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Purpose: Provides practical, compassionate, everyday advice both for those who are facing loss and hardship themselves, and for those who want to show up for their loved ones during life’s hardest moments.

Who It Helps: Anybody who is going through grief and loss

What Does the Resource Include?: Advice articles, community stories, employee and HR toolkits, videos.

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Option B: Build resilience in the face of adversity

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Read and share personal stories, join groups for solidarity and support, and find information from experts to help you and your loved ones build resilience.

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Purpose

The purpose of a self esteem journal is for individuals to look inward every day to find things they appreciate about themselves with the hopes of developing the habit of doing this naturally, and encourage natural positive self talk, leading to better self esteem. These journals also work as a long of personalized compliments for difficult days for individuals to be able to refer back to when they are feeling bad.

Who It Helps

Self Esteem Journals are designed for those who have a habit of negative self talk and experience bad self esteem. However, anyone can benefit from this strategy as it always does well to practice skills surrounding positive self talk and maintaining high self esteem.

What Does the Resource Include?

The resource includes worksheets that are designed to help individuals develop self esteem journals, such as providing them the kinds of questions they should use as prompts.

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Purpose: to help people understand mental health, how to asses your own mental health, and guide them to resources

Who it Helps: families and students

Includes: Info regarding what mental health is, a check in for mental health, and resources.

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Purpose:

Offers multiple strategies and resources for high school students to cope, destress, and increase mental wellness. The strategies offer many options for students to explore in relation to their own mindsets.

Who It Helps:

I/S Educators and High school students with high stress, increased pressure, mental illness, or those looking to better their mental health.

What Does the Resource Include?:

Includes 5 tips for stress management including journals, colouring, and classroom strategies.

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So a couple days ago was world mental health day, which shows that mental health is something that people are starting to talk about. Although this is the first step there is still a stigma associated with it. The tendency to not reach out may be particularly prevalent among teens especially when they have not seen adults model the right way to talk about self-care and mental health. The good news is that we as parents and educators can overcome the stigma of talking about mental health by practicing mental health activities for high school students.

*This post may contain affiliate links for full disclosure click here.

Why Mental Health is Important?

The short answer is because it is affecting so many teenagers in our world. 1 and 5 teens 13-18 have or will have a serious mental health issue in their lives. Also, 50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness start by age 14 and 75% by age 24. On the aspect of suicide, Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in teens and 90% of those teens who committed suicide had an underlying mental health issue. An Infographic from the National Alliance on Mental Illness contains even more information on this topic. that talks more about mental health and how leaders and students alike need to consider it. This is also a great video

Taking care of yourself can have major effects on mental health. Stress is one of the things that can affect our mental health. Teens have a huge amount of stress in their lives. Sometimes this stress causes them to not take care of themselves. They may forgo sleep to get homework done. They may stop working out or withdraw from social situations. All of these things, however, help them stay balanced mentally. So if teens are not getting sleep, withdrawing, or are not exercising they are actually more stressed than they would have been otherwise, and this makes them spiral down. Taking care of themselves makes them better mentally able to handle stress. The good news is there are mental health activities we can do with teens to help them see how to practice self-care.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #1: Get Rid of the Stigma

One of the first things that we need to do with high schoolers is to try to get rid of the stigma that is associated with mental illness. Although, we cannot get rid of all the ill feelings surrounding mental illness we can help students understand it better by talking about it. Students need to understand that this is a very real issue that they can talk about.

Those who struggle with mental health issues need to know that they are not alone in these struggles. It is so easy for them to think they are alone in their issues and that makes their mental health spiral down even more. For those, who don't struggle they need to know the signs to better help those who do struggle. Talking about mental health can get rid of the belief that I need to suffer through this alone or that I don't know what to do to help others.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students # 2: Taking A Mental Health Quiz

As a starting point with high school students taking a mental health quiz will help you and them see where they stand on their mental health. They may not even realize that the issues that are listed on this quiz are part of their mental health. This quiz is directed at 7-9th graders, but overall this quiz could work for all grade levels. Once they take this quiz then you can work through lessons with them that correspond to their answers on this quiz.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #3: The Mental Health Kit

So the same people that put forth the quiz listed in step 2 also have put together a set of lessons for grades 7-9, but once again many of the topics can work for older students as well. They call this the Mental Health Kit . For all the grade levels there is so much useful information that applies to all teenagers not just those in grades 7-9. Going through these lessons with your students will significantly help them be informed about mental health for both others and themselves. This is a great activity to get your students talking about their mental health.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #4: Setting Limits

Often times when we think of limits when it comes to high school students we think of the kids that have too many activities. For those students, it is important to let them know that they cannot do all of those things and function as a human. If they are going to be in drama, dance, sports, church, ap classes, have a part-time job, function as part of your family, etc. then they are going to burn out. It is important to help them understand the importance of setting priorities and if they have to quit a couple of activities, so they can get enough sleep and do well in school and life that will not be the end of the world.

However, most students do not have nearly as many activities as we may think they do. There is a whole group of students that have no after-school activities. Other students especially those with mental health problems may withdraw from their activities. Withdrawing from activities that your children once loved is a sign that something is going on. These students with nothing else to do will often turn to electronics to fill in the time. The problem with this is that it can actually hurt many aspects of their lives and mental health in the long run. For these students limits look like, your phones are going to be taken away at certain times, or video games can only be played one hour a week, etc. If you have a child that is withdrawing from activities maybe limits look like you need to be involved in at least one activity. It doesn't have to be the one you were doing, but you have to be social in some way.

However, something to know about this generation of high school students is that they believe that they should be involved in discussions like this. Setting limits on your kids without having discussions with them where they are able to speak into the process and talk about how they are feeling, why they turn to different things, why they are withdrawing, why they like being overscheduled etc. will just make them want to rebel against those limits. They also don't understand where you are coming from and how you care if you are opposing limits without talking to them. Setting limits with high-schoolers needs to happen through direct conversations with them. They still may not be happy, but they will know you care and for students that is one of the most important things.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #5: Mood Trackers

Another great mental health activity for high school students is mood trackers. There are a couple ways you can do this many of them can have beautiful pictures etc. That is not needed basically you direct your students to everyday color a box or something that shows how they are feeling that day. They can have different colors for different emotions. There is something powerful about seeing how your mood was over a month it helps you see where your emotions are leading and going.

Some students may need to break down their day into several different parts. The reason to track your mood multiple times a day is that people can be prone to let one thing ruin their entire day. So if something happened in the afternoon that affected their mood the rest of the day they can see that their morning was actually going well.

At the end of every day though they should reflect on how their mental state was that day. This allows them one to think about why they feel the way they do. For those with mental health issues reflecting over the week or over the month can help them see if they are getting worse so they can reach out to people. Often times those with mental illness may feel themselves getting worse but they realize it too late or won't reach out to others even when they are. These trackers can help them realize when they need to reach out to others.

If you are wanting a premade tracker a really good one is this mood tracker planner it allows students to be able to track their mood over the course of the week and the course of a month. Everything is pre-made and it is useful for them to see their mood and they don't have to actually draw something up themselves in a journal which can be really helpful to students.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students # 9: Gratitude Journals

Sorta like mood trackers is incredibly easy for high schoolers to not remember what to be grateful for. It really hard for almost everyone to do this. Those that struggle with mental health are no exception. However, if one journal about the things that they are thankful for they are able to go back to those things and read them when things are feeling down. It also can change someone's mood when they think of the good things that happened during the day instead of the bad. I saw this one thing that said was it really a bad day or was it a bad 10 minutes that you milked all day. Teenagers are extremely affected by the things that happen around them and when one bad thing happens it can throw off their entire day. Gratitude journals help them see the good in the day.

A couple of gratitude journals that I would suggest are The Five Minute Journal and The Daily Gratitude Journal. If your teens like structure a little more and want more guidance The Five Minute Journal will give them more of a structured experience. However, I know for some high school students too much structure may add even more anxiety in which case I would suggest The Daily Gratitude Journal it is less structured and if they miss a day it doesn't feel like a big deal because nothing is dated.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #7: Mindful Coloring

Adult coloring pages have been on the rise and there is a good reason for this they actually reset your mind. Coloring can help you destress. Not only does it help with anxiety it can also improve your sleep and your focus. High school students need all of these things and that is why mindful coloring can be so beneficial for their mental health. Mindful coloring can help high school students focus in school and beyond. Mindful coloring pages are a great thing for teachers to incorporate into their lessons and some students may even benefit from doing them during lectures as they help some students have better focus. If you are looking for just a couple pages that you can make copies of over and over I have some great ones on my teachers pay teachers store called Mindful Coloring Pages. These are so perfect for coloring over and over and super easy to print out as a teacher for students.

If you would rather have an entire book for your teens to color at home. I would suggest this three-pack of coloring books. There are so many different pages and your teens will be able to pick from animals, scenery, or geometric designs. It will definitely keep them calm and busy for a long time.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #8: Being a Safe Space

Lastly and probably the best activity is assuring your students and kids that you are a safe space. They can come to you when things are getting worse for them and you won't judge that. You can be someone that will get them back on track. If students know they can come to you they may not always come to you, but they will know you are there if they need someone. Assuring them you are a safe space is included in all the activities above.

Talk about Mental Health Your Students Lives May Depend on It

As stated above suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens. 90% of those who commit suicide have some kind of mental issue. Knowing the signs, monitoring it, helping them with their own mental health is needed to help teens survive. Make sure that your teens know that you are a safe person to talk to so overall we can help get rid of the stigma associated with mental illness.

If you enjoyed this article please consider sharing it so that others can benefit as well. A great way to do this is Pinterest. I have included some perfect for Pinterest images below.

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Mental Health Activities for High School Students - The Truthful Tutor

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So a couple days ago was world mental health day, which shows that mental health is something that people are starting to talk about. Although this is the first step there is still a stigma associated with it.

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Purpose: to ensure everyone has background in mental health literacy

Who it Helps: teachers, students, parents

Includes: Modules to train individuals in mental health, there are separate modules for parents, teachers, and students

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I share with my peers and I take action (Initiative Planning)

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Purpose:

To identify the current state of wellness of the individual by listing out the indicators that suggest which level they are in. The levels are divided into 4 colors (green, yellow, orange, red), representing 4 levels of severity.

Who it helps:

It helps people who struggle to identify their emotions and cannot figure out proper strategies to get support.

What does the resource include:

The resource includes a document where the user can identify key indicators that suggest their current wellness, to prompt them to set goals on how to improve their wellness.

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This website has a large list of gratitude activities. This can be good for a day where you are overwhelmed or feeling burnt out, to take a minute and work through some of these gratitude exercises.

It is really made for anyone, but can be especially useful for people in high stress and constant work jobs. In these times in our life, it can be hard to stop and be grateful for who amd where we are, and acknowledge all of the achievements we have.

Some of the activities include Journaling, and a gratitude rock. It has steps and ideas to help you get the most out of these avtivities

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We usually show our gratitude to others when we feel indebted to them, when we have benefitted from their actions, and when we want to make our feelings towards them known.

Showing gratitude is sometimes a required or expected thing, but at other times, a spontaneous "thank you" to someone who has unknowingly made our day. On most occasions, we show gratitude to bring the good feelings we have been gifted back to the gifter.

While it is admirable to want to share our gratitude and good feelings with others, we rarely stop to think about what giving others our gratitude does for us.

As it turns out, it does quite a lot for our brains and mental wellbeing.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Gratitude Exercises for free. These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients connect to more positive emotions and enjoy the benefits of gratitude.

Research shows that gratitude can (Morin, 2014):

Help you make friends. One study found that thanking a new acquaintance makes them more likely to seek a more lasting relationship with you.

Improve your physical health. People who exhibit gratitude report fewer aches and pains, a general feeling of health, more regular exercise, and more frequent checkups with their doctor than those who don't.

Improve your psychological health. Grateful people enjoy higher wellbeing and happiness and suffer from reduced symptoms of depression.

Enhance empathy and reduces aggression. Those who show their gratitude are less likely to seek revenge against others and more likely to behave in a prosocial manner, with sensitivity and empathy.

Improve your sleep. Practicing gratitude regularly can help you sleep longer and better.

Enhance your self-esteem. People who are grateful have increased self-esteem, partly due to their ability to appreciate other peoples' accomplishments.

Increase in mental strength. Grateful people have an advantage in overcoming trauma and enhanced resilience, helping them to bounce back from highly stressful situations.

With all of these benefits to practicing gratitude, your next question is probably "How do I do it?"

If so, you're in luck! Read on to discover some of the most popular exercises and activities for this, as well as tips to cultivate your own gratitude practice.

13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises and Activities

There are infinite ways to show our gratitude to others, to ourselves, and to a higher power or even "the universe" itself.

However, it can be tough to get started without practical ideas. These gratitude exercises and activities are some of the most well-known and proven ways to practice and enhance your gratitude.

1. Journaling

Writing down a few things you are grateful for is one of the easiest and most popular exercises available.

The purpose of the exercise is to reflect on the past day, few days, or week, and remember 3-5 things you are especially grateful for. In this way, you are focusing on all the good things that happened to you in a given set of time.

What is the appropriate amount of journaling one should do per week? Some people propose doing it every day while others suggest once per week. The arguments against doing it every day are that it can be tedious and forced. It becomes a practice you feel you should do or need to do instead of something you want to do.

When journaling becomes a banal task and not an enjoyable practice then you need to adjust the amount of journaling you do.

Besides the benefit of focusing on the wonderful things, this practice actually can increase your quality of sleep, decrease symptoms of sickness, and increase joy (Marsh, 2011).

It is important to cater your practice to what you need. Perhaps journaling every day for a short amount of time works for you, but over time, it feels better to journal every Friday.

Paying attention to what you are grateful for becomes easier as you practice it.

Imagine your life without the things or people that matter to you, before you begin writing. That should definitely boost your gratitude barometer.

2. Gratitude Jar

The gratitude jar is a stunningly simple exercise that can have profound effects on your wellbeing and outlook. It only requires a few ingredients: a jar (a box can also work); a ribbon, stickers, glitter, or whatever else you like to decorate the jar; paper and a pen or pencil for writing your gratitude notes; and gratitude!

Step 1: Find a jar or box.

Step 2: Decorate the jar however you wish. You can tie a ribbon around the jar's neck, put stickers on the sides, use clear glue and glitter to make it sparkle, paint it, keep it simple, or do whatever else you can think of to make it a pleasing sight.

