Welcome to your monthly dose of health and wellness information. Each month, we will dive into practical tips, evidence-based advice and the latest developments in different fields of medicine.

Mass General Brigham physicians have had the privilege of caring for thousands of Bermudian patients in Boston over the years, spanning a wide variety of conditions and complexities.

As we approach the holiday season, many people take time to reflect on the year and the relationships that matter most. This month, Jeffery Huffman, a psychiatrist and researcher at Mass General Brigham, explains how gratitude affects wellbeing, and how simple practices can support emotional and physical health during the holidays.

What do we know about how gratitude influences physical and mental health?

Regularly practising gratitude, by focusing on prior positive life events and experiencing a grateful feeling, has been associated with preventing depression and improving depression and anxiety. In my research, those who suffered a heart attack had better health after the event if they felt grateful for surviving or towards those who loved them.

Medicine often focuses on risk and pathology. How does gratitude shift the conversation?

Positive aspects of mental health can sometimes help put illnesses into perspective. There is now strong evidence that those who feel more hopeful end up having superior physical health outcomes.

They can have such a significant impact on a person's wellbeing, perspective and mental health, but they also may actually improve recovery and maybe even extend life.

Where is gratitude research heading?

My team is using programmes to boost gratitude and optimism with the idea that it may help people more easily get physically active. Being physically active can have huge benefits on mood, anxiety, cardiac health, and many other mental and physical aspects of health.

If you could share one practice with readers this holiday season, what would it be?

Take some time to think about three positive things, large or tiny, that happened this week. Then think about three bigger positive things you have in your life. To give it an extra boost, tell the people you just thought about how important they are to you or how grateful you are for something they did. It will make you happier — and them, too.

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