Children Keep a Gratitude Journal?
Studies have indicated that there is an impressive range of benefits to helping your children keep a gratitude journal every day. Gratitude journaling is the way to go if you would like you and your children to be happier and experience the benefits researchers have been reporting:
Gratitude allows us to savor and acknowledge gifts that occur in the present. Our gratitude practice through journaling can help to slow us down and participate in life in a more mindful way. Gratitude journaling will then help your child focus on positive emotions. Your child will likely become more aware of positive experiences in their daily lives. Being happier by celebrating goodness is a universal tool that parents can give their children.
Gratitude is a protective factor against negative emotions. Journaling is the shift from passive participation in life to actively appreciating the gifts around us. As we savor these gifts daily or weekly, it can buffer any negative emotions that you or your child may feel.
Gratitude is a stress buffer. Positive thoughts and focused attention on goodness are safeguards against daily stressors.
Gratitude increases your self-confidence. When you journal about the goodness around you, you cannot help but feel good inside.
A basic gratitude journal does not have to be pages and pages long. It is essentially a chance to reflect on your day in a positive way. For children or adults, a single line for the small, medium, and large things in a day is enough to get them thinking along the right lines. Savoring the experience of gifts, large and small, helps us to achieve goodness in our daily lives.
Exercise: Gratitude Coaching
Small (S), Medium (M), and Large (L) Gratitude
Please check which journal entries you consider to be
s Appreciative but not essential, complements daily living
m Valuable and adds meaning to daily living
L Critical to daily living
S
M
L
I’m grateful for my red barrette because it matches my red shoes
I’m grateful for teachers that care about me
I’m grateful for my courage when I was frightened going to high school
I’m grateful for my strong heart and legs because without them I couldn’t compete in track and field
I’m grateful for the forts Dad and I build in
the house
When we recommend gratitude journaling to families, we emphasize that journaling is more effective once you are conscious of your decision to become more mindful of gratitude in your daily life. Make sure you talk to your child about it.
Depending on the child’s age, it is more beneficial to start with a single line and build your way up to longer, more in-depth entries. Focusing on people is also important, as being grateful for things can be superficial and empty.
One gratitude—enhancing tool you may suggest to your children as they learn how to journal, is to suggest that they take a moment to imagine their life or day without the things they are grateful for. For example, try to dig deep and imagine what life would be like with no fingers, or no ability to smell, or to never again enjoy their favorite dessert. This tool can help a child put things into a meaningful perspective and boost their appreciation, rather than simply creating a list of good things that happened to them.
If daily journaling seems a daunting way to begin, research has also indicated that even short journal entries once or twice a week carry significant overall mood and health benefits.
Three Steps to Making It Stick
In Emmons & McCullough’s 2003 study on gratitude, a group of young adults had been tasked with keeping daily journals of the things they were grateful for. The researchers assigned other young adult groups other topics to journal about, such as what annoyed them, or why they were better off than other people.
The results were quite significant over time. The young adults that kept gratitude journals showed greater increases in attention, enthusiasm, determination, and energy
Studies have indicated that there is an impressive range of benefits to helping your children keep a gratitude journal every day. Gratitude journaling is the way to go if you would like you and your children to be happier and experience the benefits researchers have been reporting:
Gratitude allows us to savor and acknowledge gifts that occur in the present. Our gratitude practice through journaling can help to slow us down and participate in life in a more mindful way. Gratitude journaling will then help your child focus on positive emotions. Your child will likely become more aware of positive experiences in their daily lives. Being happier by celebrating goodness is a universal tool that parents can give their children.
Gratitude is a protective factor against negative emotions. Journaling is the shift from passive participation in life to actively appreciating the gifts around us. As we savor these gifts daily or weekly, it can buffer any negative emotions that you or your child may feel.
Gratitude is a stress buffer. Positive thoughts and focused attention on goodness are safeguards against daily stressors.
Gratitude increases your self-confidence. When you journal about the goodness around you, you cannot help but feel good inside.
A basic gratitude journal does not have to be pages and pages long. It is essentially a chance to reflect on your day in a positive way. For children or adults, a single line for the small, medium, and large things in a day is enough to get them thinking along the right lines. Savoring the experience of gifts, large and small, helps us to achieve goodness in our daily lives.
Exercise: Gratitude Coaching
Small (S), Medium (M), and Large (L) Gratitude
Please check which journal entries you consider to be
s Appreciative but not essential, complements daily living
m Valuable and adds meaning to daily living
L Critical to daily living
S
M
L
I’m grateful for my red barrette because it matches my red shoes
I’m grateful for teachers that care about me
I’m grateful for my courage when I was frightened going to high school
I’m grateful for my strong heart and legs because without them I couldn’t compete in track and field
I’m grateful for the forts Dad and I build in
the house
When we recommend gratitude journaling to families, we emphasize that journaling is more effective once you are conscious of your decision to become more mindful of gratitude in your daily life. Make sure you talk to your child about it.
Depending on the child’s age, it is more beneficial to start with a single line and build your way up to longer, more in-depth entries. Focusing on people is also important, as being grateful for things can be superficial and empty.
One gratitude—enhancing tool you may suggest to your children as they learn how to journal, is to suggest that they take a moment to imagine their life or day without the things they are grateful for. For example, try to dig deep and imagine what life would be like with no fingers, or no ability to smell, or to never again enjoy their favorite dessert. This tool can help a child put things into a meaningful perspective and boost their appreciation, rather than simply creating a list of good things that happened to them.
If daily journaling seems a daunting way to begin, research has also indicated that even short journal entries once or twice a week carry significant overall mood and health benefits.
Three Steps to Making It Stick
In Emmons & McCullough’s 2003 study on gratitude, a group of young adults had been tasked with keeping daily journals of the things they were grateful for. The researchers assigned other young adult groups other topics to journal about, such as what annoyed them, or why they were better off than other people.
The results were quite significant over time. The young adults that kept gratitude journals showed greater increases in attention, enthusiasm, determination, and energy
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