Step 3: This is the most important step, which will be repeated every day. Think of at least three things throughout your day that you are grateful for. It can be something as benign as a coffee at your favorite place, or as grand as the love of your significant other or dear friend. Do this every day, write down what you are grateful for on little slips of paper and fill the jar.

Over time, you will find that you have a jar full of a myriad of reasons to be thankful for what you have and enjoy the life you are living. It also will cultivate a practice of expressing thanks.

If you are ever feeling especially down and need a quick pick-me-up, take a few notes out of the jar to remind yourself of who, and what, is good in your life.

3. Gratitude Rock

This exercise may sound a little silly. You may be thinking, "A rock? How can a rock help me practice gratitude?"

The secret to this exercise is that the rock is a symbol, a physical object you can use, to remind yourself of what you have.

The instructions are about as simple as instructions can be: just find a rock!

Make sure to pick one you like, whether you like it because it's pretty because it is smooth or has an interesting texture, or because you picked it up from a special place. If you have another small object you'd rather use instead, feel free to substitute that for the rock.

Carry this rock around in your pocket, leave it on your desk where you will see it throughout your day, or even wear it on a chain around your neck or your wrist.

Whenever you see it or touch it, pause to think about at least one thing you are grateful for. Whether it's something as small as the sun shining down on you in this moment or as large as the job that allows you to feed yourself or your family, just think of one thing that brings you joy or fulfillment.

When you take the stone out of your pocket or off of your body at the end of the day, take a moment to remember the things that you were grateful for throughout the day. When you put it on or in your pocket again in the morning, repeat this process to remember what you were grateful for yesterday.

Not only will this help you remember the things you are grateful for, but also it can trigger a mini-mindfulness moment in your day. It will bring you out of your head and into the present moment, giving you something to focus your attention on. It can also act as a switch to more positive thinking.

When you flip this switch multiple times a day, you will likely find that your average day has become much more positive.

4. Gratitude Tree

The gratitude tree is a great activity for children, and it can also be effective for adults who are open to experiencing a childlike sense of fun and wonder. You will need several double-sided colored sheets of paper, string or ribbon, scissors, twigs or tree branches, some stones or marbles, a vase, and a sense of gratitude.

Step 1: Make one or more leaf cutouts to use as a template for your leaves. Trace leaves on your colored paper.

Step 2: Cut out the leaves, punch a hole at the top of each leaf, and loop your string or ribbon through each hole.

Step 3: Put the stones or marbles in a vase and stick the tree branch or twig in the middle.

Step 4: Have your (or your child) draw or write things that you (or your child) are grateful for on the leaves. You can also use photographs if you'd like.

Step 5: Hang the leaves from the branches, and behold your gratitude tree!

This activity is easy and results in a pretty reminder of the things that bring you or your child joy throughout your daily life. It may be intended for kids but there is no age limit on finding creative ways to cultivate your gratitude, so get to drawing!

Here's a quick how-to video on the gratitude tree:

5. Gratitude Garden

The gratitude garden activity is a good activity to follow creating gratitude trees. This is also intended for children, but adults can certainly follow along to get into the gratitude spirit.

Follow these steps to journey to the gratitude garden (All Done Monkey, 2012).

1. Start the Journey: Stand up in front of the group, with the Thankfulness/Gratitude Tree in clear view. Explain that you are all going on a trip to the Grateful Garden, but to get there you have to go through three dangerous places. (Insert a word other than "dangerous" if more appropriate to the age group). The Thankfulness Tree will help you get through each one so you can make it to the Grateful Garden.

2. The Frowny Forest: The first stop is the Frowny Forest. Have the kids all mimic you as you frown, cross your arms, and hunch over. There is a lot of wind in the Frowny Forest, so mimic being tossed about by the wind, turning back and forth as if you are trying to fight it. The only way to leave the Frowny Forest is to feel happy again, so ask the kids to shout out things they are grateful for (using the Thankfulness Tree as a prompt). After they have named a few things, mimic great relief, with a big smile.

3. The Sad Swamp: But, oh no! Just beyond the Frowny Forest is the Sad Swamp! Hunch over again, swing your arms down low, and walk (in place) in big, heavy steps, as if walking through mud or water. Again, have the kids shout out things they are grateful for, so you can all leave the Sad Swamp.

4. The Mad Mountain: Past the Sad Swamp is the Mad Mountain. Have them imitate you as you pretend to climb up the mountain with great effort, making angry faces. Again, have the kids shout out things they are grateful for, so you can all feel happy again.

5. The Grateful Garden: Finally, you have all arrived at the Grateful Garden! What a good job they have done! To celebrate, everyone can do a Happy Hop!

Going through each of these negative emotions can be a fun and interactive learning opportunity for kids. For older children (or young-minded adults!), you can even add in a few other, more complex negative emotions, like the "Disgusted Dock" or the "Petty Pier."

To read these instructions, click here.

6. Gratitude Box

The gratitude box is a thoughtful way to share your feelings with loved ones and cultivate your own sense of gratitude.

This is another easy activity that requires only a box, some paper, and a pen or pencil to write down gratitude messages. You can make the box yourself or buy one, the prettier the better!

On the paper, write down a heartfelt message of gratitude to your loved one. If you're not sure how to start, here are some suggestions to begin your message:

1) "Thank you for..."

2) "What I love about you..."

3) "My holiday wish for you..."

You can also collect messages from others about your loved one, to pack the box with multiple messages of gratitude and love.

Place the message(s) into the box, wrap it up or put a bow on it, and give it to your loved one as a special gift, to both your loved one and yourself.

Read more about gratitude boxes here.

7. Gratitude Prompts

Gratitude prompts are a great way to get started, continue your practice, or kick-start a stalled gratitude practice. This is also a relatively simple exercise, with only one instruction: fill in the blank!

These prompts provide several ways to begin a gratitude statement, with infinite possibilities for completion. They cover multiple senses, colors, people, and things. The goal is to identify at least three things in each category that you are thankful for.

The prompts include:

I'm grateful for three things I hear:

I'm grateful for three things I see:

I'm grateful for three things I smell:

I'm grateful for three things I touch/feel:

I'm grateful for these three things I taste:

I'm grateful for these three blue things:

I'm grateful for these three animals/birds:

I'm grateful for these three friends:

I'm grateful for these three teachers:

I'm grateful for these three family members:

I'm grateful for these three things in my home:

I'm grateful for these three people who hired me:

Etc.

This simple exercise is a great way to identify all the things you are grateful for. To see all of the categories and examples for each category, click here.

8. Gratitude Amble

This exercise only requires your sense of gratitude and a pair of feet or wheelchair.

When you are going through a particularly rough time, try cleansing your mind with a gratitude walk. Just as the combination of meditation and gratitude can combat stress or increase feelings of wellbeing, walking with a gratitude focal point can offer the same remedy.

Walking is therapeutic in itself.

It has health benefits like increased endorphins that decrease stress, increased heart health, and circulation in the body, decreased lethargy, and decreases in blood pressure. Couple this activity with a grateful state of mind and you are bound to nurture a positive mind and body (Rickman 2013).

The goal of the gratitude walk is to observe the things you see around you as you walk. Take it all in. Be aware of nature, the colors of the trees, the sounds the birds make, and the smell of the plants. Notice how your feet feel when you step onto the ground.

The effects are more potent when you can enjoy a gratitude walk with your partner or a friend. In this way, you can show them an appreciation for being able to spend the time walking together.

9. Gratitude Reflection

Reflection is an important part of mindfulness meditation and the cultivation of a sense of self-awareness. These practices can lead to an enhanced sense of wellbeing, among other benefits, although enhanced wellbeing is enough of a benefit for most of us.

To practice gratitude reflection, follow these steps (Still Mind, 2014):

1. Settle yourself in a relaxed posture. Take a few deep, calming breaths to relax and center. Let your awareness move to your immediate environment: all the things you can smell, taste, touch, see, hear. Say to yourself: "For this, I am grateful."

2. Next, bring to mind those people in your life to whom you are close: your friends, family, partner.... Say to yourself, "For this, I am grateful."

3. Next, turn your attention onto yourself: you are a unique individual, blessed with imagination, the ability to communicate, to learn from the past and plan for the future, to overcome any pain you may be experiencing. Say to yourself: "For this, I am grateful."

4. Finally, rest in the realization that life is a precious gift. That you have been born into a period of immense prosperity, that you have the gift of health, culture, and access to spiritual teachings. Say to yourself: "For this, I am grateful."

10. Gratitude Flower

The gratitude flower is similar to the gratitude tree, except that instead of creating leaves of gratitude, we create flower petals of gratitude.

Start by cutting out a circle from colored paper. Yellow is a popular color for this piece since it will be the center of the flower.

On the circle, write "Things I'm Thankful For" or write your name or family name, or even an overarching thing you're grateful for (i.e., "my family").

Next, use a template or freehand cut to create flower petals. You can use several different colors for a bright and vibrant flower, or the same color for a more uniform looking flower.

On the flower petals, write down things you are grateful for. These can be things like the sunny weather, having wonderful parents, or a promotion at work.

Glue or tape these petals to the center to create a flower. This is your gratitude flower!

11. Gratitude Letter or Email / Gratitude Visit

This might be the most powerful gratitude exercise. Write a hand-written letter to a person you are particularly grateful to have in your life.

Be detailed. Express all the wonderful qualities about this person, and how they personally have affected your life for the better.

If you have the time personally deliver this letter to the person yourself.

Do it unexpectedly. Your level of gratitude should skyrocket, as you observe the bliss the receiver gets from your generous act. It will probably be one of the greatest gifts you will ever receive.

The positive effects of this gratitude exercise were researched and carried out by Kent State professor Steve Toepfer, associate professor in Human Development and Family Studies.

In his 2007 study, his undergraduate students experienced enhanced levels of life satisfaction and happiness, as well as decreased symptoms of depression. Toepfer's goal of this study was to determine the psychological benefits, if any, for the authors of these gratitude letters (Vincent, 2007).

The results of this study are quite straightforward. If you wish to increase your gratitude and happiness levels then intentionally script letters to inspiring people in your life.

If you are feeling down and maybe even depressed, you should most certainly give this practice a try. For an even further joy boost hand deliver your letter to the receivers so you can witness the receiver's reactions for yourself.

This activity can be either an email or a letter which you can send off in the mail or deliver personally.

Think about a person who has recently done something good for you, to whom you have not yet expressed your gratitude. This person may be a friend, family member, coworker, teacher, or mentor.

Try to pick someone who you can visit within the next week if you are practicing the visit component.

Next, write them an email or letter. Use these guidelines to write an effective and grateful letter:

Write as though you are addressing the person directly.

Don't worry about getting your grammar or spelling perfect (unless you are sending the email/letter to them).

Describe what this person has done that makes you grateful, and how they have impacted your life. Be as concrete as possible here.

Describe what you are doing in life now, and how frequently you remember their act of kindness or generosity.

Try to keep your letter to about 300 words or so.

If you are writing an email or a letter to be mailed, go through the letter to make sure it is clear and you get the intended message across. Hit the "send" button or drop it in a mailbox.

If you are delivering your letter in person via a gratitude visit, follow these steps:

Plan a visit with the recipient. Let him or her know you would like to meet with them to share something, but be vague about what you have to share.

When you meet this person, let them know that you are grateful and that you would like to read them a letter you wrote expressing your gratitude. Ask that he or she does not interrupt you until you are done reading the letter.

Take your time reading the letter. While you read, pay attention to the reactions of both you and the recipient.

After you have read the letter, listen to his or her reaction to the letter and be ready to discuss your feelings together.

Remember to leave the letter with this person when you leave.

If you are located far away from this person, you can arrange a phone call or video chat instead.

12. Meditation

Gratitude meditations are a double-whammy for wellbeing. You are performing two of the most impactful happiness practice at the same time.

Meditation isn't always easy especially when the mind is aggressively wandering and distracting your attention, but if you practice this kind of mediation consistently be prepared to experience incredible upgrades in gratitude and joy.

Unlike a normal meditation where intentionally become aware of your breath and keep your mind clear, during a gratitude meditation you visualize all the things in your life that you are grateful for.

It is important to give each person or item the concentration it deserves. You can take the time to go through all the people you are grateful for or all the physical objects you are grateful for.

I like to simplify this sometimes and show gratitude for the things that are often taken for granted: the ability to breath, hands to touch, eyes to see, legs to walk and run, etc. There are numerous advantages to meditating. These advantages magnify when you take the time to target your reasons for gratitude.

Spend some time really taking stock of the things you are grateful for and I am certain you will feel much better afterward. It is a powerful exercise.

13. Collage

This is similar to the gratitude journal, except you are going to take pictures of all the things you are grateful for. This gives you the opportunity to visualize your gratitude.

Try taking a picture of one thing you are grateful for every day for a week. Notice how you feel. Take a look back at the pictures every week. You don't have to find grandiose things to be grateful for. A simple picture of a flower will do.

The more you do this the easier it will be for you to spot out the things you are grateful for. You will no longer take these simple things for granted.

Perhaps you will document multiple pictures in a day. After a given time period put all your pictures together in a collage and simply be grateful for all that you have.

A Gratitude Trick That Marie Forleo Learned from Robert Emmons

The following video shows the results of a USC study where students kept a gratitude journal for 10 weeks. Watch what happened when the three groups had different prompts-and results.

If one of the three prompts mentioned in the video resonate with you, why not give it a try? If not for 10-weeks, for two weeks? You might be surprised with the slow and steady benefits this simple tip brings.

Gratitude Exercise: The Can of Beans

The following gratitude exercise was invented by Seph Fontane Pennock. For this exercise you're going to need:

Many of us can buy a can of white beans without thinking much, let alone the food many of us are fortunate to put into our bodies. For this exercise, we invite you to have a meal of a can of beans. Nothing else that night. Just the beans.

There's no warming them up or pouring the beans into a nice cup. That beats the purpose of the exercise. You simply grab a spoon, open up the can, imagine you're sitting around the campfire at the foot of the Sierra Madra, and dig in.

What is the purpose of the exercise?

The purpose of this gratitude exercise is to realize and appreciate what we have. Appreciation. It can make you realize that every day, you are able to eat all sorts of foods, flown or shipped in from all over the world for you to eat. It is quite extraordinary if you think about it, but it can be easy to take for granted for those who have food security.

During this exercise, you may start to compare the beans that you're eating with other meals you crave. This allows you to take a moment and appreciate those usual foods, and how they fuel you.

The benefits:

Performing this gratitude exercise once a week:

1. Makes you a more mindful eater.

2. Makes you appreciate what you have in life, or at least, what you eat.

3. Makes you realize that we don't need so much in order to satisfy our basic human needs.

4. Allows you to actually enjoy the ritual and experience positive emotions while your eating beans that tend to last throughout the whole evening.

