5 Ways to Practice Gratitude with Your Child or Teen
It’s more than just saying “thank you”.
Studies show that when children and teens practice gratitude, there are positive outcomes such as being more satisfied with their own lives, are more engaged with their communities, it builds empathy, and improves overall mental health. So, as the holiday season approaches, here are some ways to practice gratitude with your child or teen.
Think of 3 Good Things
At the end of the day, or while sitting down for dinner, reflect and identify “3 Good Things” that happened in your day. It can be thinking of someone that helped you, something that made you feel happy, thinking of the people you cared about, something you accomplished, or something you are proud of.
You can write prompts and put them in a jar to pick out, or you can download this template: Three Good Things
Practice Loving Kindness Meditation
This is a great mindfulness or meditation for your child or teen to practice. It also helps us navigate when we are struggling in a relationship or with another person we have difficult feelings toward.
Here is a FREE Loving Kindness Meditation script you can download for yourself or to read to your child or teen.
By picturing ourselves, our different types of relationships, and our community/the world we focus on the mindset that we wish others to be living well and they are happy, even if we don’t like them or agree with them. This helps shift our mindset and also let go of difficult feelings.
Think About 1 Person that Helped You Today
This is a way to continue to look outward and recognize the care that is given to us, and to take a moment to reflect on that. Sometimes we miss those small acts of kindness such as: someone letting you go first, your teacher helping you with a question, a friend texting you a funny meme, a teammate who encouraged you to keep going.
Perform Acts of Kindness
We also want to perform our own acts of kindness to spread gratitude. Sometimes we think of gratitude of just appreciating what is given to us, but we can do it too! Think of the things you have appreciated, and pass on the acts of kindness.
It’s important to remember that gratitude is not about getting the recognition, but how it makes you feel and what feels true to you. Someone might not necessarily say “thank you”, and that’s ok. Knowing that you helped someone make their day easier, or spreading kindness is what it is all about!
Model Gratitude
As a parent, caregiver, teacher, or someone who works with kids and teens, it’s important that we model our own gratitude. Practicing speaking kindly about others, helping others in need, and incorporating these things into your daily life will normalize this mindset. Some ways to explore this with your child or teen:
1. Sign up for a volunteer night (food shelters, homeless shelters, toy drives, etc.)
2. Make it a part of your daily routine where your child observes you practicing
3. Validate, but also offer perspective taking to build empathy. This can be done through watching movies, reading stories, etc. By building empathy, we can recognize the feelings of others and how they are different from our own.
4. Focus on non material things. Using kind words, drawing a picture, hugs, helping with chores, compromising, etc can be ways to show appreciation outside of more expensive gifts.
I hope these will give some gentle prompts and ideas on how to incorporate more gratitude into your life, and the life of you child or teen!