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ReachOut Schools: Great free educational resources

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ReachOut Schools: Great free educational resources

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Engaging activities for students. Credible, flexible resources for teachers. Practical support for parents and carers. Explore resources by topics Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest teaching resources on mental health and wellbeing. Free, easy-to-use student survey that helps teachers form relationships with their students.

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Potential indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children: a narrative review using a community child health lens

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Potential indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children: a narrative review using a community child health lens

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Excellent ideas and resources for health and wellbeing

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Excellent ideas and resources for health and wellbeing

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South Aussie: Youth-led COVID-19 recovery grant

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South Aussie: Youth-led COVID-19 recovery grant

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#sacouncils #youth #covid19recovery
The Youth-led Recovery Grant projects are funded by the Department of Human Services and administered by the LGA.

The Youth-led Recovery Grant projects have provided South Australian councils with the opportunity to engage with is young citizens and for young people in South Australia to lead the delivery of activities and initiatives, responding to the impact of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

All the projects have now been completed and have achieved some great outcomes for young people in South Australia including:

1. The improvement of individual and/or community social and emotional wellbeing and resilience.

2. The improvement of individual and/or community wellbeing and resilience.

3. The reduction of social isolation and increase the participation of priority groups in the local community.

4. The improvement of digital inclusion as a tool to create social inclusion through the facilitation of digital access, digital literacy and digital enablement.

Over 1950 people were involved throughout these projects. This included the involvement of more than 1600 young people in the target age group of 12-24 years. The projects were led by young people in the target groups. Many were supported by project mentors in local councils and several projects have led to ongoing collaborations between councils and its young citizens.

Many of the project participants involved came from one or multiple priority groups including young people from the following priority groups (Please note that the numbers are an estimate):

Facing disadvantage (503)

Remote or regional (475)

Culturally or Linguistically Diverse (CALD) (384)

Unemployed (384)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) (87)

Disability (30)

LBGTIQ+ (23)

Other (20)

Please click on the project links below to view the highlights and the achievements of the successful projects.

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sacouncils #youth #covid19recovery The Youth-led Recovery Grant projects are funded by the Department of Human Services and administered by the LGA. The Youth-led Recovery Grant projects have provided South Australian councils with the opportunity to engage with is young citizens and for young people in South Australia to lead the delivery of activities and initiatives, responding to the impact of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

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Rose, Rose, Thorn, Bud: The simple gratitude game my wife and I play before bed - Neil Pasricha

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Guess what? If you can be happy with simple things then it will be simple to be happy. Back in 2003, researchers Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough asked groups of students to write down five gratitudes, five hassles or five events that happened over the past week for 10 straight weeks.

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This American Life "School's out forever" post-Covid podcast

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This American Life "School's out forever" post-Covid podcast

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The Resilience Framework is freely accessible for anyone to use at www.boingboing.org.uk and brings together knowledge from resilience research, with the experience of practitioners and those living with adversity, into five key sections, each containing a number of interventions. The different sections within the Resilience Framework are underpinned by a strong research evidence base and the interventions have been developed through research and engagement with communities to translate the research into resilient 'moves' for young people, professionals, parents and carers. Two versions of the Resilience Framework are shown here. One created by young people for young people and the Family Version - designed to be used by whole family groups or adults.
How can I use it?
You can start anywhere on the framework, there's no right or wrong place to begin and you don't have to make all 42 Resilient Moves! Starting anywhere will be good enough and wherever you start is likely to have a knock-on effect and build other areas of resilience. You might already be making some or spot one you could add in. Some Resilient Moves will have to be adapted to meet the lockdown guidelines, for example 'spending time with good people' might have to happen digitally and 'transport and getting to places' should be for safe essential travel.

The five sections of the Resilience Framework

ensuring the necessities needed for life are in place: like food, sleep, exercise, money, housing, a safe space and the right to be free from prejudice and discrimination.

Belonging: encouraging good relationships: concentrating on positive times and places, remaining hopeful about new connections and having people in your life you can count on.

Learning: having opportunities inside and outside of school or work to develop interests, talents and life skills, including mapping out or having a view of the future.

Coping: embedding the skills needed to manage the knocks of everyday living, like problem-solving, staying calm and leaning on others if needed.

developing those things that help children, young people and families to develop a strong sense of themselves, including ways to build and nurture their confidence, self-esteem and character.