The most powerful thing about this gratitude exercise is its simplicity. Performing this exercise is easier than its alternative, which means cooking up a whole meal (and ending up with the dishes).

What about your spouse or kids?

In case you are living with someone or if you have kids, you're going to have more of a challenge in performing this exercise.

You can either explain the exercise to them and invite them to join you if they wish (it's important that they decide to do so themselves), or do the exercise on one of those evenings that you don't get to eat together with your family or spouse.

2 Gratitude Quizzes and Questionnaires

Looking for a quick way to assess how grateful you are? These quizzes and questionnaires are readily available on the internet.

1. Greater Good at Berkeley Quiz - This 20-item quiz is based on a scale developed by psychologists, Mitchel Adler, and Nancy Fagley. It is available online, and completion will give an overall gratitude score, as well as being given steps on how to promote further gratitude in life.

2. This is the GQ-6, a brief questionnaire that may take as little as about 30 seconds to complete. It was devised by Michael E. McCullough, Ph.D., Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., Jo-Ann Tsang, Ph.D. The GQ-6 gives an impression of how grateful a person is already. It consists of 6 questions, with responses in a Likert-type scale from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree'.

Handy Gratitude Worksheets

If you like easy to follow worksheets, we have several suggestions that can help you get started practicing gratitude.

Try one of the following worksheets.

Gratitude Exercises

This handout describes several useful gratitude exercises, some of which are included above, in a short paragraph. Consider this your master list of the best gratitude exercises with a quick and easy explanation.

You can find this worksheet here.

To learn about these gratitude exercises in more detail, try the worksheets below.

Gratitude Journal

This worksheet is a quick and easy way to document the things you are grateful for each day. It begins by noting that keeping a journal helps to improve your mood. The worksheet then instructs the user to write at least three entries for each day.

This simple worksheet lists each day of the week with five sections of blank space to fill out with things that make you grateful. Gratitude Journal

Why I'm Grateful Worksheet

This simple worksheet helps you find things you are grateful for, complete with prompts to get you started. These prompts cover multiple areas of life and dive deeper into your sense of gratitude.

Instead of just helping you identify what you are grateful for, this worksheet digs into why you are grateful.

The prompts include:

"I am grateful for my family because..."

"Something good happened this week..."

"I am grateful for my friendship with... because..."

"I am grateful for who I am because..."

"Something silly that I am grateful for..."

"Something else I am grateful for..."

Simply fill in the blanks on this worksheet to discover more to be grateful for in your life! Click here to use this worksheet.

Gratitude Letter

Produced by Allina Health, this sheet looks at 'overlooked blessings' and reflections on positive things about the individual's health and body, activities they enjoy, and relationships they are grateful for.

Finally, the worksheet prompts individuals to write a gratitude letter.

Daily Gratitude

This worksheet provides a template for a daily gratitude journal, with room to record three things in the last 24 hours the client is thankful for, and three things that they are looking forward to in the next 24 hours.

Gratitude Journal Activity

This provides a gratitude journal activity creating a list of 100 things an individual is grateful for by completing 5 mini-lists, each containing 20 lines. For example, the prompt for the first list is to "list 20 things that you are grateful worked out for you...evidence that the universe is on your side."

Examples of Gratitude Interventions for Adults

Many of the gratitude exercises described above have been used in interventions to increase gratitude, with varying results. Check out the following studies.

Gratitude as a Psychotherapeutic Intervention

A paper by Robert A. Emmons and Robin Stern (Emmons & Stern, 2013) describes how gratitude can have a positive impact on patients and clients in therapeutic relationships.

The authors also outline several different methods of applying gratitude interventions to adults, including keeping a journal. The article includes a case study of a woman facing severe stress and multiple challenges in her life.

Susanna was suffering from thoughts of leaving her marriage, her husband's motorcycle accident, the reveal of an extramarital affair on the part of her husband, and finding out that her husband had been hiding a gambling addiction that had nearly bankrupted them.

Susanna's therapist worked with Susanna to develop a course of treatment that heavily incorporated gratitude. Her therapist encouraged Susanna to reflect on all of the things she had to be grateful for and helped her "self-right" her perspective to truly appreciate each moment in her daily life while building a new life that better suited her strengths, weaknesses, and her circumstances.

This treatment improved Susanna's ability to function and helped her to remain emotionally available to her children and more self-aware.

The authors end by noting the ways that gratitude interventions differ from most other types of interventions.

First, the prosocial and relational nature of gratitude can build unique pathways to happiness and wellbeing. Gratitude is also a fulfilling practice, facilitating an appreciation of both the current moment and one's past.

There is much evidence that gratitude interventions result in many positive benefits, and that incorporating gratitude into therapy can help clients and patients realize these benefits.

Using a Gratitude Intervention to Enhance Wellbeing in Older Adults

This study (Killen & Macaskill, 2015) utilized the "three good things" exercise to enhance gratitude in adults 60 years and older. This exercise involves writing down three good things you have to be grateful for each day, generally at night.

The study was conducted on a group of 88 healthy adults aged 60 or over and lasted for 45 days. Results showed that this gratitude intervention improved wellbeing via flourishing, at multiple points throughout the duration of the study. Perceived stress also decreased over the first 15 days.

This intervention was effective whether administered via paper or online and showed that gratitude journaling can have a significant positive effect on older adults.

Gratitude and Wellbeing: The Benefits of Appreciation

This piece by Randy A. Sansone and Lori A. Sansone (Sansone & Sansone, 2010) explores the effects of gratitude on wellbeing.

The authors describe several studies that have provided evidence of a link between these two constructs.

For example, the authors describe three journaling methods for investigating these effects undertaken by gratitude researchers Emmon and McCullough, including one group that journaled about negative events or hassles in life, one group that journaled about things they were grateful for, and one group that journaled about neutral life events.

The group focusing on things they were grateful for reported significantly higher wellbeing than the other two groups.

Another study pitted a group who completed the "counting one's blessings" exercise, in which participants wrote about things they were grateful for or for which they felt blessed at the end of each week, against a group who identified challenges or hassles in life and a control group. Those who counted their blessings seemed to experience a boost in wellbeing.

The authors conclude that gratitude can be an effective way to enhance wellbeing, and suggest several exercises that can be used as interventions in therapy, including:

Journaling about things for which to be grateful.

Thinking about someone for whom you are grateful.

Writing and/or sending a letter to someone for whom you are grateful.

Meditating on gratitude The "count your blessings" exercise.

Practicing saying "thank you" and really meaning it.

Writing thank you notes.

If you are religious, incorporating your gratitude in prayer.

To read about these examples and learn how to measure gratitude, you can read the paper here.

4 Gratitude Lesson Ideas for Teachers

The modern classroom sees teachers educating about far more than literacy and numeracy. Social and emotional learning is now incorporated into the curriculum. Teaching gratitude provides students with powerful life-skills. Here are some resources to utilize in planning gratitude lessons.

1. What is Gratitude?

After an initial 'activation of thinking' exercise, brainstorm about gratitude. Then, students can watch a video, such as Gratitude HD, Moving Art on YouTube, and jot down reflections from it on post-it notes. Then, in pairs, students work through guiding questions and the teacher introduces a book that is age-appropriate.

After the story, in pairs, have students discuss what they noticed in the book, what they connected with, and what they are thankful for.

Use photos, calendar images or Visual Talking Cards to provide a starting point for a discussion about gratitude and sharing knowledge among the class. Before closing the lesson, use an ABC Brainstorm Template (available from the link provided below) to generate a list of things students are grateful for.

Find the lesson idea here at its source (Heart-Mind online, 2014).

2. Acts of Kindness (Grades K - 2)

This lesson is designed for students to be given the opportunity to identify ways that they have acted with kindness and caring towards others.

Firstly, provide an explanation to the class about feeling grateful and have a discussion. Then, have the students close their eyes and visualize someone they have been kind to or helped, and to recall how this made them feel as well as what the other person said or did.

Ask students to open their eyes and share what they visualized. Then, ask students to draw a picture of what they visualized and write a caption to go with it. Alternatively, students could write a short paragraph about it.

To extend this lesson, older students could be encouraged to record times when they show kindness to others, the reasons why they did, and how they feel, in a gratitude journal. Or, the class could be prompted to talk about an act of kindness they could do for someone in the school and the teacher can help them put this into action.

3. Food Gratitude (Grades 3 - 5)

The class lists as many different fruits as they can. Then, they vote on which fruit is the favorite fruit for most people in the class.

Guide students through a visualization of all of the people or resources who made it possible for them to enjoy this fruit.

In groups of four, students discuss the visualization and on a large piece of paper, draw all of the people, tools and natural elements necessary to produce the fruit. As students draw, discuss the many people involved in the process of making the fruit available, and prompt the class to think about how they would show gratitude to all of the people-they then add this to the drawing.

The following day, bring in some of the fruit that the students selected (being sure no student is allergic) and ask them to think of all of the properties of the fruit and reflect upon all the people involved in its production.

Finally, before the class enjoys eating the fruit, invite them to recall the expressions of gratitude that they wrote on the drawings and to feel that gratitude.

4. People Who Made a Difference (Grades 6 - 8)

This exercise is designed to help students understand that they can feel gratitude to people whose actions benefit the whole of society and these benefits can last for centuries.

Students identify a historical figure who did something that they feel grateful for. Then, helps students visualize the person, what it would be like to be with them, and the sense of gratitude the student has. Following this, students write an essay looking into what the person did that they were grateful for, and consider the intention and motives of the person.

Students should also think about the 'cost' of the figure's actions, not only in terms of money but more general personal sacrifices. Ask students to reflect upon how they have benefited from the person's actions and how the whole of society may have benefited.

To conclude the lesson, the class can present brief summaries of the historical figure they researched.

Here are the original sources for Lesson Plans 2-4 above (Zakrzewski, 2016).

Gratitude Games and Ideas for Kids

By now, you're probably thinking about all the good things that can happen when gratitude is incorporated into one's life. This is particularly true for children and using gratitude to boost resilience, enhance wellbeing, and encourage a positive outlook on life.

7 Tips for Fostering Gratitude

This piece describes seven ways to encourage the development of gratitude in children.

These tips include:

1. Model and teach gratitude. This is the best way to teach any trait you want your child to develop.

2. Spend time with your kids and being mindful with them. Quality time is not only a positive experience for both children and adults; it also offers opportunities to model empathy and cultivates a sense of appreciation for the things you love.

3. Support your child's autonomy. Allowing your children to be semi-autonomous helps them to build their strengths and talents, and encourages them to take ownership of their actions.

4. Use your children's strengths to fuel gratitude. Create opportunities for your children to be helpful and cooperative with others, enhancing their ability to feel and express gratitude.

5. Help focus and support kids to achieve intrinsic goals. In steering children away from the pursuit of materialistic goals and toward intrinsic goals, you can help children fulfill their own higher-level needs and aid in their development. Savor their accomplishments with them as one way to boost their sense of gratitude even more.

6. Encourage children to help others and devote time to nurturing relationships. Volunteer to help others with your child, and encourage them to offer a helping hand to loved ones in need of support. Helping them to develop strong, positive relationships is a great way to make sure they have something to be grateful for.

7. Help kids find what matters to them. Assisting your child in finding what he or she is passionate about is a good way to help them find gratitude as well. A sense of purpose or meaning in life helps us all to discover what we love, contribute to society, and practice gratitude.

More information on cultivating a sense of gratitude in children can be found here.

Gratitude in the Classroom

If you'd like to build gratitude in your children or the children you teach or mentor, try these suggestions:

1. Create a classroom gratitude book for each child to take home and add a page of pictures and descriptions of what they're grateful for. Switch out each week so every child has the opportunity to add a page.

2. Take a picture of each student holding a large piece of paper with one thing they are grateful for written on it, frame the picture, and send it home as a gift.

3. Create a gratitude collage or bulletin board, with pictures of things each student is grateful for.

4. Have each child write down something they are thankful for on strips of paper, and use the strips to create a gratitude chain, which can be hung around the classroom.

5. Hold a "Special Friends Day" before Thanksgiving, in which each student brings someone special to class. Each pair will write or draw something they are thankful for, which will be posted on a bulletin board.

6. Have the children create gratitude surprise sticky notes. Hand these sticky notes out to students and have them write down something they're grateful for in regards to someone else around the school, then encourage them to "deliver" the note to that person's locker, mailbox, or classroom door.

For many more classroom gratitude ideas, visit this website.

Gratitude Exercises for Children

The website www.blissfulkids.com also provides popular gratitude exercises that can help develop gratitude in children.

The top three gratitude exercises according to Chris Bergstrom and Blissful Kids are:

1. The Gratitude Journal. Provide your child with a journal and encourage them to write down five things they are grateful for each day. Bedtime is a great time to practice this exercise since children will have the whole day from which to choose what to write about.

2. The ABCs of Gratitude. Have your child sit comfortably and close their eyes. Tell them to list things they are grateful for, beginning with "A" and working all the way through the alphabet to "Z." Don't be surprised if this exercise gets a little silly-it's bound to get silly at some point, so just embrace it and enjoy the laughter with your child!

3. Bedtime Thank Yous. This can be incorporated into the gratitude journal or practiced as a standalone exercise. Help your child to think of happy things that happened to them during their day. They can simply say these things aloud, write them down in their journal, draw a picture of them, or simply think of them. This exercise can ensure that your child drifts off to sleep with a heart full of love and gratitude.

How to Develop Your Own Gratitude Ritual

Creating a gratitude ritual can be tough, just as starting any new habit can be difficult to stick with at first. Like most other practices, the more you do it, the easier it will get.

Try these tips to help you cultivate a fulfilling and impactful gratitude ritual (Rodrigues, 2017):

Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and take several slow, deep breaths.

Think of something good that has happened to you recently.

Think of a person or animal you love.

Think of an occasion when you were honored or appreciated by others.

Think about your present situation and what is going on in your life.

The popular website www.tinybuddha.com also provides several useful suggestions on implementing and sticking to a gratitude ritual.

Their steps are as follows (Russell, 2016):

1. Commit to your practice. There will be days when you feel like doing anything other than finding reasons to be grateful, but pushing through these days will empower you and help you build the strength and resilience necessary to push through other challenges.

2. Begin your practice. Just do it! Sit down with a pen and paper or a computer and start simply, with a prompt like "I am grateful for..." You may need to sit and think for a while, but that's okay. If you give it time and put in the effort, it will come!

