Giving Thanks – Growing Hope

Giving Thanks – Growing Hope

By: Chaplain Ron Harvell, USAF BG (ret), D.Min.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  Specifically, thank you to the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) for asking me to write a blog about giving thanks and growing hope.  I pray this blog gives you ideas and tools for caring-for-the-caregiver and caring for others.  I want you to take away 3 distinct things:

1. Become a More Thankful Person
2. Add Human Flourishing Research to Your Skills Toolkit
3. Build an Infrastructure to Produce Hope and Resiliency

1. Become a More Thankful Person – The Value of Gratitude and Thankfulness

I worked for a Four-Star General named Phillip Breedlove who would become the Supreme Allied Commander for Europe and NATO.  He was famous for noticing people, hearing their stories, and treating them with great respect.  General Breedlove grew up in a humble family of hard-working people.  The qualities of kindness, gratefulness, and thankfulness would be evidenced in his positive treatment of others.  I observed these qualities at a video shoot for a United Services Organizations (USO) advertisement. He said thank you to even the smallest kindness.   He ensured everyone was greeted and acknowledged.  When he left the USO to continue his schedule, several of the USO team said, “Did you see that?  He treated all of us as if we were the most important person here.” The General’s staff replied, “He is always that way.”

In your life how can you become more intentional in your gratitude and thankfulness?

I was asked by some of Charleston Southern University’s counseling students this question: “What is the goal of counseling?”  I thought about the skills and answers that counselors need to help people in crisis.  My answer to the students was however different.  I said, “Being thankful is the greatest milestone of recovery.”

2. Add Human Flourishing Research to your Skills Toolkit

I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Tyler VanderWeele, of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, several years ago when the Air Force was learning about the value of faith practiced with others.  He is the world’s premier public health research professor.  Since that time his team has launched a large research model entitled “12 Points of Human Flourishing.”  I encourage you to look into his research and skills training for expanding your scale of knowledge.

Harvard Activities for Flourishing:  An Evidence-Based Guide

Tyler VanderWeele’s research shows that gratitude has significant positive personal outcomes, resulting in:

• increased personal well-being
• increased personal behaviors
• better feelings about life
• fewer physical symptom complaints
• better sleep
• higher levels of happiness
• lower levels of depressive symptoms.[1]

When you think of Thanksgiving this year, think about these values of gratitude and thankfulness.

In VanderWeele’s work on Human Flourishing, these other positive behaviors resulted in positive outcomes:

• forgiveness
• character
• kindness
• imagining
• connectedness
• volunteering
• marriage
• work
• worship

Human Flourishing research on weekly religious participation:

• 30-50% less likely to die over the next 20 years
• 50% less likely to divorce
• 5 times less likely to commit suicide

3. Build an Infrastructure to Produce Hope and Resiliency

When I was stationed in Germany, 2010-2013, I had the honor of being on the staff of 4-Star General Mark Welsh and subsequently General Phillip Breedlove.  They were the Commanders of Air Forces in Europe and Africa.  General Mark Welsh was very concerned about the importance of Airmen and their families having the personal qualities that build character, hope, and faith.

In order to answer his concerns, a multidisciplined resiliency committee worked together to design a program called “Core Groups.” Based on the Air Forces Core Values, this program provided an opportunity for Airmen to increase their resiliency by participating in a simple tool to make them better Airmen.  They would gather monthly in groups of 10 or less and follow a prescribed lesson.  The lesson had a discussion on a particular theme.  Every Airman had to speak in the group.  They had the opportunity to reflect on their own lives, share their ideas, and build their character and sense of community.

In the first month, 45,000 Airmen met in 5,000 groups across Europe and some in Africa.  We designed 20 months’ worth of Core Groups.  The groups made the Airmen more professional, part of a greater community, and able to have inputs that resulted in an increase in purpose, belonging, and value.

The abbreviation “O.P.R.” stands for Office of Personal Responsibility.  The Air Force chaplains were the O.P.R. of Hope.  It was our job to help build hope in individuals.  Where there is hope, there are not suicides. In our programing we used community, faith, purpose, value, and meaning to build hope.

We began a campaign to marry up with Harvard and Duke’s research on the value of faith and community.  People can Belong, Believe, and Become. When a person Belongs with others in community, it increases their social fitness.  When a person Believes with some type of faith, they increase their spiritual fitness.  When combined, they Become a person with greater hope and resiliency.

Hope is the strategy.  We must build people’s lives on a solid foundation.  They need meaning, purpose, worth, value, and community.  From these come God’s gift of Hope.  It is Hope that gets us through each day.

Look to discover how you can help build hope!

Fill your tool chest with Harvard’s Flourishing Tools

Enjoy a great big grateful and thankful Thanksgiving!

References:

Ibid.  “On the Promotion of Human Flourishing.” Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, Program on Integrated Knowledge and Human Flourishing, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138.  PNAS, 1 August 2017, Vol. 114, no. 31; www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1702996114.

[1] VanderWeele, Tyler., Harvard University, United States; http://journalppw.com ISSN 2587-0130, Journal of Positive Psychology & Wellbeing  2020, Vol. 4, No. 1, 79 –91