The Resilience Framework is underpinned by a set of key principles called 'The Noble Truths'. They describe underlying values for resilience-building work and can be helpful when the complexity of practising in multiple disadvantages threatens to overwhelm us.

Accepting: starting with exactly where a child, young person or family is at, even if it means being at a very sore point. Returning to 'unconditional positive regard', which means trying not to judge people and appreciating them or their basic humanity come what may.

Conserving: holding on to anything good that has happened up until now and building on it. When there is so much difficulty around, preserving the little positive that there is becomes even more precious.

Commitment: staying in there and being explicit about what your commitment can be. Being realistic about what's doable, and not giving up or expecting things to change overnight.

Enlisting: seeking others to help and moving on from those who might have let us down in the past, noticing that we may not be enough, or we may be too much.
Who created the Resilience Framework?
The Resilience Framework was originally put together by Professor Angie Hart and colleagues and continues to be developed by a thriving community of researchers, practitioners, parents, young people and many others in the UK and around the world. For more background on the theory and development of the framework see www.boingboing.org.uk. You can also find versions of the framework in many other languages, representations co-produced by young people, as well as an Interactive Resilience Framework and a Resilience Framework for Adults. There is also a blank Resilience Framework so that you can write your own items if you wish.

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Young People's Resilience Framework. Co-produced with young people from Marton Primary's (Blackpool) Resilience Committee as part of their contribution to the whole town Resilience Revolution. What is the Resilience Framework? The Resilience Framework is freely accessible for anyone to use at www.boingboing.org.uk and brings together knowledge from resilience research, with the experience of practitioners and [...]

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Develop a Growth Mindset Using Grit and Resilience

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Develop a Growth Mindset Using Grit and Resilience

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When was the last time you showed resilience?

How about grit?

It has been several years since Angela Duckworth's TED talk catapulted these two traits into our everyday vernacular and still more since the dawn of Carol Dweck's fixed versus growth mindset research. What have we learned?

When we demonstrate grit or are described as gritty, it is because we have had the resilience to push ourselves over, through, around, and sometimes under obstacles. How do people learn to do this?

Are people born with grit? According to research from Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, and Kelly (2007), grit is a question of nature and nurture, not one or the other. For people to develop grit, they need to cultivate a growth mindset.

Before you read on, we thought you might like to download our three Resilience Exercises for free. These engaging, science-based exercises will help you to develop grit and effectively deal with difficult circumstances, and give you the tools to improve the resilience of your clients, students, or employees.

The Growth Mindset Explained

Carol Dweck is widely known for her work in this field. Through her research, she identified two mindsets: fixed and growth. A fixed mindset is "believing your qualities are carved in stone," while a growth mindset is "the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts" (Dweck, 2006, pp. 6-7).

The experience of these mindsets is on a continuum. It is not possible to always operate from one or the other. For example, you might have a fixed or growth perspective about your math ability. Maybe you think that you are horrible with numbers because they do not come naturally to you. In your mind, you either "get" math or you don't.

On the other hand, you could have a growth mindset if you believe you have the ability to learn math because it is a skill that a person develops. Your perspective is that you do not understand it, yet.

An individual also could have a fixed mindset in one area of their life and a growth mindset in another. Maybe you believe you are not athletically inclined, so you avoid sports or other physically demanding activities. You believe people are born with athletic prowess and that they have a natural talent that you do not possess.

In another area of your life, you feel confident in your public-speaking ability, so you seek out opportunities to do that more often. You also believe it is a skill that develops with practice. Each time you do it and receive feedback, you learn how to get better. This motivates you to continue.

It is easy to understand how a fixed mindset could hold a person back. In our math ability example, that person might avoid seeking jobs that involve math. The bottom line is that some people operate from the perspective that intelligence is a finite thing. Others believe it is mutable.

In an article for the Harvard Business Review, Dweck (2016) points out three areas of confusion some experience regarding her research. First, people mix up open-mindedness and positivity with having a growth mindset, believing that they have always had a growth mindset and, therefore, always will.

Second, some people believe that praising and rewarding effort is all that matters. Her research demonstrated that acknowledging the process is critical, as is the learning and progress that led to the process.

Finally, sometimes people think that if they talk about a growth mindset, or put up posters about it, that is all that is needed. Without doing any work to create a growth mindset culture or environment, those posters are just paper on a wall.