3. Write it down. Sometimes thinking about what you are grateful for will not be enough. Be sure to write down what you are grateful for. Writing can have a powerful impact that just thinking may not bring about.

4. Feel it. Allow yourself to fully experience gratitude. Let it come up from your heart and throughout your body. Savor the feeling.

5. Choose a set time of day. This can be extremely helpful when starting a practice. Some popular times to practice gratitude are first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but choose a time that works for you.

6. Practice present-moment gratitude. While you may be writing these things down at the beginning or end of the day, make sure to notice all of the things for which you are grateful as they pop up throughout your day. Allow yourself to be in the present and to fully appreciate each thing you are grateful for as it arises.

7. Share the gratitude. Find a gratitude partner to share your list of things you are grateful for with, to discuss your challenges and your successes with, and to motivate you when you are not feeling up to the task (and vice versa).

8. Don't stop when you start noticing results! Although counterintuitive, it can be tempting to stop any practice once you start seeing the benefits. Make sure you are committed to your practice, whether it feels beneficial in the current moment or not.

9. Allow yourself to be human. It's alright to miss a day once in a while, and it's alright to feel grumpy about having to follow through on your commitment when it's the last thing you want to do. We are human, and we will make mistakes. If you're having trouble coming up with anything, at least write something like "I am grateful I am writing my gratitude list."

The popular dating website eharmony also provides tips on how to cultivate gratitude, especially in the context of dating and relationships. They suggest four steps (Libby, 2016):

1. Breathing. Simply close your eyes and take a deep and intentional breath, repeating until you feel calm and grounded.

2. Awakening your awareness. Allow yourself to meditate on your truth in the present moment.

3. Recognize your blessings. Think about what you are experiencing with your five senses if you have trouble getting started.

4. Emotions flow. Allow your emotions to come and go, to rise and fall as they will. Focus your attention on enjoying the feeling of gratitude working its way through your mind and to your heart.

5. Finally, Chris Libby from www.livehappy.com provides four rituals that you can implement to build gratitude in your life.

These rituals are (Libby, 2016):

Amazing Grace. Reflect on what you are grateful for at the dinner table before you begin eating, whether alone or with your family.

Focus on the "Haves." Instead of thinking about what you are missing, think about what you have. Write down at least three things you are grateful for each night.

The Write Stuff. Write a letter to someone you are grateful to or for, and read the letter aloud to them if possible. you can find more instructions for this exercise earlier in this piece.

Thankful Awareness. Try something new and fulfilling, such as volunteering at a food bank or soup kitchen, or handing out toys at a children's hospital. Witnessing the trials and challenges of others can often be a spur for you to notice the good things in your own life.

Gratitude Apps That Help You Stick to It

Sometimes, even when we know all of the right steps and have all of the right tips, practicing regular gratitude can be difficult. This is where an app can help! Try one of the gratitude apps described below to help you keep a regular gratitude practice.

1. Gratitude Journal

This classic gratitude exercise is put into digital form, with a daily journal for you to fill with things you are grateful for. It includes space for writing down several things each day, ratings of your feelings, daily quotes, and up to three photos per journal entry.

This app is available through iTunes here.

2. Gratitude Garden App

This app not only allows you to recall and record the things you are grateful for each day, it also rewards you with points for journaling. You can build up a gratitude garden with these points, a pretty space that can bring you joy by reminding you of what is good in your life.

You can also receive gratitude cards, which contain suggestions for further actions that can increase gratitude and happiness.

This app is free, and you can download it on iTunes here.

3. Grateful: A Gratitude Journal

Grateful was developed to make expressing gratitude both easy and fun. By recording your blessings in Grateful, during those 'down' moments you can be reminded of all the things in your life that you have to be grateful for.

Available here from iTunes.

4. Happyfeed

This is a private gratitude journal app allowing you to record happy moments each day. As well as securely recording these moments as they happen, Happyfeed also writes fun, silly, and informative daily reminders.

The more you use this app, the more valuable it becomes.

Head here to get the app.

6 Podcasts Focused on Gratitude

Podcasts are a convenient way to hear from experts, and can also be a good use of time such as when on public transport. There are some available on the topic of gratitude. Here they are...

1. The Gratitude Podcast is by Georgian Benta. It is devoted to all things gratitude, with over 500, 000 downloads. It includes interviews with successful people and getting them to share fascinating stories about how gratitude has helped them get to where they are now.

2. Episode 18 of the 'Being Well' podcast sees Dr Hanson and Forrest discuss the 5th of 12 strengths to be examined in the series - gratitude. They look at the role of positive emotions generally and especially the value of "thankfulness".

3. This podcast, "Why Gratitude Works" is by Christine Carter and Rona Renner. In it, these experts discuss the science of gratitude and the reasons why consciously practicing gratitude can improve people's happiness so markedly.

4. Featuring acclaimed author and grounded theory researcher, Brene Brown, the topic of this podcast is "On gratitude, vulnerability, and courage". When gratitude and the power of appreciating the smallest moments were discussed, the podcast became emotional.

5. This relatively short podcast, featuring Lewis Howes from the School of Greatness, looks at developing an 'attitude of gratitude'. Howes shares both expertise and personal experience - such as almost losing his father in a car accident, and how he learned not to take things for granted.

6. This podcast is slightly different to the others discussed above. It looks at gratitude as a skill, and how to build this skill. There is a lot covered in the podcast. If you don't have the time, or the inclination, to listen to a podcast a summary of the points covered is available on the site which is accessible from the hyperlink provided.

A Take-Home Message

I hope you have found this piece useful. I'm grateful for you, as a reader, who took the time to process some of these ideas.

The "gratitude muscle" is like any other muscle, in that it must be flexed periodically to remain strong.

Return to this page whenever you need a reminder about why gratitude is important to practice, or suggestions on how to boost your own sense of gratitude. Visit the section on developing gratitude in children to encourage your own children, clients, or students to commit to a lifetime of gratitude and happiness.

Thank you for reading, and please be sure to find at least three things to be grateful for today.

Do you have a regular gratitude practice? Are there other gratitude exercises that work for you? Please let us know in the comments section below.

We love hearing from you!

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

For further reading, we suggest:

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13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises & Activities

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We share gratitude exercises for your private practice or for teaching others about the science of happiness. Worksheets included!

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Purpose: provides students with a template for self-reflection. Could also be used at the beginning of the year to get to know students.

Who it Help: Students

What Does the Resource Include?: A template for students to fill out with different prompts.

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Mental Health & High School Curriculum Guide

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Mental Health & High School Curriculum Guide

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Purpose

Is a mental-health curriculum to help improve students' and teachers' mental health literacy. Does this through usual teacher education and in the classroom.

Is also a supporting document for the online version of the modules.

Who it Helps

It helps students and teachers who want to learn more about mental health. Targets specifically students from the ages of 13 to 15 years old.

What does the resource include?

Quizzes on mental health

Modules

Teacher Knowledge Updates

Student Evaluations

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Purpose:

The resource is used to identify the person's strengths and utilize these as a form of resiliency.

Who it helps:

It assists with any child, adolescent and adult who would benefit from building resiliency.

What does the Resource Include?

It includes the "doughnut" that is encompassing of the activity as well as information about how it is a beneficial activity to build resiliency.

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#STAYCONNECTED We are still providing our wide range of training and professional development services during these uncertain times.

Our existing online courses are all still available and will be delivered according to their original schedules.

All of our face to face training and workshops can be adapted to an online setting upon request.

If you are feeling isolated reach out and #stayconnected

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The Resilience Doughnut | Building Resilience World Wide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
STAYCONNECTED We are still providing our wide range of training and professional development services during these uncertain times. Our existing online courses are all still available and will be delivered according to their original schedules. All of our face to face training and workshops can be adapted to an online setting upon request.

# data[].attributes.headline
13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises & Activities

# data[].attributes.subject
13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises & Activities

# data[].attributes.body
Purpose

Understanding how gratitude brings good feelings (good for our brains, mental wellbeing), and how to share it with others.

Who It's Made for

Everyone.

What SPECIFIC resources are included

13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises and Activities

A Gratitude Trick That Marie Forleo Learned from Robert Emmons

Gratitude Exercise: The Can of Heinz Beans

2 Gratitude Quizzes and Questionnaires

Handy Gratitude Worksheets

Examples of Gratitude Interventions for Adults

4 Gratitude Lesson Ideas for Teachers

Gratitude Games and Ideas for Kids

How to Develop Your Own Gratitude Ritual

Gratitude Apps That Help You Stick to It

7 Podcasts Focused on Gratitude

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Purpose: To help individuals who have outbursts manage their emotions and understand their feelings. This plan can help students recognize when they are feeling heightened and what to do to de-escalate.

Who it helps: This could be specifically useful for students with autism who have trouble understanding their feelings and are easily triggered or any other students with an exceptionality that affects their EQ.

What Does the Resource Include: The resources contains green, yellow, orange and red wellness indicators to allow students to reflect on indicators of when they are in each zone and what to do to either remain in green or return to green.

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Purpose:

To help I/S educators provide resources for their students

Who it helps:

Anyone involved in the I/S division

Resources:

Mood charts, journals, colouring books and activities

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So a couple days ago was world mental health day, which shows that mental health is something that people are starting to talk about. Although this is the first step there is still a stigma associated with it. The tendency to not reach out may be particularly prevalent among teens especially when they have not seen adults model the right way to talk about self-care and mental health. The good news is that we as parents and educators can overcome the stigma of talking about mental health by practicing mental health activities for high school students.

*This post may contain affiliate links for full disclosure click here.

Why Mental Health is Important?

The short answer is because it is affecting so many teenagers in our world. 1 and 5 teens 13-18 have or will have a serious mental health issue in their lives. Also, 50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness start by age 14 and 75% by age 24. On the aspect of suicide, Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in teens and 90% of those teens who committed suicide had an underlying mental health issue. An Infographic from the National Alliance on Mental Illness contains even more information on this topic. that talks more about mental health and how leaders and students alike need to consider it. This is also a great video

Taking care of yourself can have major effects on mental health. Stress is one of the things that can affect our mental health. Teens have a huge amount of stress in their lives. Sometimes this stress causes them to not take care of themselves. They may forgo sleep to get homework done. They may stop working out or withdraw from social situations. All of these things, however, help them stay balanced mentally. So if teens are not getting sleep, withdrawing, or are not exercising they are actually more stressed than they would have been otherwise, and this makes them spiral down. Taking care of themselves makes them better mentally able to handle stress. The good news is there are mental health activities we can do with teens to help them see how to practice self-care.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #1: Get Rid of the Stigma

One of the first things that we need to do with high schoolers is to try to get rid of the stigma that is associated with mental illness. Although, we cannot get rid of all the ill feelings surrounding mental illness we can help students understand it better by talking about it. Students need to understand that this is a very real issue that they can talk about.

Those who struggle with mental health issues need to know that they are not alone in these struggles. It is so easy for them to think they are alone in their issues and that makes their mental health spiral down even more. For those, who don't struggle they need to know the signs to better help those who do struggle. Talking about mental health can get rid of the belief that I need to suffer through this alone or that I don't know what to do to help others.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students # 2: Taking A Mental Health Quiz

As a starting point with high school students taking a mental health quiz will help you and them see where they stand on their mental health. They may not even realize that the issues that are listed on this quiz are part of their mental health. This quiz is directed at 7-9th graders, but overall this quiz could work for all grade levels. Once they take this quiz then you can work through lessons with them that correspond to their answers on this quiz.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #3: The Mental Health Kit

So the same people that put forth the quiz listed in step 2 also have put together a set of lessons for grades 7-9, but once again many of the topics can work for older students as well. They call this the Mental Health Kit . For all the grade levels there is so much useful information that applies to all teenagers not just those in grades 7-9. Going through these lessons with your students will significantly help them be informed about mental health for both others and themselves. This is a great activity to get your students talking about their mental health.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #4: Setting Limits

Often times when we think of limits when it comes to high school students we think of the kids that have too many activities. For those students, it is important to let them know that they cannot do all of those things and function as a human. If they are going to be in drama, dance, sports, church, ap classes, have a part-time job, function as part of your family, etc. then they are going to burn out. It is important to help them understand the importance of setting priorities and if they have to quit a couple of activities, so they can get enough sleep and do well in school and life that will not be the end of the world.

However, most students do not have nearly as many activities as we may think they do. There is a whole group of students that have no after-school activities. Other students especially those with mental health problems may withdraw from their activities. Withdrawing from activities that your children once loved is a sign that something is going on. These students with nothing else to do will often turn to electronics to fill in the time. The problem with this is that it can actually hurt many aspects of their lives and mental health in the long run. For these students limits look like, your phones are going to be taken away at certain times, or video games can only be played one hour a week, etc. If you have a child that is withdrawing from activities maybe limits look like you need to be involved in at least one activity. It doesn't have to be the one you were doing, but you have to be social in some way.

However, something to know about this generation of high school students is that they believe that they should be involved in discussions like this. Setting limits on your kids without having discussions with them where they are able to speak into the process and talk about how they are feeling, why they turn to different things, why they are withdrawing, why they like being overscheduled etc. will just make them want to rebel against those limits. They also don't understand where you are coming from and how you care if you are opposing limits without talking to them. Setting limits with high-schoolers needs to happen through direct conversations with them. They still may not be happy, but they will know you care and for students that is one of the most important things.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #5: Mood Trackers

Another great mental health activity for high school students is mood trackers. There are a couple ways you can do this many of them can have beautiful pictures etc. That is not needed basically you direct your students to everyday color a box or something that shows how they are feeling that day. They can have different colors for different emotions. There is something powerful about seeing how your mood was over a month it helps you see where your emotions are leading and going.

Some students may need to break down their day into several different parts. The reason to track your mood multiple times a day is that people can be prone to let one thing ruin their entire day. So if something happened in the afternoon that affected their mood the rest of the day they can see that their morning was actually going well.

At the end of every day though they should reflect on how their mental state was that day. This allows them one to think about why they feel the way they do. For those with mental health issues reflecting over the week or over the month can help them see if they are getting worse so they can reach out to people. Often times those with mental illness may feel themselves getting worse but they realize it too late or won't reach out to others even when they are. These trackers can help them realize when they need to reach out to others.

