Gratitude is our ability to be thankful for the life one has. It is a feeling that arises when you affirm a good thing in your life. The benefits of practising gratitude can be boundless. Regular practice of gratitude could make one experience joy consistently, boost one’s mood, build compassion, kindness, makes it a bit easier to cope with tough times, strengthen the connection with others, contribute to better physical health, etc. Gratitude not only makes one experience joy when it is expressed to another person, but it also makes them feel understood, respected, and valued.
Here’s a food for thought: Would you rather show up to work and work with a colleague who appreciates and values your contributions or work with a colleague who takes you for granted without taking notice of your efforts? The answer is simple. The more you feel appreciated, the more you’d want to contribute. This holds true for family members and your children as well. The more the practice of gratitude is fostered in a family, the more you are likely to witness generosity, kindness, and appreciation amongst the family members.
You can be thankful to those who support you or for the person who helped you fix your bulb, or for the friend who volunteered to take care of your child when you needed to attend office. Gratitude can be found in the smallest of things.
The gift of gratitude is one of the best gifts we can bestow upon our children. To get you started, here are a series of questions that you can use with your partner and children to inculcate the practice of gratitude in your daily life. These questions were taken from a book named “21 Days of Gratitude” by Lahar Mehta
· What do you have enough of?
· Who do you know that you can never repay?
· What do you take for granted?
· What inconvenience are you grateful for?
· What is your most precious memory?
· Which Artist lights your world?
· How have you changed for the better?
· What do you know that you never want to forget?
· What is the greatest compliment you’ve received or given?
· What’s the best advice you’ve received?
· What made you smile today?
· What is the best mistake you ever made?
· Who inspires you to be your best self?
· What has nature done that has taken your breath away?
· Who or what shaped your inner compass?
· What is the most cherished gift you’ve received?
· Who in your life are you under-appreciating?
· What skill do you value most in yourself?
· What can you say Thank You for in this very moment?
· What have you lost and learned from?
· If today were your last day, how would you spend it?
Here are some ways to practice gratitude as a family:
Have family gratitude circles: Have your family sit in a circle. Ask your partner what they are grateful for. Go around the circle allowing each one to express what they are grateful for.
Gratitude jar: Sit with the family, take a mason jar, and have everyone jot down things something they’re grateful for that happened during the day. Place all the chits in the mason jar. Read it aloud by picking one chit at a time.
Bedtime gratitude sharing: When you are lying next to your child while making them go to sleep, tell them you want to play the gratitude game. Then, you can say “I’m happy and grateful that my co-worker made coffee for me this morning”. Then it would be your child’s turn. They may say “I’m happy and grateful that I had dance class”. Similarly, lying next to each other you can share 3 things that you feel grateful for that day with each other.
Consciously appreciating each other and sharing that: Express what you’re grateful for to your child. For instance, when your child shares food with their sibling, you can say, “I am thankful for the way you take care of your brother.”
Leaving thank you notes: Take a piece of paper. Write something you are grateful for towards another person and hand over the note to them or stick them in a place where they can see. For instance, you can leave a note to your spouse, “Thank you for downloading the ‘Big Little Lies’ series for me. I enjoyed watching it”
Create a bulletin board with pictures or notes of all the things/people you are grateful for: Take pictures of all the things that you’re grateful for and place it on a bulletin board. It could be a simple picture of your flower, your favorite dish, or a picture of your best friend.
Make handmade gifts as a token for appreciation for each other: Encourage the spirit of gratitude by making handmade gifts to show your child or partner how much you appreciate them. For instance, you can make a small greeting card when your child makes a painting for you and tell them how much you loved it.
Gratitude needn’t be about very significant things. You can be grateful for a pie you ate, the fun game you played as a family, etc. And as you consistently practice gratitude, it reprograms your brain to look for the good in your day-day lives. Even a bad day does not seem so bad when you are programmed to look for a reason to be grateful for. Practising gratitude contributes to overall on the well-being of the person and could be great a ritual to build and strengthen the connection in the family.
(Edited by Juhi Ramaiya)
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