Having a growth mindset involves understanding that taking appropriate risks sometimes leads to failure. The difference, though, is in how a person with a growth mindset defines and rebounds from that failure. People who consistently develop and maintain a growth mindset share the following characteristics (Dweck, 2006, p. 245):

They embrace challenges.

They persist in the face of setbacks.

They see effort as the path to mastery.

They learn from criticism.

They find lessons and inspiration in the success of others.

It is not enough to shift our mindset. We also need a healthy dose of grit and resilience to achieve short- and long-term goals.

What Are Grit and Resilience?

In 2006, an aspiring PhD candidate was fascinated with the idea that some people seem to be grittier than others. Her exploration started after deciding to become a 7th-grade math teacher several years earlier. She noticed that some students appeared to have the ability to tackle long-term challenges better than others, regardless of IQ scores.

You probably have heard of Angela Lee Duckworth and her work around grit and resilience. In case you have not or need a reminder, here is her 2013 TED talk, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.

Duckworth et al. (2007) define grit this way:

"Grit is the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals."

People are born with various levels of grit, but Duckworth contends that it is a trait that develops through experience. One key to improving it, as she points out in her TED talk, is by shifting your mindset from a fixed to a growth orientation.

Because grit is about intense passion for a particular goal, people can demonstrate it in one area, but not others. Those other areas might require self-control, but not grit. Duckworth (n.d.) provides the example of completing your taxes by April 15th.

It is difficult to commit fully to multiple long-term goals simultaneously and expect that we will achieve success. For example, having the passion for becoming an ultra-marathoner while also pursuing your dream of becoming a world-class anything else would prove more than challenging. The demands of one will likely supersede the other, or your skills will not develop in either area as well as necessary.

Grit is about sustained, consistent effort toward a goal even when we struggle, falter, or temporarily fail.

Resilience is our ability to bounce back after we have struggled, faltered, or failed. It is being able to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, take a moment or two to collect ourselves, and then get back to the business of pursuing our goal. It involves optimism.

Some people are more resilient than others. Like grit, it is a characteristic a person can develop. The American Psychological Association (2012) created a useful resource titled The Road to Resilience. In it, the contributors define resilience as "the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress - such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors."

Grit is the engine that moves us toward our goal. Resilience is the oil that keeps the engine moving.

5 Real-Life Examples of Grit

We can all think of famous examples of grit, but it might be more challenging for us to see examples in our everyday lives.

Regardless of whether this is because we cringe at drawing attention to our triumphs or because it is simply unacceptable in our culture, the examples are all around us.

Here are a few:

You are in your first year on a wrestling team, and you are learning about the sport. Every time you attend a tournament, you lose your matches. Rather than quit, you return to every practice, drill, and go to the next tournament.

You are learning a difficult piece of music. It has complicated finger movements, and you are considered an "average" musician by your instructors. Many of your peers perform with more grace and confidence than you. Instead of giving up, you practice daily. You are deliberate in your efforts. Over several weeks, your finger movements become increasingly more fluid as you practice.

You have always had an interest in learning a martial art, but you are over 40, and your body is not flexible. Other students are faster, stronger, and more flexible than you. You never miss training sessions, practice the techniques, and learn to adapt them to your body while also increasing your stamina, speed, and accuracy. After several months, you earn your first rank toward a black belt.

You have never been a good artist. Your idea of drawing a person is a stick figure. Determined to learn how to draw a life-like person, you take classes at a local art school. After a few months of consistent drawing, you can create a self-portrait.

You have always wanted to learn another language, but believe you are too old, and it will take too long to become fluent. You see a language course promoting fluency in three months, and it is geared toward people who are not natural language learners. You think this might work, so you join the program. You become involved with the active online group, complete the lessons, and post them for others to review. The end-of-course challenge is to have a 15-minute conversation in your target language. On the final day of your three-month study, you post your video.

Where have you demonstrated grit in your life? Feel free to share an example in the comment section.

Why Are Grit and Resilience Important to the Growth Mindset?

Developing grit and resilience helps a person to build and sustain a growth mindset. Duckworth (2013) might disagree, based on her 2013 TED talk. She stated that she believes a growth mindset helps build grit.