If you are wanting a premade tracker a really good one is this mood tracker planner it allows students to be able to track their mood over the course of the week and the course of a month. Everything is pre-made and it is useful for them to see their mood and they don't have to actually draw something up themselves in a journal which can be really helpful to students.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students # 9: Gratitude Journals

Sorta like mood trackers is incredibly easy for high schoolers to not remember what to be grateful for. It really hard for almost everyone to do this. Those that struggle with mental health are no exception. However, if one journal about the things that they are thankful for they are able to go back to those things and read them when things are feeling down. It also can change someone's mood when they think of the good things that happened during the day instead of the bad. I saw this one thing that said was it really a bad day or was it a bad 10 minutes that you milked all day. Teenagers are extremely affected by the things that happen around them and when one bad thing happens it can throw off their entire day. Gratitude journals help them see the good in the day.

A couple of gratitude journals that I would suggest are The Five Minute Journal and The Daily Gratitude Journal. If your teens like structure a little more and want more guidance The Five Minute Journal will give them more of a structured experience. However, I know for some high school students too much structure may add even more anxiety in which case I would suggest The Daily Gratitude Journal it is less structured and if they miss a day it doesn't feel like a big deal because nothing is dated.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #7: Mindful Coloring

Adult coloring pages have been on the rise and there is a good reason for this they actually reset your mind. Coloring can help you destress. Not only does it help with anxiety it can also improve your sleep and your focus. High school students need all of these things and that is why mindful coloring can be so beneficial for their mental health. Mindful coloring can help high school students focus in school and beyond. Mindful coloring pages are a great thing for teachers to incorporate into their lessons and some students may even benefit from doing them during lectures as they help some students have better focus. If you are looking for just a couple pages that you can make copies of over and over I have some great ones on my teachers pay teachers store called Mindful Coloring Pages. These are so perfect for coloring over and over and super easy to print out as a teacher for students.

If you would rather have an entire book for your teens to color at home. I would suggest this three-pack of coloring books. There are so many different pages and your teens will be able to pick from animals, scenery, or geometric designs. It will definitely keep them calm and busy for a long time.

Mental Health Activities for High School Students #8: Being a Safe Space

Lastly and probably the best activity is assuring your students and kids that you are a safe space. They can come to you when things are getting worse for them and you won't judge that. You can be someone that will get them back on track. If students know they can come to you they may not always come to you, but they will know you are there if they need someone. Assuring them you are a safe space is included in all the activities above.

Talk about Mental Health Your Students Lives May Depend on It

As stated above suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens. 90% of those who commit suicide have some kind of mental issue. Knowing the signs, monitoring it, helping them with their own mental health is needed to help teens survive. Make sure that your teens know that you are a safe person to talk to so overall we can help get rid of the stigma associated with mental illness.

If you enjoyed this article please consider sharing it so that others can benefit as well. A great way to do this is Pinterest. I have included some perfect for Pinterest images below.

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Mental Health Activities for High School Students - The Truthful Tutor

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So a couple days ago was world mental health day, which shows that mental health is something that people are starting to talk about. Although this is the first step there is still a stigma associated with it.

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Purpose: to provide a template that can be filled in to facilitate the development of an actionable plan contributing to wellbeing

Who it helps: Acsessable language and straight forward questions make this a great entry way to the idea of a wellness plan

What it includes: A who am I section, a section on desires, on intentions, and on personal mission

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13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises and Activities

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13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises and Activities

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Purpose: This resources provides 13 clear-cut ways teachers can prompt students to write or exercise gratitude in their lives. It also includes examples of empirical evidence and research that shows the positive benefits of practicing gratitude and why it can help students.

Who it helps: Any student who may benefit from reflection and mindfulness, can also be used as a break in-between lessons or as a wellness check-in before material.

SPECIFIC resources it includes: 13 easy activities for implementing gratitude reflection (ie., gratitude rock, journaling, gratitude letter), worksheets, questionnaires, 7 tips for fostering gratitude in students.

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We usually show our gratitude to others when we feel indebted to them, when we have benefitted from their actions, and when we want to make our feelings towards them known.

Showing gratitude is sometimes a required or expected thing, but at other times, a spontaneous "thank you" to someone who has unknowingly made our day. On most occasions, we show gratitude to bring the good feelings we have been gifted back to the gifter.

While it is admirable to want to share our gratitude and good feelings with others, we rarely stop to think about what giving others our gratitude does for us.

As it turns out, it does quite a lot for our brains and mental wellbeing.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Gratitude Exercises for free. These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients connect to more positive emotions and enjoy the benefits of gratitude.

Research shows that gratitude can (Morin, 2014):

Help you make friends. One study found that thanking a new acquaintance makes them more likely to seek a more lasting relationship with you.

Improve your physical health. People who exhibit gratitude report fewer aches and pains, a general feeling of health, more regular exercise, and more frequent checkups with their doctor than those who don't.

Improve your psychological health. Grateful people enjoy higher wellbeing and happiness and suffer from reduced symptoms of depression.

Enhance empathy and reduces aggression. Those who show their gratitude are less likely to seek revenge against others and more likely to behave in a prosocial manner, with sensitivity and empathy.

Improve your sleep. Practicing gratitude regularly can help you sleep longer and better.

Enhance your self-esteem. People who are grateful have increased self-esteem, partly due to their ability to appreciate other peoples' accomplishments.

Increase in mental strength. Grateful people have an advantage in overcoming trauma and enhanced resilience, helping them to bounce back from highly stressful situations.

With all of these benefits to practicing gratitude, your next question is probably "How do I do it?"

If so, you're in luck! Read on to discover some of the most popular exercises and activities for this, as well as tips to cultivate your own gratitude practice.

13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises and Activities

There are infinite ways to show our gratitude to others, to ourselves, and to a higher power or even "the universe" itself.

However, it can be tough to get started without practical ideas. These gratitude exercises and activities are some of the most well-known and proven ways to practice and enhance your gratitude.

1. Journaling

Writing down a few things you are grateful for is one of the easiest and most popular exercises available.

The purpose of the exercise is to reflect on the past day, few days, or week, and remember 3-5 things you are especially grateful for. In this way, you are focusing on all the good things that happened to you in a given set of time.

What is the appropriate amount of journaling one should do per week? Some people propose doing it every day while others suggest once per week. The arguments against doing it every day are that it can be tedious and forced. It becomes a practice you feel you should do or need to do instead of something you want to do.

When journaling becomes a banal task and not an enjoyable practice then you need to adjust the amount of journaling you do.

Besides the benefit of focusing on the wonderful things, this practice actually can increase your quality of sleep, decrease symptoms of sickness, and increase joy (Marsh, 2011).

It is important to cater your practice to what you need. Perhaps journaling every day for a short amount of time works for you, but over time, it feels better to journal every Friday.

Paying attention to what you are grateful for becomes easier as you practice it.

Imagine your life without the things or people that matter to you, before you begin writing. That should definitely boost your gratitude barometer.

2. Gratitude Jar

The gratitude jar is a stunningly simple exercise that can have profound effects on your wellbeing and outlook. It only requires a few ingredients: a jar (a box can also work); a ribbon, stickers, glitter, or whatever else you like to decorate the jar; paper and a pen or pencil for writing your gratitude notes; and gratitude!

Step 1: Find a jar or box.

Step 2: Decorate the jar however you wish. You can tie a ribbon around the jar's neck, put stickers on the sides, use clear glue and glitter to make it sparkle, paint it, keep it simple, or do whatever else you can think of to make it a pleasing sight.

Step 3: This is the most important step, which will be repeated every day. Think of at least three things throughout your day that you are grateful for. It can be something as benign as a coffee at your favorite place, or as grand as the love of your significant other or dear friend. Do this every day, write down what you are grateful for on little slips of paper and fill the jar.

Over time, you will find that you have a jar full of a myriad of reasons to be thankful for what you have and enjoy the life you are living. It also will cultivate a practice of expressing thanks.

If you are ever feeling especially down and need a quick pick-me-up, take a few notes out of the jar to remind yourself of who, and what, is good in your life.

3. Gratitude Rock

This exercise may sound a little silly. You may be thinking, "A rock? How can a rock help me practice gratitude?"

The secret to this exercise is that the rock is a symbol, a physical object you can use, to remind yourself of what you have.

The instructions are about as simple as instructions can be: just find a rock!

Make sure to pick one you like, whether you like it because it's pretty because it is smooth or has an interesting texture, or because you picked it up from a special place. If you have another small object you'd rather use instead, feel free to substitute that for the rock.

Carry this rock around in your pocket, leave it on your desk where you will see it throughout your day, or even wear it on a chain around your neck or your wrist.

Whenever you see it or touch it, pause to think about at least one thing you are grateful for. Whether it's something as small as the sun shining down on you in this moment or as large as the job that allows you to feed yourself or your family, just think of one thing that brings you joy or fulfillment.

When you take the stone out of your pocket or off of your body at the end of the day, take a moment to remember the things that you were grateful for throughout the day. When you put it on or in your pocket again in the morning, repeat this process to remember what you were grateful for yesterday.

Not only will this help you remember the things you are grateful for, but also it can trigger a mini-mindfulness moment in your day. It will bring you out of your head and into the present moment, giving you something to focus your attention on. It can also act as a switch to more positive thinking.

When you flip this switch multiple times a day, you will likely find that your average day has become much more positive.

4. Gratitude Tree

The gratitude tree is a great activity for children, and it can also be effective for adults who are open to experiencing a childlike sense of fun and wonder. You will need several double-sided colored sheets of paper, string or ribbon, scissors, twigs or tree branches, some stones or marbles, a vase, and a sense of gratitude.

Step 1: Make one or more leaf cutouts to use as a template for your leaves. Trace leaves on your colored paper.

Step 2: Cut out the leaves, punch a hole at the top of each leaf, and loop your string or ribbon through each hole.

Step 3: Put the stones or marbles in a vase and stick the tree branch or twig in the middle.

Step 4: Have your (or your child) draw or write things that you (or your child) are grateful for on the leaves. You can also use photographs if you'd like.

Step 5: Hang the leaves from the branches, and behold your gratitude tree!

This activity is easy and results in a pretty reminder of the things that bring you or your child joy throughout your daily life. It may be intended for kids but there is no age limit on finding creative ways to cultivate your gratitude, so get to drawing!

Here's a quick how-to video on the gratitude tree:

5. Gratitude Garden

The gratitude garden activity is a good activity to follow creating gratitude trees. This is also intended for children, but adults can certainly follow along to get into the gratitude spirit.

Follow these steps to journey to the gratitude garden (All Done Monkey, 2012).

1. Start the Journey: Stand up in front of the group, with the Thankfulness/Gratitude Tree in clear view. Explain that you are all going on a trip to the Grateful Garden, but to get there you have to go through three dangerous places. (Insert a word other than "dangerous" if more appropriate to the age group). The Thankfulness Tree will help you get through each one so you can make it to the Grateful Garden.

2. The Frowny Forest: The first stop is the Frowny Forest. Have the kids all mimic you as you frown, cross your arms, and hunch over. There is a lot of wind in the Frowny Forest, so mimic being tossed about by the wind, turning back and forth as if you are trying to fight it. The only way to leave the Frowny Forest is to feel happy again, so ask the kids to shout out things they are grateful for (using the Thankfulness Tree as a prompt). After they have named a few things, mimic great relief, with a big smile.

3. The Sad Swamp: But, oh no! Just beyond the Frowny Forest is the Sad Swamp! Hunch over again, swing your arms down low, and walk (in place) in big, heavy steps, as if walking through mud or water. Again, have the kids shout out things they are grateful for, so you can all leave the Sad Swamp.

4. The Mad Mountain: Past the Sad Swamp is the Mad Mountain. Have them imitate you as you pretend to climb up the mountain with great effort, making angry faces. Again, have the kids shout out things they are grateful for, so you can all feel happy again.

5. The Grateful Garden: Finally, you have all arrived at the Grateful Garden! What a good job they have done! To celebrate, everyone can do a Happy Hop!

Going through each of these negative emotions can be a fun and interactive learning opportunity for kids. For older children (or young-minded adults!), you can even add in a few other, more complex negative emotions, like the "Disgusted Dock" or the "Petty Pier."

To read these instructions, click here.

6. Gratitude Box

The gratitude box is a thoughtful way to share your feelings with loved ones and cultivate your own sense of gratitude.

This is another easy activity that requires only a box, some paper, and a pen or pencil to write down gratitude messages. You can make the box yourself or buy one, the prettier the better!

On the paper, write down a heartfelt message of gratitude to your loved one. If you're not sure how to start, here are some suggestions to begin your message:

1) "Thank you for..."

2) "What I love about you..."

3) "My holiday wish for you..."

You can also collect messages from others about your loved one, to pack the box with multiple messages of gratitude and love.

Place the message(s) into the box, wrap it up or put a bow on it, and give it to your loved one as a special gift, to both your loved one and yourself.

Read more about gratitude boxes here.

7. Gratitude Prompts

Gratitude prompts are a great way to get started, continue your practice, or kick-start a stalled gratitude practice. This is also a relatively simple exercise, with only one instruction: fill in the blank!

These prompts provide several ways to begin a gratitude statement, with infinite possibilities for completion. They cover multiple senses, colors, people, and things. The goal is to identify at least three things in each category that you are thankful for.

The prompts include:

I'm grateful for three things I hear:

I'm grateful for three things I see:

I'm grateful for three things I smell:

I'm grateful for three things I touch/feel:

I'm grateful for these three things I taste:

I'm grateful for these three blue things:

I'm grateful for these three animals/birds:

I'm grateful for these three friends:

I'm grateful for these three teachers:

I'm grateful for these three family members:

I'm grateful for these three things in my home:

I'm grateful for these three people who hired me:

Etc.

This simple exercise is a great way to identify all the things you are grateful for. To see all of the categories and examples for each category, click here.

8. Gratitude Amble

This exercise only requires your sense of gratitude and a pair of feet or wheelchair.

When you are going through a particularly rough time, try cleansing your mind with a gratitude walk. Just as the combination of meditation and gratitude can combat stress or increase feelings of wellbeing, walking with a gratitude focal point can offer the same remedy.

Walking is therapeutic in itself.

It has health benefits like increased endorphins that decrease stress, increased heart health, and circulation in the body, decreased lethargy, and decreases in blood pressure. Couple this activity with a grateful state of mind and you are bound to nurture a positive mind and body (Rickman 2013).

The goal of the gratitude walk is to observe the things you see around you as you walk. Take it all in. Be aware of nature, the colors of the trees, the sounds the birds make, and the smell of the plants. Notice how your feet feel when you step onto the ground.

The effects are more potent when you can enjoy a gratitude walk with your partner or a friend. In this way, you can show them an appreciation for being able to spend the time walking together.

