Dear Parents and Carers,

Over the weekend I came across this quote on my Twitter feed:

‘Gratitude is the healthiest of all emotions. Be grateful and you’ll feel better, have more energy and grow stronger. When gratitude goes up, anxiety goes down. It’s tough to be grateful and unhappy at the same time.’

I had never even thought of gratitude as an emotion. This led me to thinking about how often do I actually look around me or reflect on my day/week and really identify that for which I am grateful. So, I then started to search for what gratitude actually means. We have all heard that we should have a ‘gratitude journal’ or that we should have ‘an attitude of gratitude’. I think that sometimes this becomes tokenistic because we all know that we are meant to do it but if you’re anything like me you’ll be asking yourself the question: Where do I find the time to do that?

Then I came across a blog post that told me to get real about your gratitude practice. This interested me because I thought I was being pretty realistic! This made me start to think about the habits in my daily life. It’s a habit of mine to make sure I get my coffee every morning, so why can’t I make sure that I dedicate a short period of time to identifying, really identifying, what I am grateful for? 

As I continued to read and reflect, I thought about an occasion last week where the story of Blind Bartimeaus was referred to and the question was asked What am I blind to? Maybe my ‘blindness’ has been my lack of realising what I am grateful for. 

One writer suggests that focusing our gratitude on people for whom we’re thankful rather than circumstances or material items will enhance the benefits we experience. Another adds that practicing gratitude means paying attention to what we are thankful for to the degree of feeling more kind and compassionate toward the world at large.

Ok, obviously I am grateful for my family. Dig a little deeper and my gratitude goes beyond just knowing that they are there each day when I wake up, when I get home from work. It becomes more about being grateful for the way that they challenge my thinking, the way they engage with each other and the way in which they support me in my world view.

This leads me to how do we lead our children to be grateful individuals? What model are we giving them other than just saying ‘thank you’. How do we help them to identify that gratitude is an emotion that helps to build their energy and keep anxiety in check? I think this can come from asking questions. Helping them to Notice - Think - Feel - Do about their experiences. 

NOTICE: What happened today that you are thankful for? Who was involved

THINK: Why are you thankful for this experience/person? Do you think this

person expected something in return?

FEEL: Did you feel happy during this experience with this person? What does that

feel like inside? These questions help the child connect the positive feeling to the experience.

DO: Is there a way you want to show how you feel about this person? Does thefeeling you have about this experience with them, make you want to share that feeling by repeating the experience? Prompting children after experiences of gratitude in order to motivate acts of gratitude, whether they be acts of appreciation or paying it forward, may help children connect their experiences and actions in the world.

So, the challenge for us as adults this week might be to answer the question: What am I blind to? and then to know that we are identifying our moments of gratitude. Let’s work to make it a habit!

Have a great week as we journey together towards Jesus,

Toni Sillis

Principal