What if it is a combination of both? If people are born with some level of grit, it is possible that grit contributes to their mindset. Think about a child who is beginning to walk. Some do this without much encouragement at all. They pull themselves up, take a few steps, fall, get back up, and the process repeats until their parents cannot catch them.

Other children, after several falls, need much more encouragement to get up and try again. Is it possible that this is an early sign of grit and resilience? If people are born with a tendency toward a growth or fixed mindset, does the natural grit some people have contribute to their tendency?

People with a fixed mindset may not demonstrate grit. After all, if you believe that intelligence or other abilities are innate, what is the point in trying to improve? Duckworth's research is ongoing, and the question of why grit and resilience are important to having a growth mindset continues.

10 Ways to Develop Grit and Resilience

Building resilience and grit varies from person to person and is influenced by our culture. Still, the American Psychological Association offers 10 ways to build resilience that just about anyone can do.

1. If you are not a social person, becoming more social (i.e., purposely connecting with others) can help.

2. Get control over how you respond to the adverse events you experience.

3. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus gets credit for saying, "The only constant in life is change." Get used to it. Sometimes a goal needs to be abandoned because it is no longer attainable. The inability to accept things that we cannot change is a futile pursuit.

4. Apply the Kaizen principle to your goals. Start with the absolute smallest component that relates to the larger, long-term goal. As Walt Disney famously said, "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."

5. Commit to making decisions when you find yourself in a tough situation. There is no room for wishy-washy actions.

6. We can learn a lot about ourselves when we struggle through a bad experience. How have our relationships grown? How have we gained strength or perspective?

7. Forget negative self-talk. Trust that you know yourself better than anyone else, and you have the intelligence and power to make forthright decisions. You can solve problems as they arise.

8. Bad things will happen. Try to think about them from a lifelong perspective. Draw a line on a paper representing the day you were born to the age you believe you will die. Mark off significant life events, positive and negative along that line. Place a line on that paper that represents your current age. Put a dot on that line to mark the current adversity. In the grand scheme of your life, how significant is that dot? When you look back at past events, how much or how little do they affect your life now?

9. Practice optimism. This is not a denial of the bad. It is an acknowledgment of the good and what is possible in your life.

10. Practice self-compassion, get some exercise, learn something new, and spend time laughing.

Not surprisingly, doing several of those 10 things can also help you develop grit.

Duckworth created the Grit Scale to measure people's grittiness. It is a 10-question, Likert-type survey. You rate your level of agreement with each statement. Your grit score ranges from 0.0 to 5.0. The higher the score, the grittier you are as compared to the results of other American adults who participated in the most recent study (though this is not specifically identified.) Results are immediately provided.

For the therapists and educators, another excellent way to develop grit and resilience in your clients is by teaching them resilience. Our Realizing Resilience Masterclass will provide you with a full set of tools to do this.

This masterclass is highly recommended and science based. All claims are backed by science and research. You will be provided with workbooks, exercises, PowerPoint presentations, and a certificate upon completion.

Grit Team-Building Activities

Leaders and managers can help their teams develop grit in four ways.

Conduct a project post mortem or after-action check-in when projects are completed. This allows the team to identify where operations worked or failed. This is a positive, lessons-learned activity with concrete plans to resolve issues that could negatively affect future projects.

Do hard tasks together; for example, consider a ropes course or other challenge that requires contribution from every team member.

Clarify the overall goals and mission, including time for questions, so that team members have a thorough understanding of the 'why' of the organization.

Train and keep the team together throughout a project to develop team cohesiveness and support.

Several of the ways to build grit in individuals, whether they are children, teens, or adults, are useful when working with a team.

Developing Grit in Students

Dweck's book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, spawned the creation of several growth mindset interventions. One of the most well-established programs is from MindsetWorks. Their focus is on working with teachers, students, and parents to develop growth mindsets in kids. Their signature program is Brainology for students in grades 4-9.

The Brainology curriculum teaches students how their brain works and how effort and learning affect their success. Dweck's (2006) research identified that when students understand this information, they are more motivated and perform better academically.

Another important aspect of developing grit in students is understanding that according to Duckworth's research, grit increases as we age. That 12-year-old who needs to get "grittier" likely will because of changing circumstances throughout life. She encourages people to engage in deliberate practice and to create a culture of grit. To do this, emphasize the following:

Mistakes happen, but they are temporary opportunities from which we can learn and grow.