9. Gratitude Reflection

Reflection is an important part of mindfulness meditation and the cultivation of a sense of self-awareness. These practices can lead to an enhanced sense of wellbeing, among other benefits, although enhanced wellbeing is enough of a benefit for most of us.

To practice gratitude reflection, follow these steps (Still Mind, 2014):

1. Settle yourself in a relaxed posture. Take a few deep, calming breaths to relax and center. Let your awareness move to your immediate environment: all the things you can smell, taste, touch, see, hear. Say to yourself: "For this, I am grateful."

2. Next, bring to mind those people in your life to whom you are close: your friends, family, partner.... Say to yourself, "For this, I am grateful."

3. Next, turn your attention onto yourself: you are a unique individual, blessed with imagination, the ability to communicate, to learn from the past and plan for the future, to overcome any pain you may be experiencing. Say to yourself: "For this, I am grateful."

4. Finally, rest in the realization that life is a precious gift. That you have been born into a period of immense prosperity, that you have the gift of health, culture, and access to spiritual teachings. Say to yourself: "For this, I am grateful."

10. Gratitude Flower

The gratitude flower is similar to the gratitude tree, except that instead of creating leaves of gratitude, we create flower petals of gratitude.

Start by cutting out a circle from colored paper. Yellow is a popular color for this piece since it will be the center of the flower.

On the circle, write "Things I'm Thankful For" or write your name or family name, or even an overarching thing you're grateful for (i.e., "my family").

Next, use a template or freehand cut to create flower petals. You can use several different colors for a bright and vibrant flower, or the same color for a more uniform looking flower.

On the flower petals, write down things you are grateful for. These can be things like the sunny weather, having wonderful parents, or a promotion at work.

Glue or tape these petals to the center to create a flower. This is your gratitude flower!

11. Gratitude Letter or Email / Gratitude Visit

This might be the most powerful gratitude exercise. Write a hand-written letter to a person you are particularly grateful to have in your life.

Be detailed. Express all the wonderful qualities about this person, and how they personally have affected your life for the better.

If you have the time personally deliver this letter to the person yourself.

Do it unexpectedly. Your level of gratitude should skyrocket, as you observe the bliss the receiver gets from your generous act. It will probably be one of the greatest gifts you will ever receive.

The positive effects of this gratitude exercise were researched and carried out by Kent State professor Steve Toepfer, associate professor in Human Development and Family Studies.

In his 2007 study, his undergraduate students experienced enhanced levels of life satisfaction and happiness, as well as decreased symptoms of depression. Toepfer's goal of this study was to determine the psychological benefits, if any, for the authors of these gratitude letters (Vincent, 2007).

The results of this study are quite straightforward. If you wish to increase your gratitude and happiness levels then intentionally script letters to inspiring people in your life.

If you are feeling down and maybe even depressed, you should most certainly give this practice a try. For an even further joy boost hand deliver your letter to the receivers so you can witness the receiver's reactions for yourself.

This activity can be either an email or a letter which you can send off in the mail or deliver personally.

Think about a person who has recently done something good for you, to whom you have not yet expressed your gratitude. This person may be a friend, family member, coworker, teacher, or mentor.

Try to pick someone who you can visit within the next week if you are practicing the visit component.

Next, write them an email or letter. Use these guidelines to write an effective and grateful letter:

Write as though you are addressing the person directly.

Don't worry about getting your grammar or spelling perfect (unless you are sending the email/letter to them).

Describe what this person has done that makes you grateful, and how they have impacted your life. Be as concrete as possible here.

Describe what you are doing in life now, and how frequently you remember their act of kindness or generosity.

Try to keep your letter to about 300 words or so.

If you are writing an email or a letter to be mailed, go through the letter to make sure it is clear and you get the intended message across. Hit the "send" button or drop it in a mailbox.

If you are delivering your letter in person via a gratitude visit, follow these steps:

Plan a visit with the recipient. Let him or her know you would like to meet with them to share something, but be vague about what you have to share.

When you meet this person, let them know that you are grateful and that you would like to read them a letter you wrote expressing your gratitude. Ask that he or she does not interrupt you until you are done reading the letter.

Take your time reading the letter. While you read, pay attention to the reactions of both you and the recipient.

After you have read the letter, listen to his or her reaction to the letter and be ready to discuss your feelings together.

Remember to leave the letter with this person when you leave.

If you are located far away from this person, you can arrange a phone call or video chat instead.

12. Meditation

Gratitude meditations are a double-whammy for wellbeing. You are performing two of the most impactful happiness practice at the same time.

Meditation isn't always easy especially when the mind is aggressively wandering and distracting your attention, but if you practice this kind of mediation consistently be prepared to experience incredible upgrades in gratitude and joy.

Unlike a normal meditation where intentionally become aware of your breath and keep your mind clear, during a gratitude meditation you visualize all the things in your life that you are grateful for.

It is important to give each person or item the concentration it deserves. You can take the time to go through all the people you are grateful for or all the physical objects you are grateful for.

I like to simplify this sometimes and show gratitude for the things that are often taken for granted: the ability to breath, hands to touch, eyes to see, legs to walk and run, etc. There are numerous advantages to meditating. These advantages magnify when you take the time to target your reasons for gratitude.

Spend some time really taking stock of the things you are grateful for and I am certain you will feel much better afterward. It is a powerful exercise.

13. Collage

This is similar to the gratitude journal, except you are going to take pictures of all the things you are grateful for. This gives you the opportunity to visualize your gratitude.

Try taking a picture of one thing you are grateful for every day for a week. Notice how you feel. Take a look back at the pictures every week. You don't have to find grandiose things to be grateful for. A simple picture of a flower will do.

The more you do this the easier it will be for you to spot out the things you are grateful for. You will no longer take these simple things for granted.

Perhaps you will document multiple pictures in a day. After a given time period put all your pictures together in a collage and simply be grateful for all that you have.

A Gratitude Trick That Marie Forleo Learned from Robert Emmons

The following video shows the results of a USC study where students kept a gratitude journal for 10 weeks. Watch what happened when the three groups had different prompts-and results.

If one of the three prompts mentioned in the video resonate with you, why not give it a try? If not for 10-weeks, for two weeks? You might be surprised with the slow and steady benefits this simple tip brings.

Gratitude Exercise: The Can of Beans

The following gratitude exercise was invented by Seph Fontane Pennock. For this exercise you're going to need:

Many of us can buy a can of white beans without thinking much, let alone the food many of us are fortunate to put into our bodies. For this exercise, we invite you to have a meal of a can of beans. Nothing else that night. Just the beans.

There's no warming them up or pouring the beans into a nice cup. That beats the purpose of the exercise. You simply grab a spoon, open up the can, imagine you're sitting around the campfire at the foot of the Sierra Madra, and dig in.

What is the purpose of the exercise?

The purpose of this gratitude exercise is to realize and appreciate what we have. Appreciation. It can make you realize that every day, you are able to eat all sorts of foods, flown or shipped in from all over the world for you to eat. It is quite extraordinary if you think about it, but it can be easy to take for granted for those who have food security.

During this exercise, you may start to compare the beans that you're eating with other meals you crave. This allows you to take a moment and appreciate those usual foods, and how they fuel you.

The benefits:

Performing this gratitude exercise once a week:

1. Makes you a more mindful eater.

2. Makes you appreciate what you have in life, or at least, what you eat.

3. Makes you realize that we don't need so much in order to satisfy our basic human needs.

4. Allows you to actually enjoy the ritual and experience positive emotions while your eating beans that tend to last throughout the whole evening.

The most powerful thing about this gratitude exercise is its simplicity. Performing this exercise is easier than its alternative, which means cooking up a whole meal (and ending up with the dishes).

What about your spouse or kids?

In case you are living with someone or if you have kids, you're going to have more of a challenge in performing this exercise.

You can either explain the exercise to them and invite them to join you if they wish (it's important that they decide to do so themselves), or do the exercise on one of those evenings that you don't get to eat together with your family or spouse.

2 Gratitude Quizzes and Questionnaires

Looking for a quick way to assess how grateful you are? These quizzes and questionnaires are readily available on the internet.

1. Greater Good at Berkeley Quiz - This 20-item quiz is based on a scale developed by psychologists, Mitchel Adler, and Nancy Fagley. It is available online, and completion will give an overall gratitude score, as well as being given steps on how to promote further gratitude in life.

2. This is the GQ-6, a brief questionnaire that may take as little as about 30 seconds to complete. It was devised by Michael E. McCullough, Ph.D., Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., Jo-Ann Tsang, Ph.D. The GQ-6 gives an impression of how grateful a person is already. It consists of 6 questions, with responses in a Likert-type scale from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree'.

Handy Gratitude Worksheets

If you like easy to follow worksheets, we have several suggestions that can help you get started practicing gratitude.

Try one of the following worksheets.

Gratitude Exercises

This handout describes several useful gratitude exercises, some of which are included above, in a short paragraph. Consider this your master list of the best gratitude exercises with a quick and easy explanation.

You can find this worksheet here.

To learn about these gratitude exercises in more detail, try the worksheets below.

Gratitude Journal

This worksheet is a quick and easy way to document the things you are grateful for each day. It begins by noting that keeping a journal helps to improve your mood. The worksheet then instructs the user to write at least three entries for each day.

This simple worksheet lists each day of the week with five sections of blank space to fill out with things that make you grateful. Gratitude Journal

Why I'm Grateful Worksheet

This simple worksheet helps you find things you are grateful for, complete with prompts to get you started. These prompts cover multiple areas of life and dive deeper into your sense of gratitude.

Instead of just helping you identify what you are grateful for, this worksheet digs into why you are grateful.

The prompts include:

"I am grateful for my family because..."

"Something good happened this week..."

"I am grateful for my friendship with... because..."

"I am grateful for who I am because..."

"Something silly that I am grateful for..."

"Something else I am grateful for..."

Simply fill in the blanks on this worksheet to discover more to be grateful for in your life! Click here to use this worksheet.

Gratitude Letter

Produced by Allina Health, this sheet looks at 'overlooked blessings' and reflections on positive things about the individual's health and body, activities they enjoy, and relationships they are grateful for.

Finally, the worksheet prompts individuals to write a gratitude letter.

Daily Gratitude

This worksheet provides a template for a daily gratitude journal, with room to record three things in the last 24 hours the client is thankful for, and three things that they are looking forward to in the next 24 hours.

Gratitude Journal Activity

This provides a gratitude journal activity creating a list of 100 things an individual is grateful for by completing 5 mini-lists, each containing 20 lines. For example, the prompt for the first list is to "list 20 things that you are grateful worked out for you...evidence that the universe is on your side."

Examples of Gratitude Interventions for Adults

Many of the gratitude exercises described above have been used in interventions to increase gratitude, with varying results. Check out the following studies.

Gratitude as a Psychotherapeutic Intervention

A paper by Robert A. Emmons and Robin Stern (Emmons & Stern, 2013) describes how gratitude can have a positive impact on patients and clients in therapeutic relationships.

The authors also outline several different methods of applying gratitude interventions to adults, including keeping a journal. The article includes a case study of a woman facing severe stress and multiple challenges in her life.

Susanna was suffering from thoughts of leaving her marriage, her husband's motorcycle accident, the reveal of an extramarital affair on the part of her husband, and finding out that her husband had been hiding a gambling addiction that had nearly bankrupted them.

Susanna's therapist worked with Susanna to develop a course of treatment that heavily incorporated gratitude. Her therapist encouraged Susanna to reflect on all of the things she had to be grateful for and helped her "self-right" her perspective to truly appreciate each moment in her daily life while building a new life that better suited her strengths, weaknesses, and her circumstances.

This treatment improved Susanna's ability to function and helped her to remain emotionally available to her children and more self-aware.

The authors end by noting the ways that gratitude interventions differ from most other types of interventions.

First, the prosocial and relational nature of gratitude can build unique pathways to happiness and wellbeing. Gratitude is also a fulfilling practice, facilitating an appreciation of both the current moment and one's past.

There is much evidence that gratitude interventions result in many positive benefits, and that incorporating gratitude into therapy can help clients and patients realize these benefits.

Using a Gratitude Intervention to Enhance Wellbeing in Older Adults

This study (Killen & Macaskill, 2015) utilized the "three good things" exercise to enhance gratitude in adults 60 years and older. This exercise involves writing down three good things you have to be grateful for each day, generally at night.

The study was conducted on a group of 88 healthy adults aged 60 or over and lasted for 45 days. Results showed that this gratitude intervention improved wellbeing via flourishing, at multiple points throughout the duration of the study. Perceived stress also decreased over the first 15 days.

This intervention was effective whether administered via paper or online and showed that gratitude journaling can have a significant positive effect on older adults.

Gratitude and Wellbeing: The Benefits of Appreciation

This piece by Randy A. Sansone and Lori A. Sansone (Sansone & Sansone, 2010) explores the effects of gratitude on wellbeing.

The authors describe several studies that have provided evidence of a link between these two constructs.

For example, the authors describe three journaling methods for investigating these effects undertaken by gratitude researchers Emmon and McCullough, including one group that journaled about negative events or hassles in life, one group that journaled about things they were grateful for, and one group that journaled about neutral life events.

The group focusing on things they were grateful for reported significantly higher wellbeing than the other two groups.

Another study pitted a group who completed the "counting one's blessings" exercise, in which participants wrote about things they were grateful for or for which they felt blessed at the end of each week, against a group who identified challenges or hassles in life and a control group. Those who counted their blessings seemed to experience a boost in wellbeing.

The authors conclude that gratitude can be an effective way to enhance wellbeing, and suggest several exercises that can be used as interventions in therapy, including:

Journaling about things for which to be grateful.

Thinking about someone for whom you are grateful.

Writing and/or sending a letter to someone for whom you are grateful.

Meditating on gratitude The "count your blessings" exercise.

Practicing saying "thank you" and really meaning it.

Writing thank you notes.

If you are religious, incorporating your gratitude in prayer.

To read about these examples and learn how to measure gratitude, you can read the paper here.

4 Gratitude Lesson Ideas for Teachers

The modern classroom sees teachers educating about far more than literacy and numeracy. Social and emotional learning is now incorporated into the curriculum. Teaching gratitude provides students with powerful life-skills. Here are some resources to utilize in planning gratitude lessons.

1. What is Gratitude?

After an initial 'activation of thinking' exercise, brainstorm about gratitude. Then, students can watch a video, such as Gratitude HD, Moving Art on YouTube, and jot down reflections from it on post-it notes. Then, in pairs, students work through guiding questions and the teacher introduces a book that is age-appropriate.

After the story, in pairs, have students discuss what they noticed in the book, what they connected with, and what they are thankful for.

