Gratitude – 5 ways to encourage it and 6 reasons it rocks
Posted on November 24, 2009 by FoBaM-Jamie
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Thanksgiving is on its way and gratitude is on our minds. Cultivating a sense of gratitude can be challenging, so today we’re offering five tips for instilling a sense of thankfulness and six reasons why expressing gratitude really rocks. We hope you enjoy the post and would be grateful if you’d share your thoughts and tips with us.
Five Ways to Encourage Gratitude:
1. Share something happy. My daughter and I have a ritual we borrowed from a sweet picture book called Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go To Sleep. Each night as we’re snuggling under the covers, we take turns sharing good things about our day and good things we’re looking forward to. It’s a great way to end the night.
2. Aren’t you lucky? This is something my daughter hears – delivered with authentic enthusiasm – all the time. It’s not a guilt thing, but just a way to gently remind her about the things that are special in her life – whether a surprise outing or having a favorite food for dinner.
3. Focus on the positive. Finding the silver lining is a great practice for helping kids make the best of difficult circumstances and keep a positive outlook.
4. Expand the context. Broadening kids’ perspective through learning about how people live with less in other parts of the world, or volunteering to help those less fortunate is an impactful way to get kids actively involved.
5. Teach by example. Whenever you have the chance, express gratitude for the good things – big and small – in your life.
Six Reasons Gratitude Rocks
1. It says “I love you.” Telling your kids how grateful you are to have them in your life is a powerful way to express your affection.
2. It makes the world seem nicer. When you stop to consider all the good things in your life, even a bad day can suddenly take on a warm and fuzzy glow.
3. It encourages kindness. By highlighting the kindnesses that inspire our thanks, gratitude helps us understand what we can do to make others grateful.
4. It focuses on what’s important. Often, the things we’re grateful for are the things that really matter – family, friends, and time to spend with them.
5. It creates optimists. Practiced routinely, gratitude changes your whole outlook – putting you in a glass-half-full kind of mood.
6. It’s a two-way street. Finally, gratitude inspires gratitude. When one person is thankful, the person who inspired the gratitude also feels good about themselves. Even uninvolved bystanders benefit from the good karma.
How do you inspire gratitude in your kids?
Image Credit: kylesteed
I thank God my children are very grateful for all. We don’t have to remind them to say Thank You. It comes natural.
daughter is only 15 months so the only thing she’s thankful for is that I feed her lol but I also know she’s happy to have her daddy home safely after being deployed for 7 months. He came back on Thursday and I expected her to be stand offish with him since last time she saw him she was only 8 months, but to Marley she acts like he never left. It’s like she remembered him. I’m thankful for that and to have a man around to do all the dirty work!
My daughters are grown now with children of their own. It is such a blessing to watch them train up their children in the way they should go. Hang in there, the best is yet to come.
I try to keep a Gratitude Journal and find that it causes me to reflect on my Day, people I met/kmow, a variety of things and helps me to be Thankful for a multitude of things, I do this right before bed. I go to sleep peacefully.
I have two grown children who have children of their own. My Son seems to always want the BEST of everything and acts as if he is “Entitled”, whereas my Daughter appreciates Life in general, is thankful for whatever she receives, because it’s more than she had before, (that’s her thought process) and is therefore a Happy, Thoughtful person and a Joy to all who know her. I don’t understand how I raised two children, 2 1/2 yrs. apart in age, and they turned out so different in attitude, gratitude, and the way they look at life!! (?) However, I Love them both deeply, no matter what!
I’m grateful for my two beauiful girls! I thank GOD EVERYDAY!! Unconditional Love is the BEST!!
Even when my kid has done things that have disappointed me I have never stopped believing in him.
We let our 3yo know that it is a privilege to receive a gift not just something to be expected. We also let her know how lucky we are to have food on our table, a roof over our head, and clothes to wear.
It’s wonderful when your children are in their teenage years to watch them with their younger cousins. To watch them instill in the younger ones what you have taught them when they where younger.
My sons are both grown now. However they have been raised to be thankful for all that they have in life. I was not able to give them everything, and this may have helped them be thankful for what they did get.