Gratitude Practice - Resilient ME Printable

Gratitude is an easy and effective way of retraining your brain. If you focus on the good, soon you will see more, enjoy more, appreciate more…

Children who practice gratitude show increased positive emotions and optimism, decreased negative emotions and physical symptoms, and feel more connected and satisfied with school, family, friends and themselves.

This listing is for an A4 digital (PDF) file (11 pages). Perfect as an introduction to practicing gratitude for kids.
An extract from our Resilient ME Gratitude Journal for Kids.

For individual use only. Please contact us for multi-user/student licence.

Gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with GREATER HAPPINESS.

Robert Emmons, the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude, says, “When disaster strikes, gratitude provides a perspective from which we can view life in its entirety and not be overwhelmed by temporary circumstances.”¹

Practising gratitude can help to:

• increase social connection
• increase empathy and compassion
• lessen anxiety and depression symptoms
• facilitate higher cognitive functions
• create emotional stability
• strengthen the immune system
• reduce symptoms of illness
• improve sleep
• make you less bothered by aches and pains
• increase productivity
• make you less materialistic
• make you kinder
• make you happier.²

Practising gratitude is the basis of all AwesoME Inc journals and science tells us it is one of the easiest and most effective ways of retraining the brain.

Humans are pre-programmed to assume that every situation might turn out badly, that others are out to get us, and that we need the same or more resources than our neighbours. It’s how we have survived.

But this trick has a catch, by getting us to focus on the negative it can contribute to feeling like we aren’t enough, that only bad things happen, and that the world is generally a bit crap.

However, the research tells us there are many ways we can interrupt this negative bias and retrain our brains to seek out the positive and good in our world, in turn increasing our overall sense of well-being.

1. ROBERT A EMMONS, GRATITUDE WORKS!: A 21-DAY PROGRAM FOR CREATING EMOTIONAL PROSPERITY. JOSSEY-BASS (2013)

2. BULLET POINTS BASED ON RESEARCH BY R. EMMONS, THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORMIA, USA; M. MCCULOUGH, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, USA; P.J. MILLS, THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, USA; R. ZAHN, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, COGNITIVE NUEROSCIENCE SECTION, USA; P. KINI, INDIANA UNIVERSITY, USA; E. SIMON-THOMAS, THE GREATER GOOD SCIENCE CENTER, UC BERKELEY, USA; J. FROH, HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY, USA; M. A. STOEKEL, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, USA; A. WOOD, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING, UK; INSTITUTE OF HEARTMATH, USA; K. LAYOUSA, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, USA.