Use photos, calendar images or Visual Talking Cards to provide a starting point for a discussion about gratitude and sharing knowledge among the class. Before closing the lesson, use an ABC Brainstorm Template (available from the link provided below) to generate a list of things students are grateful for.

Find the lesson idea here at its source (Heart-Mind online, 2014).

2. Acts of Kindness (Grades K - 2)

This lesson is designed for students to be given the opportunity to identify ways that they have acted with kindness and caring towards others.

Firstly, provide an explanation to the class about feeling grateful and have a discussion. Then, have the students close their eyes and visualize someone they have been kind to or helped, and to recall how this made them feel as well as what the other person said or did.

Ask students to open their eyes and share what they visualized. Then, ask students to draw a picture of what they visualized and write a caption to go with it. Alternatively, students could write a short paragraph about it.

To extend this lesson, older students could be encouraged to record times when they show kindness to others, the reasons why they did, and how they feel, in a gratitude journal. Or, the class could be prompted to talk about an act of kindness they could do for someone in the school and the teacher can help them put this into action.

3. Food Gratitude (Grades 3 - 5)

The class lists as many different fruits as they can. Then, they vote on which fruit is the favorite fruit for most people in the class.

Guide students through a visualization of all of the people or resources who made it possible for them to enjoy this fruit.

In groups of four, students discuss the visualization and on a large piece of paper, draw all of the people, tools and natural elements necessary to produce the fruit. As students draw, discuss the many people involved in the process of making the fruit available, and prompt the class to think about how they would show gratitude to all of the people-they then add this to the drawing.

The following day, bring in some of the fruit that the students selected (being sure no student is allergic) and ask them to think of all of the properties of the fruit and reflect upon all the people involved in its production.

Finally, before the class enjoys eating the fruit, invite them to recall the expressions of gratitude that they wrote on the drawings and to feel that gratitude.

4. People Who Made a Difference (Grades 6 - 8)

This exercise is designed to help students understand that they can feel gratitude to people whose actions benefit the whole of society and these benefits can last for centuries.

Students identify a historical figure who did something that they feel grateful for. Then, helps students visualize the person, what it would be like to be with them, and the sense of gratitude the student has. Following this, students write an essay looking into what the person did that they were grateful for, and consider the intention and motives of the person.

Students should also think about the 'cost' of the figure's actions, not only in terms of money but more general personal sacrifices. Ask students to reflect upon how they have benefited from the person's actions and how the whole of society may have benefited.

To conclude the lesson, the class can present brief summaries of the historical figure they researched.

Here are the original sources for Lesson Plans 2-4 above (Zakrzewski, 2016).

Gratitude Games and Ideas for Kids

By now, you're probably thinking about all the good things that can happen when gratitude is incorporated into one's life. This is particularly true for children and using gratitude to boost resilience, enhance wellbeing, and encourage a positive outlook on life.

7 Tips for Fostering Gratitude

This piece describes seven ways to encourage the development of gratitude in children.

These tips include:

1. Model and teach gratitude. This is the best way to teach any trait you want your child to develop.

2. Spend time with your kids and being mindful with them. Quality time is not only a positive experience for both children and adults; it also offers opportunities to model empathy and cultivates a sense of appreciation for the things you love.

3. Support your child's autonomy. Allowing your children to be semi-autonomous helps them to build their strengths and talents, and encourages them to take ownership of their actions.

4. Use your children's strengths to fuel gratitude. Create opportunities for your children to be helpful and cooperative with others, enhancing their ability to feel and express gratitude.

5. Help focus and support kids to achieve intrinsic goals. In steering children away from the pursuit of materialistic goals and toward intrinsic goals, you can help children fulfill their own higher-level needs and aid in their development. Savor their accomplishments with them as one way to boost their sense of gratitude even more.

6. Encourage children to help others and devote time to nurturing relationships. Volunteer to help others with your child, and encourage them to offer a helping hand to loved ones in need of support. Helping them to develop strong, positive relationships is a great way to make sure they have something to be grateful for.

7. Help kids find what matters to them. Assisting your child in finding what he or she is passionate about is a good way to help them find gratitude as well. A sense of purpose or meaning in life helps us all to discover what we love, contribute to society, and practice gratitude.

More information on cultivating a sense of gratitude in children can be found here.

Gratitude in the Classroom

If you'd like to build gratitude in your children or the children you teach or mentor, try these suggestions:

1. Create a classroom gratitude book for each child to take home and add a page of pictures and descriptions of what they're grateful for. Switch out each week so every child has the opportunity to add a page.

2. Take a picture of each student holding a large piece of paper with one thing they are grateful for written on it, frame the picture, and send it home as a gift.

3. Create a gratitude collage or bulletin board, with pictures of things each student is grateful for.

4. Have each child write down something they are thankful for on strips of paper, and use the strips to create a gratitude chain, which can be hung around the classroom.

5. Hold a "Special Friends Day" before Thanksgiving, in which each student brings someone special to class. Each pair will write or draw something they are thankful for, which will be posted on a bulletin board.

6. Have the children create gratitude surprise sticky notes. Hand these sticky notes out to students and have them write down something they're grateful for in regards to someone else around the school, then encourage them to "deliver" the note to that person's locker, mailbox, or classroom door.

For many more classroom gratitude ideas, visit this website.

Gratitude Exercises for Children

The website www.blissfulkids.com also provides popular gratitude exercises that can help develop gratitude in children.

The top three gratitude exercises according to Chris Bergstrom and Blissful Kids are:

1. The Gratitude Journal. Provide your child with a journal and encourage them to write down five things they are grateful for each day. Bedtime is a great time to practice this exercise since children will have the whole day from which to choose what to write about.

2. The ABCs of Gratitude. Have your child sit comfortably and close their eyes. Tell them to list things they are grateful for, beginning with "A" and working all the way through the alphabet to "Z." Don't be surprised if this exercise gets a little silly-it's bound to get silly at some point, so just embrace it and enjoy the laughter with your child!

3. Bedtime Thank Yous. This can be incorporated into the gratitude journal or practiced as a standalone exercise. Help your child to think of happy things that happened to them during their day. They can simply say these things aloud, write them down in their journal, draw a picture of them, or simply think of them. This exercise can ensure that your child drifts off to sleep with a heart full of love and gratitude.

How to Develop Your Own Gratitude Ritual

Creating a gratitude ritual can be tough, just as starting any new habit can be difficult to stick with at first. Like most other practices, the more you do it, the easier it will get.

Try these tips to help you cultivate a fulfilling and impactful gratitude ritual (Rodrigues, 2017):

Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and take several slow, deep breaths.

Think of something good that has happened to you recently.

Think of a person or animal you love.

Think of an occasion when you were honored or appreciated by others.

Think about your present situation and what is going on in your life.

The popular website www.tinybuddha.com also provides several useful suggestions on implementing and sticking to a gratitude ritual.

Their steps are as follows (Russell, 2016):

1. Commit to your practice. There will be days when you feel like doing anything other than finding reasons to be grateful, but pushing through these days will empower you and help you build the strength and resilience necessary to push through other challenges.

2. Begin your practice. Just do it! Sit down with a pen and paper or a computer and start simply, with a prompt like "I am grateful for..." You may need to sit and think for a while, but that's okay. If you give it time and put in the effort, it will come!

3. Write it down. Sometimes thinking about what you are grateful for will not be enough. Be sure to write down what you are grateful for. Writing can have a powerful impact that just thinking may not bring about.

4. Feel it. Allow yourself to fully experience gratitude. Let it come up from your heart and throughout your body. Savor the feeling.

5. Choose a set time of day. This can be extremely helpful when starting a practice. Some popular times to practice gratitude are first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but choose a time that works for you.

6. Practice present-moment gratitude. While you may be writing these things down at the beginning or end of the day, make sure to notice all of the things for which you are grateful as they pop up throughout your day. Allow yourself to be in the present and to fully appreciate each thing you are grateful for as it arises.

7. Share the gratitude. Find a gratitude partner to share your list of things you are grateful for with, to discuss your challenges and your successes with, and to motivate you when you are not feeling up to the task (and vice versa).

8. Don't stop when you start noticing results! Although counterintuitive, it can be tempting to stop any practice once you start seeing the benefits. Make sure you are committed to your practice, whether it feels beneficial in the current moment or not.

9. Allow yourself to be human. It's alright to miss a day once in a while, and it's alright to feel grumpy about having to follow through on your commitment when it's the last thing you want to do. We are human, and we will make mistakes. If you're having trouble coming up with anything, at least write something like "I am grateful I am writing my gratitude list."

The popular dating website eharmony also provides tips on how to cultivate gratitude, especially in the context of dating and relationships. They suggest four steps (Libby, 2016):

1. Breathing. Simply close your eyes and take a deep and intentional breath, repeating until you feel calm and grounded.

2. Awakening your awareness. Allow yourself to meditate on your truth in the present moment.

3. Recognize your blessings. Think about what you are experiencing with your five senses if you have trouble getting started.

4. Emotions flow. Allow your emotions to come and go, to rise and fall as they will. Focus your attention on enjoying the feeling of gratitude working its way through your mind and to your heart.

5. Finally, Chris Libby from www.livehappy.com provides four rituals that you can implement to build gratitude in your life.

These rituals are (Libby, 2016):

Amazing Grace. Reflect on what you are grateful for at the dinner table before you begin eating, whether alone or with your family.

Focus on the "Haves." Instead of thinking about what you are missing, think about what you have. Write down at least three things you are grateful for each night.

The Write Stuff. Write a letter to someone you are grateful to or for, and read the letter aloud to them if possible. you can find more instructions for this exercise earlier in this piece.

Thankful Awareness. Try something new and fulfilling, such as volunteering at a food bank or soup kitchen, or handing out toys at a children's hospital. Witnessing the trials and challenges of others can often be a spur for you to notice the good things in your own life.

Gratitude Apps That Help You Stick to It

Sometimes, even when we know all of the right steps and have all of the right tips, practicing regular gratitude can be difficult. This is where an app can help! Try one of the gratitude apps described below to help you keep a regular gratitude practice.

1. Gratitude Journal

This classic gratitude exercise is put into digital form, with a daily journal for you to fill with things you are grateful for. It includes space for writing down several things each day, ratings of your feelings, daily quotes, and up to three photos per journal entry.

This app is available through iTunes here.

2. Gratitude Garden App

This app not only allows you to recall and record the things you are grateful for each day, it also rewards you with points for journaling. You can build up a gratitude garden with these points, a pretty space that can bring you joy by reminding you of what is good in your life.

You can also receive gratitude cards, which contain suggestions for further actions that can increase gratitude and happiness.

This app is free, and you can download it on iTunes here.

3. Grateful: A Gratitude Journal

Grateful was developed to make expressing gratitude both easy and fun. By recording your blessings in Grateful, during those 'down' moments you can be reminded of all the things in your life that you have to be grateful for.

Available here from iTunes.

4. Happyfeed

This is a private gratitude journal app allowing you to record happy moments each day. As well as securely recording these moments as they happen, Happyfeed also writes fun, silly, and informative daily reminders.

The more you use this app, the more valuable it becomes.

Head here to get the app.

6 Podcasts Focused on Gratitude

Podcasts are a convenient way to hear from experts, and can also be a good use of time such as when on public transport. There are some available on the topic of gratitude. Here they are...

1. The Gratitude Podcast is by Georgian Benta. It is devoted to all things gratitude, with over 500, 000 downloads. It includes interviews with successful people and getting them to share fascinating stories about how gratitude has helped them get to where they are now.

2. Episode 18 of the 'Being Well' podcast sees Dr Hanson and Forrest discuss the 5th of 12 strengths to be examined in the series - gratitude. They look at the role of positive emotions generally and especially the value of "thankfulness".

3. This podcast, "Why Gratitude Works" is by Christine Carter and Rona Renner. In it, these experts discuss the science of gratitude and the reasons why consciously practicing gratitude can improve people's happiness so markedly.

4. Featuring acclaimed author and grounded theory researcher, Brene Brown, the topic of this podcast is "On gratitude, vulnerability, and courage". When gratitude and the power of appreciating the smallest moments were discussed, the podcast became emotional.

5. This relatively short podcast, featuring Lewis Howes from the School of Greatness, looks at developing an 'attitude of gratitude'. Howes shares both expertise and personal experience - such as almost losing his father in a car accident, and how he learned not to take things for granted.

6. This podcast is slightly different to the others discussed above. It looks at gratitude as a skill, and how to build this skill. There is a lot covered in the podcast. If you don't have the time, or the inclination, to listen to a podcast a summary of the points covered is available on the site which is accessible from the hyperlink provided.

A Take-Home Message

I hope you have found this piece useful. I'm grateful for you, as a reader, who took the time to process some of these ideas.

The "gratitude muscle" is like any other muscle, in that it must be flexed periodically to remain strong.

Return to this page whenever you need a reminder about why gratitude is important to practice, or suggestions on how to boost your own sense of gratitude. Visit the section on developing gratitude in children to encourage your own children, clients, or students to commit to a lifetime of gratitude and happiness.

Thank you for reading, and please be sure to find at least three things to be grateful for today.

Do you have a regular gratitude practice? Are there other gratitude exercises that work for you? Please let us know in the comments section below.

We love hearing from you!

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

For further reading, we suggest:

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13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises & Activities

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We share gratitude exercises for your private practice or for teaching others about the science of happiness. Worksheets included!

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Purpose:

The purpose of the Youth Wellness Network curriculum is to provide training modules for both students and teachers to better understand wellness for youths which focuses on mindfulness and other strategies for improving health and well-being.

Who it Helps:

Students, teachers, and parents

What Does the Resource Include:

This resource included modules of training to help guide and educate students, parents, and teachers on wellness and draws on evidence-based practice.

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I share with my peers and I take action (Initiative Planning)

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Purpose: it is a casual way for students to rate their perspective on life and evaluate how much capacity for resilience they have

Who it helps: people of all ages, students and adults

Includes: evaluation of a persons perspective on life, a person's relationship skills, optimism, lifestyle and self efficacy

Nathan

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Purpose:

It helps children, adolescents and adults to identify and combine their strengths to build resilience. It enables individuals to take responsibility for their own well-being and build competence to face adversity and deal with times of rapid change.

Who it Helps:

Everybody; children, adolescents and adults

What does the Resource Include:

Resilience Talks

Professional Development

Training Programs

Resilience Program

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#STAYCONNECTED We are still providing our wide range of training and professional development services during these uncertain times.

Our existing online courses are all still available and will be delivered according to their original schedules.

