of her families would be subject to expedited “removal” or deportation proceedings.
Ms Rabani-Jenkins says she stays focused and positive by taking a few minutes at the end of the day to journal. She writes down three things she's grateful for, and often the most helpful entries are the “super specific” things she accomplished at work. But she's also grateful for the calm presence of her husband Omid, a software engineer and manager, and their dog Gus.
“I’m so grateful that Omid was with me all this time,” she says. “It makes it easy to look for the good.”
