Gratitude. It is one of the most significant and transformative emotions you can experience. It promotes a change in your perspective, ability to persevere through hard times, and even affects how others respond to you.
Gratitude works by promoting shifts in brain waves that lead to positive actions, emotional balance, better relationships, and broader perspective. Sourcing gratitude requires an intentional pause, deliberate reflection, and genuine expression of thanks. Theoretically, this sounds easy, but for most people, it doesn’t come naturally and it can be especially difficult to feel grateful during hard times.
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When life gets hard, it’s typical to grow reactive and feel overwhelmed. This is when you need gratitude the most. Just imagine, what if you could see the treasures in challenges, and therefore be grateful that the hard time is happening? What would happen if you believed that life’s struggles were actually meaningful messengers, revealing important information and next-steps?
Stepping into gratitude is the first step to embracing these empowering shifts and supporting yourself through stressful and challenging experiences.
Additional benefits of gratitude:
- People who practice pausing to recognize the good, feel better about themselves and their world. Gratitude helps to shift negative emotions into positive ones.
- Studies show that people who practice gratitude are happier, less stressed, and less depressed.
- Grateful people attract positive relationships because they can easily show appreciation, compassion, and support.
- Gratitude helps broaden one’s perspective, illuminating choices and enhancing the ability to make positive, self-empowering decisions.
How to start a gratitude practice
Develop a Gratitude Tribe
Get your friends and family involved in sharing appreciation and gratitude. Make it a daily practice to talk about the things you love in your life. Infuse your language and environment with the positive energy of gratitude.
Focus on Positive Outcomes
When life becomes challenging or your focus settles on upsetting experiences from the past, ask yourself, what could be/were the positive outcomes? Consider the strengths you developed or new insights and understandings you may have gained.
Create Visual Reminders
Life is busy and it’s easy to get swept away in daily to-dos. Strategically place quotes or inspiring images around your workspace or home to help trigger thoughts of gratitude.
Journal
At the end of each day, take a moment to make a list of three to five good things that happened. These can be simple moments of peace or pleasure, like enjoying your morning coffee and listening to the birds chirp, or bigger accomplishments, like getting a promotion.
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How to help your child cultivate an attitude of gratitude
Gratitude is an attitude we can foster in children at an early age. In addition to the familiar reminders to say thank you, try engaging your child in gratitude practices and experiences that lead to an authentic sense of joy and thanks.
Think Aloud
In front of your child, frequently express what you are grateful for and why. Say it as if you are “thinking aloud” and include lessons you’ve learned from challenging experiences or the good that has come out of something difficult. It might sound something like, “You know, I’m really grateful for my friend Sara. Work has been really stressful lately and she has been so helpful and always makes me laugh! She actually makes me look forward to going to work.” As you do this, you create a framework for your child to do the same.
Create Experiences
Provide opportunities for your child to help others. Thoughtful acts like volunteering, baking cookies for a neighbor, or making cards for the elderly, promote altruism, which fosters gratitude. In addition, helping others increases compassion and confidence.
Make it Fun
Create a colorful, inspiring gratitude jar or box where the whole family can share what they are grateful for. Cut out images or positive words to glue on the box or jar. Place a stack of papers nearby so anyone can jot down a note of gratitude and place it inside. At the end of each week, share your family’s gratitudes and celebrate together.
You can also empower your child to create a new tradition that inspires everyone in your house to be grateful. This could be a new family gratitude practice or game.
By making gratitude a regular practice, you and your child will experience the benefits in all areas of life. From school and work to friends and colleagues. Gratitude will even deepen the relationship you have with your child.
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ERICA ROOD
Erica is the founder of Inspire Balance Coaching for Parents, Teens, and Young Adults. She is a certified Life Coach, with over fifteen years of teaching and coaching experience. Her coaching programs provide parents and girls with valuable insights and realistic strategies for handling the challenges of adolescence. Girls experience an increase in confidence, motivation, and their ability to make thoughtful, self-empowering decisions. Her parenting programs teach effective practices that lead to fewer battles, less frustration, better communication, and more ease and enjoyment in parenting teens and tweens.