Problem solving can be facilitated by breaking the problem down into smaller, more manageable parts and understanding where students may have control over the problem.

Timely, detailed feedback is important and useful.

Questions encourage self-reflection.

Create goals that are just outside of reach.

Repeatedly practice the skill the student wants to improve.

If you ask an adult what makes them gritty, they will probably say, "life." What they mean by this is that the experiences we encounter break us down and build us up. It is through failure that we learn our greatest lessons, and those lessons often are about what it takes for us to achieve our goals.

For Children

The Big Life Journal company creates resources that help children ages four and up to develop a growth mindset. Their work and these resilience-building activities are based on research done by Carol Dweck and Angela Duckworth. These also are activities that adults can do.

1. Find a purpose. When people identify their goals, this contributes to their sense of purpose and motivates them to act.

2. Interview people who have experienced tough times and lived to tell the tale. This could be a grandparent, another family member, or a neighbor.

3. There are lots of examples of famous people who have overcome obstacles. Watch a movie or read a book or article about them.

4. Find examples of grit in nature; for example, corn stalks growing between road grates, or a tree growing from rubble.

5. Read books together about perseverance.

6. Help your child figure out the hard part of the problem they are experiencing. Breaking it down makes it easier to tackle. It also helps them determine which parts are within their control.

7. Try "the hard thing" rule used by Duckworth. Everyone chooses a difficult task. They must finish whatever they start. No one can select the task for someone else.

8. Try the "Grit Pie" exercise. The pie is the problem. Each slice is a possible cause. Have the child determine if the cause is permanent or temporary and whether they blame themselves or someone else. Often, the child will identify the problem as temporary. You can help them see how they can gain control by making some changes.

9. Model a growth mindset. When your children see you setting goals, overcoming setbacks, and achieving goals, you are reinforcing a growth mindset. You also are showing them what grit and resilience look like.

Check out the Big Life Kids Podcast for engaging stories and lessons, as well as our article on How to Nurture a Growth Mindset in Kids.

5 Inspiring Quotes

There are several quotes about resilience and grit, too many from which to choose, but choose we must. These might resonate with you.

Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before.

Elizabeth Edwards

Sleep is a key part of the requirements for resilience and good decision-making.

James G. Stavridis

Being gritty doesn't mean not showing pain or pretending everything is O.K. In fact, when you look at healthy and successful and giving people, they are extraordinarily meta-cognitive. They're able to say things like, 'Dude, I totally lost my temper this morning.' That ability to reflect on yourself is signature to grit.

Angela Duckworth

Humans are creatures of habit. If you quit when things get tough, it gets that much easier to quit the next time. On the other hand. If you force yourself to push through it, the grit begins to grow in you.

Travis Bradberry

Grit, in a word, is stamina. But it's not just stamina in your effort. It's also stamina in your direction, stamina in your interests. If you are working on different things but all of them very hard, you're not really going to get anywhere. You'll never become an expert.

Angela Duckworth

What inspiring quotes would you add to this list?

5 Popular Books on the Topic

No article about grit, resilience, and a growth mindset is complete without offering a few book suggestions. Many of you are familiar with the first two on this list. The other four each provide a different perspective on this topic.

1. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance - Angela Duckworth

Why is grit important to success? Duckworth investigates this through her research.

She learned that grit is not based on IQ. It is a quality that can be learned.

Duckworth reveals how to do this by teaching people to have a growth mindset.

Available on Amazon.

2. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Carol S. Dweck

Learn the difference between a fixed and growth mindset, and how it can help you become more successful in your pursuits.

Available on Amazon.

3. Beyond Grit: Ten Powerful Practices to Gain the High-Performance Edge - Cindra Kamphoff

Fifty-two life-altering strategies await you in this book about moving past grit to consistent mental strength.

Kamphoff offers practical tools to master your mindset through ongoing attention.

Available on Amazon.

4. Emotional GRIT: 8 Steps to Master Your Emotions, Transform Your Thoughts & Change Your World - Neeta Bhushan

Bhushan shares her model of human leadership that is heart centered and compassionate.

She begins by exploring the stories that hold a person back.

She helps the reader analyze these stories, break them down, and then reframe them to become emotionally gritty.

Available on Amazon.

5. The Stress Effect: Why Smart Leaders Make Dumb Decisions and What to Do About It - Henry L. Thompson

This book emphasizes the importance of awareness, sleep, nutrition, support, exercise, attitude, and learning not only to combat stress, but also to increase grit and resilience.

