Thanksgiving is the time of year when we appreciate the good in our lives. That good tends to only be relevant during one month — scratch that — one week of each year.
Most of the time, people are happier around Thanksgiving. It’s a holiday jam-packed with fun and love that’s celebrated by sitting around a table eating pumpkin pie and drinking cider — sparkling, of course. But why is it that people are happier around Thanksgiving compared to the rest of the year? Is our happiness curved so that the highest is late November?
According to PBS, one’s relationships are directly affected by their attitude. This means that if your friend circle is comprised of positive people, it rubs off on you. Surrounding yourself with positive people will make you have a more positive attitude.
Since Thanksgiving focusses on family and helping others, celebrations are filled with cheer. However, before and after Thanksgiving, you’re bound to run into people with cynical attitudes and most of the time, there’s nothing you can do to evade them. October and September usher in the beginning of the school year and can be very stressful for students adjusting back to a more rigid lifestyle, while December can bring depression from the lack of sunshine and Christmas-based nightmares. This leaves Thanksgiving as the lone day that’s filled with selfless happiness.
People you may not like will always be around, and that’s a recurring challenging. We have to try to keep our positive attitudes up in hopes of rubbing off on others. You can’t let others bring you down, you have to try to bring them up, because positive connections are essential to human life.
People are the answer. If our interactions with each other were always positive, our attitudes would match. This isn’t rocket science, yet humanity is stuck in a pattern of spreading hate. We are all guilty of it. So instead of dwelling on the negatives in life, let’s take some advice from Bobby McFerrin and “don’t worry, be happy,” because when you do, you’re creating a ripple that can make the world a better place. That’s something we should all strive to do.
