Editorial May 2026
Dear Readers,
Research in JAMA Psychiatry in 2024 revealed that the most grateful people in the Nurses’ Health Study had a 9% lower risk of dying than the least grateful people in the cohort. It sounds like the punchline of a TED Talk (in fact I believe it is the punchline of a TED Talk- if you can recall which one, let me know!). Gratitude strengthens relationships, making ties stronger than surface-level transactions. Genuine gratitude makes interactions feel more net positive, whether they are with strangers or loved ones. Acts of kindness from other people never fail to make me feel fortunate and grateful— and perhaps that positive emotion contributes substantially to health and well-being. My mom is a big advocate of practicing daily gratitude at night, and the practice for me helps me go to sleep with something positive on my mind even on the days when I feel drowned with stress. I’ve spent this semester thinking about how lucky I am to be in school, a bitter feeling 
with the dire events of the fall semester. But to get to conduct research at Brown- to learn and teach- it’s what I wanted to do more than anything. It’s a core principle of Buddhism: gratitude allows us to acknowledge how very precious human life is. It allows us to accept that life itself is “made possible by the efforts of countless others.”
With love,
Editor Jaanu