Available on Amazon.

A Take-Home Message

Grit, resilience, and a growth mindset are intertwined. Some believe these traits are innate, but others, like Dweck and Duckworth, believe they can be developed. Developing them takes time, patience, and attention.

There are many resources available, including books, programs, positive psychology podcasts, and movies that can help a person better understand these traits. Duckworth's Grit Scale is a good place to start for those who want to assess their level of grit.

An important aspect of all the research is that grit, resilience, and growth mindsets change over time and are influenced by our thoughts, beliefs, and experiences.

How will you develop more grit and resilience so that you can experience a growth mindset in more areas of your life?

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don't forget to download our three Resilience Exercises for free.

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5+ Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset Using Grit & Resilience

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Grit is the engine that moves us toward our goal, and resilience is the oil that keeps it humming. Learn 5 ways to develop grit & resilience.

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What Is Gratitude?

Gratitude is a positive emotion that involves being thankful and appreciative and is associated with several mental and physical health benefits. When you experience gratitude, you feel grateful for something or someone in your life and respond with feelings of kindness, warmth, and other forms of generosity.

The word gratitude can have a number of different meanings depending on how others use it and in what context.

"In general terms, gratitude stems from the recognition that something good happened to you, accompanied by an appraisal that someone, whether another individual or an impersonal source, such as nature or a divine entity, was responsible for it," explain researchers Lúzie Fofonka Cunha, Lucia Campos Pellanda, and Caroline Tozzi Reppold in a 2019 article published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

History of Gratitude

The subject is something that has interested religious scholars and philosophers since ancient times. Research on gratitude didn't take off until the 1950s, as psychologists and sociologists began to examine the impact that gratitude could have on individuals and groups. Since then, interest in the topic has grown considerably as the potential health benefits became increasingly apparent.

Signs of Gratitude

So what does gratitude look like? How do you know if you are experiencing a sense of gratitude? Expressing your appreciation and thanks for what you have can happen in a number of different ways. For example, it might entail:

Spending a few moments thinking about the things in your life that you are grateful for

Stopping to observe and acknowledge the beauty of wonder of something you encounter in your daily life

Being thankful for your health

Thanking someone for the positive influence they have in your life

Doing something kind for another person to show that you are grateful

Paying attention to the small things in your life that bring you joy and peace

Meditation or prayer focused on giving thanks

Gratitude is often a spontaneous emotion that you feel in the moment. Some people are naturally prone to experiencing it more often than others, but experts suggest that it is also something that you can cultivate and learn to practice more often.

Measuring Gratitude

You can evaluate your tendency to experience gratitude by asking yourself the following questions.

Do you feel like you have a lot to be thankful for in your life?

If you made a list of all the things you are grateful for, would that list be very long?

When you look at the world, can you find many things to be grateful for?

Do you feel like your appreciation for life and other people has grown stronger as you get older?

Do you frequently experience moments where you appreciate someone or something?

Do you appreciate a wide variety of people in your life?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, you probably have a strong sense of gratitude. If you answered no to many or all, you could take steps to bring more gratitude into your life.

Types of Gratitude

At times, we can categorize gratitude in three different ways:

As an affective trait, meaning that it is related to a person's general disposition. Some people naturally experience gratitude more frequently than others. However, research has not demonstrated a clear connection to any of the Big Five personality traits such as conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extroversion.

As a mood, which means it may fluctuate over time. People might experience periods where they feel more grateful in general, and at other times they may experience this less often.

As an emotion, which is a briefer feeling that people experience in the moment. People might have a particular experience that inspires feelings of gratitude.

How to Practice Gratitude

Developing a sense of gratitude isn't complex or challenging. It doesn't require any special tools or training. And the more you practice it, the better you will become and put yourself into a grateful state of mind. Here's how to do this:

Observe the moment: Take a second to focus on your experience and how you are feeling. Take stock of your senses and think about what is helping you cope. Are there people who have done something for you, or are there particular things helping you manage your stress, feel good about your life, or accomplish what you need to do? You may also find the practice of mindfulness, which focuses on becoming more aware of the present moment, a helpful tool.

Write it down: You might find it helpful to start a gratitude journal where you jot down a few things you are thankful for each day. Being able to look back on these observations can help when you are struggling to feel grateful.

Savor the moment: Give yourself time to really enjoy the moment. Focus on the experience and allow yourself to absorb those good feelings.

Create gratitude rituals: Pausing for a moment to appreciate something and giving thanks for it can help you feel a greater sense of gratitude. A meditation, prayer, or mantra are examples of rituals that can inspire a greater sense of gratitude.

Give thanks: Gratitude is all about recognizing and appreciating those people, things, moments, skills, or gifts that bring joy, peace, or comfort into our lives. Show your appreciation. You might thank a person to show you are thankful for them, or you might spend a moment simply mentally appreciating what you have.

Expressing your appreciation for others is an important component that can affect your interpersonal relationships, particularly those with your partner. People who are high in gratitude experience sharp declines in marital satisfaction when their partner does not express gratitude in return.

Showing your gratitude for those around you can help improve the quality and satisfaction of your relationships.

Impact of Gratitude

The practice of gratitude can have a significant positive impact on both physical and psychological health. Some of the benefits of gratitude that researchers have uncovered include:

Better sleep

Better immunity

Higher self-esteem

Decreased stress

Lower blood pressure

Less anxiety and depression

Stronger relationships

Higher levels of optimism

Research also suggests that people who tend to be more grateful are also more likely to engage in other health-promoting behaviors, including exercising, following their doctor's recommendations, and sticking to a healthier lifestyle.

According to psychologist Robert Emmons, gratitude can have a transformative effect on people's lives for several reasons. Because it helps people focus on the present, it plays a role in magnifying positive emotions. He also suggests that it can help improve people's self-worth. When you acknowledge that there are people in the world who care about you and are looking out for your interests, it can help you recognize your value.

Robert Emmons, professor at UC Davis

Gratitude blocks toxic emotions, such as envy, resentment, regret, and depression, which can destroy our happiness.

- Robert Emmons, professor at UC Davis

Tips for Developing Gratitude

Many different exercises and interventions have been shown to help people cultivate a stronger sense of gratitude in their day-to-day life. To develop your gratitude, you might want to:

Keep a gratitude journal: Spend a few minutes each day writing about something you are grateful for. This doesn't need to be a long or complex process. Simply listing two or three items each day and focusing on experiencing gratitude for them can help. In one study, healthcare workers who wrote down "three good things" each day experienced decreased emotional exhaustion and depression and improved their work-life balance and overall happiness.

Reframe experiences: Another way to increase gratitude is to compare current situations to negative experiences in the past. Doing this not only allows you to see how your strengths helped carry you through those events, but it also helps you focus on the things you can be grateful for in the here and now.

Focus on your senses: Emmons suggests taking moments to focus on what you see, hear, taste, touch, and feel. This can help you gain a greater appreciation of the world around you and what it means to be alive.

Potential Pitfalls of Gratitude

While gratitude is generally viewed as having a host of wide-ranging benefits, there are situations where it may have some downsides. For example, if you view it as a situation that creates a debt, it may make you feel a sense of obligation that could potentially contribute to feelings of stress.

The pressure to feel grateful, particularly around certain times of the year such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, can also contribute to feelings of stress.

And sometimes putting all your energy into feeling grateful can cause you to neglect things that actually do require some criticism. For example, if you are so focused on feeling grateful for your partner, you might overlook or accept certain behaviors that are harmful to your well-being.

A Word From Verywell

However, it is important to remember that these potential pitfalls are relatively minor compared to the overwhelming benefits of practicing gratitude. You shouldn't put too much pressure on yourself, but making an effort to cultivate a sense of gratitude is something worth adding to your daily life.

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Gratitude involves feeling thankful and appreciative for something in your life. It can have a variety of health benefits. Learn how to practice gratitude.

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Gaelynn Lea's voice and violin land like a balm - an offering of both clarity and gladness that can still be mustered in this midwinter, this upended Christmas season. She first came to the attention of many when she won NPR Music's Tiny Desk Contest in 2016. This fiddler and singer-songwriter moves through the world in an electric wheelchair, and plays the violin like a cello because of the disability she was born with - a genetic condition that has made her bones more breakable. So much of what she's learned through life in her body lands as wisdom, right now.

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Gaelynn Lea's voice and violin land like a balm - an offering of both clarity and gladness that can still be mustered in this midwinter, this upended Christmas season. She first came to the attention of many when she won NPR Music's Tiny Desk Contest in 2016.

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Love Bites Respectful Relationships Program - NAPCAN

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Love Bites Respectful Relationships Program - NAPCAN

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About Love Bites

Love Bites and Love Bites Junior are extremely successful Respectful Relationships Education Programs for young people aged 11-17 years.

Love Bites is based on best practice standards for education programs as recommended by the Federal Government funded Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearing House and other leading academics in the area of violence against women.

Love Bites is a Respectful Relationships Education Program for young people aged 15-17 years. It consists of two interactive workshops: one on Relationship Violence, and one on Sex and Relationships, followed by creative workshops and community campaigns. Love Bites is a flexible model with options to use a full day or multi session delivery approach. The program emphasises the importance of a whole-of-school commitment to respectful relationship education.

Love Bites aims to provide young people with a safe environment to examine, discuss and explore respectful relationships. All Love Bites programming takes a strength-based approach and views young people as active participants who are able to make choices for themselves and their relationships when supported with information and opportunity for skill development.

Love Bites education is focused on three critical areas for learning:

Knowledge: youth-led collaborative learning

Attitudes: critical thinking and decision-making and

Behaviours: problem solving and communication skills

The overall aims of the programming are to equip young people with the knowledge needed to have respectful relationships, encourage and develop their skills in critical thinking and assist them in being able to problem solve and communicate effectively. When equipped in these areas, NAPCAN believes that young people can make the right choices for themselves and their relationships that are free from violence and abuse.

Love Bites Junior is a respectful relationships education program that focuses on the development of respectful relationships for 11-14 year olds.

It is a suite of 3 programs which evolved out of the success of Love Bites, a well-established respectful relationship education program designed for young people. Since Love Bites was initially implemented in 2003, community feedback from across Australia has consistently included the need for respectful relationship education programs for younger students.

The Love Bites Junior Program consists of 3 programs:

#friends (Year 7) which covers themes such as communicating mindfully, warning signs of abusive behaviour, power in relationships, responding to concerns as bystanders, seeking help and rights and responsibilities in relation to sharing sexualised images

Respectful Relationships, Bullying and Gender (Year 8) which covers themes such as respect in relationships, gender roles and stereotypes, gender and relationships, jealousy, sexual harassment and homophobia, challenging harassment, discrimination and gender stereotypes and seeking help

Relationships, Love and Control (Year 9) which covers themes such as gender expectations and relationships, responding to jealous feelings, love and control, warning signs of a controlling/abusive relationship, supporting friends, seeking help and breaking up with respect.

Love Bites Junior's 3 programs are designed to be delivered consecutively as the sessions are deliberately scaffolded to incrementally build young people's skills.

About the Love Bites name:

A lot of people ask us about Love Bites name. The history is that the Love Bites program was developed in 2004 in response to community concerns about unhealthy relationships within high school environments on the mid-north coast of NSW. The name was developed in consultation with young people at the time and has stayed with the program ever since. As Love Bites has been continually reviewed, feedback about the name from young people has remained largely positive; it seems to help young people to feel that the program is for them (and informed by them), and that Love Bites is an opportunity for frank and honest conversations.
Love Bites poster templates for facilitators
If you're already running Love Bites, you're probably interested in ways to celebrate the great artwork and messages that come out of the program.

NAPCAN has created a simple template so you can turn that artwork into posters to promote Love Bites in your area.

Simply download the template files (portrait and landscape versions are available) and open in 'Adobe Acrobat'. Click 'edit PDF' then 'add image', drag your artwork into position and save.

Download the Portrait Template Download the Landscape Template

(P.S. Make sure you get written permission from the artist/school for any artwork that you want to use.)

Gallery of student artwork

Answer our quick questionnaire to organise a Love Bites training session, and we'll be in touch with you shortly!

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Love Bites Respectful Relationships Program - NAPCAN

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Love Bites and Love Bites Junior are extremely successful Respectful Relationships Education Programs for young people aged 11-17 years. Love Bites is based on best practice standards for education programs as recommended by the Federal Government funded Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearing House and other leading academics in the area of violence against women.

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The One You Feed is a podcast that hosts inspiring conversations about creating a life worth living.

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Want To Live A Better life? Discover powerful stories, conversations, resources and community to help you find and live your best life now!