All of our face to face training and workshops can be adapted to an online setting upon request.

If you are feeling isolated reach out and #stayconnected

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The Resilience Doughnut | Building Resilience World Wide

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STAYCONNECTED We are still providing our wide range of training and professional development services during these uncertain times. Our existing online courses are all still available and will be delivered according to their original schedules. All of our face to face training and workshops can be adapted to an online setting upon request.

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Understanding Mental Wellness -Mental health awareness training course

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Understanding Mental Wellness -Mental health awareness training course

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Purpose: educate student about mental wellness and introduces students to the topic of mental health and the ways in which they can implement coping strategies to manage their own challenging thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

Who it helps: anyone who want to learn more about mental wellness as well as those who are currently struggling

What does the resource include? Modules that teach students how to show support to friends and family who may be struggling, how to recognize when to seek help, and how to access appropriate resources to do so.

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This free digital course introduces students to the topic of mental health and the ways in which they can implement coping strategies to manage their own challenging thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Through interactive real-world scenarios, students learn how to support friends and family who may be struggling, how to recognize when to seek help, and how to access appropriate resources to do so.

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K12 Mental Health Course | Free Online Curriculum

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Understanding Mental Wellness is a digital resource that introduces middle and high school students to mental health education. Available in Spanish.

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Purpose: Thrively is a strengths-based learning platform to develop the whole child. Students are 30x more engaged when the school is committed to building on their strengths.

Who It Helps: Disengaged students

What Does the Resource Include?:

Universal screener for all students

Support for Tier-1 & Tier-2 students (MTSS, PBIS)

Powers your Graduate Portrait

Supports SEL and CTE initiatives

Enhance parent engagement

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Purpose: To help organize and re-prioritize aspects of your daily life needs to support your mental well-being.

Who it is made for: this website can be utilized by anyone who is looking to balance different aspects of their life, but tends towards concerns of adults.

Included Resources: Digital guides and templates, Online Interactive Wheel of Life, Links to affiliated articles/resources

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When our boss or mom decides when to go to bed and how much we Wake up, how many hours a day to work, and when to go to the toilet - so the balance will never be. So we just fill the day with other people's goals. We live by other people's values and try to satisfy not our desires, but other people's expectations. It's called survival.

Balance in life is possible only when you manage your present and future, personally control your time. When you decide directly what to pay attention to, then you just bring your life to balance.

Life balance is an interesting, active life by your rules, not a comfortable survival. To live an exciting life, you need to develop, search, learn and try new things. Every day to be carried away in at least one or two activities that bring you joy and pleasant emotions. For me, a reliable source of joy is meaningful work.

It is necessary to make a decision - to gradually regain control of their fate. Learn to ride independently without external help on the wheel of the spheres of your life.

The darkness of people do not control their time, so they have closed the way to balance. When they finally decide to take responsibility for their present and future, for their past decisions - then they will open the road to a happy and successful life.

Assessment tool "Wheel of Life Balance"

To achieve balance in life you need to put in order all sectors of your life. To assess the state of the most important parts of your life - use this exercise.

The wheel of life is a technique for analyzing and planning life. [1]

The printed picture-pattern, or calculated "wheel" online. The circle is divided into 8 sections, like pizza. Each sector is one sphere of life. You can choose your own, or those described above.

Evaluate the current state of each sphere from 1 to 10 points (1 - horror, 10 - everything is fine). 1 - inside the circle, 10 - on the outer circle. As a result, you get the wheel of life balance of your life.

The Wheel of Life Balance is an example.

The sphere of life that scored a few points is the main source of dissatisfaction in life. Improving it - improve the overall feeling of well-being.

It will be much more effective if you do this exercise two or three times a month to see progress.

"Wheel of Life" online interactive

Categories of the wheel of life

To understand how to do life balancing, consider satisfaction by spheres.

❶ Health & fitness

A person who does not have excellent health and energy is a vegetable. Exercise regularly, eat well and sleep well is a must.

❷ Money

First of all, it is financial prosperity, if it is not, it is difficult to talk about the balance of life.

❸ Career, business

If the money is all right - it is worth thinking about self-realization and purpose, persistently go to the big goal.

❹ Love, family, children

Family or relationship with a loved one. Relationships with the closest. It is difficult to live happily when there is no love.

❺ Environment and friends

Our environment forms us - a person is equal to the arithmetic mean of his friends.
The formula for the beginning of the formation of his circle: ⅓ friends below you, your level ⅓, ⅓ above.

❻ Personal growth

Develop yourself as a person: mind, skills, knowledge, habits, character, reading books, learning languages and new.

❼ Rest, pleasant experience, brightness of life

It is necessary to have a rest certainly qualitatively, as well as to work. Travel, new experiences, entertainment - all this gives energy and roundness to the circle of life.

Quite often, brilliant ideas and breakthrough discoveries are located at the intersection of two areas.
Develop in what you love very much, at the same time, do not forget to regularly try something new for yourself.
For example, I love to climb into the new. Dancing tap dance, where I was full zero.

❽ Spirituality

Each person is set to perceive this part of life on his own level. The search for something greater than the man himself: the meaning of life, God, idea, purpose, principle. Detailed knowledge and study of religion, philosophy. An often ignored area of the quiz the wheel of life.

The spiritual is all that can stand against all that is social, bodily, and even psychic in man. [2] V. Frankl

Dangers of misinterpretation

The wheel of life is just an exercise, quiz.
The power is in the visibility when compared to the physical wheel, but the same comparison is misleading.

No need to deceive yourself:

1. The wheel of expectation is a more definite and precise name for this technique.

Some feel disappointed when they see their crooked wheel and think: - "unfortunately, this wheel will not go far!" The name "wheel of life" implies that on this wheel you are rolling through life, that this is your life.

But this is far from the case. When you fill the wheel with life balance, you take it for an ideal - how do you think your life should look, not what it is.

Be sure to remove all expectations and idealization of your life, and your wheel to turn into a perfectly flat - it is on it that you roll.

Our life is already great. We are so well accustomed to the good that we do not even think about the fact that it is all necessary to appreciate. And often we pay attention to what we do not have.

2. The trap of idealizing the wheel. The word "wheel" automatically and imperceptibly attributes the properties of the physical wheel to the flow of our life.

The brain draws instead of the "wheel of life" the image of a car wheel-perfectly round, smooth, full of air. That's all she wrote. This image immediately idealizes your life.

Even despite the fact that all spheres will be 8-10 points, it is still not perfect, and annoying. We draw it as a "flat tire of the car" - agree that this even from the garage does not leave, not to mention the acceleration of more than 80 miles / h.

3. Trap in comparison with a conventional wheel - one mistakenly transferred the property of the physical wheel.

Depict the "wheel of life", dividing the circle into flat sectors. And at this point, the illusion is created that all sectors are equally important. And most importantly, it seems that all areas - occupy the same value in life.

"Job" occupies a specific sector, and "creativity" occupies a similar sector. If you work 8 hours a day and work to do too, for 8 hours or what?

Unfortunately, we are not aware of this error, but the subconscious saw sectors - equivalent.
This kind of equality spheres of life has plagued man. And everything is very simple, it is necessary to catch this moment in time, and not to languish.

4. Confusing wheel size.

This method offers to put estimates from 1 to 10 points. In the case when you are very dissatisfied with the state of your health and put 1 ball (for example, the back suddenly picked up in 23 years). That a "life balance wheel" will show that you have only 10% health. However, it is worth considering that this assessment is true for 85-year-old man, but not here.

The method does not take into account the scale of your life. And when you put all estimates on 3-5 points, it is easy to fall into the illusion that your life is insignificant.

The most correct would be if you put from 91 to 100 points. Thus, it will be seen that life is beautiful and excellent, there is everything to enjoy it today and now. And to feel 100 - can be a little at first.

5. The wheel of life at the moment.

Today, in the process of filling the wheel with life balance, you are not happy that for the past year there is no increase in work - put mark 3. And when a week later you suddenly promoted, you can safely put a well - deserved ten. Great breakthrough - 7 points for the week!

Do not forget that the test program does not show the dynamics, it must be taken into account.

6. The wheel of an ideal life.

In the process of compiling the wheel of life balance, you can put your "expectations" of life and not pleasantly upset. For positive people who have repeatedly worked with this test, and more than once reached all areas up to 10 points, this method is transformed into a "Wheel of approaching the ideal life". Example - to a perfect day.

In fact, people are clearly aware that life is very beautiful, and they love to develop, set new goals and achieve them. In this case, scores from 1 to 10 will reflect their approach to the goals in all areas.

An important difference is a fact that a person feels already in the top ten! But wants so much more, so can supply figure six, where a long would be worth it to put 16.

People could have personal experience to see all these dangers of interpretation of wheel size. They are clearly aware that the circle has grown long ago, but his demands have grown with him. Actually to it and it is necessary to come.

How to work with the wheel

Bringing life into balance, prioritization is the main step to a happy, controlled life. You cannot improve those aspects of your own life by which you do not remove the official and conscious attention.

As a rule, life is able to warp due to the fact that every day we personally tilt it to the weak side. We try to strengthen the already strong sides or pay excessive attention to things that do not bring satisfaction and growth.

The main purpose of the exercise is to specifically highlight in your mind the priority aspects of life for study. It is necessary to take into account the fact that in order to organize your life, you need to start with one area in your circle of life. If you learn to truly increase your satisfaction in one part of your life, you will simply transfer the positive experience to the remaining areas.

Wheel balance life - helps to prioritize.

The next step after the priority area has been allocated is to realize and understand what exactly does not satisfy you. Then make a plan and set goals to get things in order.

On the most important questions "How it is necessary to work with it?", "How to learn to achieve harmony of life?", the answer is one: you need to stubbornly approach the management of your life every day.

Useful materials

Download free test templates:

Video:

Life is not just one sector

What is the balance of life is complete satisfaction with life as it is. It is able to be diverse, it is not necessary to reduce it to smooth and beautiful sectors.

There is no sense in the pursuit to give each area an equal amount of time. You need to take just enough to not be bothered about this region, and ideally happy and bring positive emotions. Even if you have no intention of improving it because there are better things to do.

Often there is one main area of the wheel of life, the man is usually a career and money, the woman is a family, and everything else revolves and is stuck around this basic sector.

Life looks like this picture.

Life balance is when you are completely satisfied with all areas of life and their dynamics.
Satisfied - means that you are satisfied with the current situation and the pace of its development. If you are upset by the current situation, but notice that things are moving up - it is better to calm down and enjoy the rise.

But most importantly, try to balance the wheel of life, not forgetting that the perfect circle, the perfect sector - only in an ideal world.

updated Vitaliy

Sources:

1. Paul J. Mayers is the one who invented the practice of "coaching wheel"

2. Viktor Frankl - "Man in search of meaning" page. 60

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Wheel of life ⭕ - free online exercise. ✅ Wheel of Life Balance - online self-assessment coaching tool. Download template or build own circle of life online

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Purpose:

To help students recognize a change in emotions before it is too late. Students are asked to highlight indicators of them being in different "zones" and what they should do when they are there. Additionally, the are required to think about and make note of who they can turn to for help.

Who It Helps:

Students to understand what they need and teachers to understand what the students need/indicators to look for.

What Does the Resource Include?:

Fillable worksheet

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Adolescent Mental Health and Wellness Curriculum 

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Adolescent Mental Health and Wellness Curriculum 

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Purpose: The purpose of this manual is to help adolescents acquire the words and the questions they need to make better decisions in the area of mental health. Regardless of age, people make better decisions when they have accurate information.

Who’s it made for:Educators and other staff working with Adolescents

Specific Resources Included: Includes resources and activities for adolescents on Mental Health Substance Use, Safety and Strategies

“Our goal is to develop a starter kit for school leaders containing information directed at promoting wellness and facilitating resiliency of the adolescents in their school. It is designed to guide educators to run a preventive mental health program either with or without outside (or onsite) mental health expertise. The rationale, philosophy, and curriculum overview are described in the opening chapter. Specific classroom educational modules on stress, substance abuse and depression are then provided in subsequent chapters of this manual.”

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Purpose: This website talks about the benefits of gratitude on one's mental wellbeing.

Who It’s Made For: Everyone - Children, teachers, and adults.

What SPECIFIC resources are included: Different gratitude activities - gratitude jar, rock, tree, garden, box, prompts, ample, reflection, flower, email, visit. It suggests some meditation books, questionnaires, lesson ideas and more.

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We usually show our gratitude to others when we feel indebted to them, when we have benefitted from their actions, and when we want to make our feelings towards them known.

Showing gratitude is sometimes a required or expected thing, but at other times, a spontaneous "thank you" to someone who has unknowingly made our day. On most occasions, we show gratitude to bring the good feelings we have been gifted back to the gifter.

While it is admirable to want to share our gratitude and good feelings with others, we rarely stop to think about what giving others our gratitude does for us.

As it turns out, it does quite a lot for our brains and mental wellbeing.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Gratitude Exercises for free. These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients connect to more positive emotions and enjoy the benefits of gratitude.

Research shows that gratitude can (Morin, 2014):

Help you make friends. One study found that thanking a new acquaintance makes them more likely to seek a more lasting relationship with you.

Improve your physical health. People who exhibit gratitude report fewer aches and pains, a general feeling of health, more regular exercise, and more frequent checkups with their doctor than those who don't.

Improve your psychological health. Grateful people enjoy higher wellbeing and happiness and suffer from reduced symptoms of depression.

Enhance empathy and reduces aggression. Those who show their gratitude are less likely to seek revenge against others and more likely to behave in a prosocial manner, with sensitivity and empathy.

Improve your sleep. Practicing gratitude regularly can help you sleep longer and better.

Enhance your self-esteem. People who are grateful have increased self-esteem, partly due to their ability to appreciate other peoples' accomplishments.

Increase in mental strength. Grateful people have an advantage in overcoming trauma and enhanced resilience, helping them to bounce back from highly stressful situations.

With all of these benefits to practicing gratitude, your next question is probably "How do I do it?"

If so, you're in luck! Read on to discover some of the most popular exercises and activities for this, as well as tips to cultivate your own gratitude practice.

13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises and Activities

There are infinite ways to show our gratitude to others, to ourselves, and to a higher power or even "the universe" itself.

However, it can be tough to get started without practical ideas. These gratitude exercises and activities are some of the most well-known and proven ways to practice and enhance your gratitude.

1. Journaling

Writing down a few things you are grateful for is one of the easiest and most popular exercises available.

The purpose of the exercise is to reflect on the past day, few days, or week, and remember 3-5 things you are especially grateful for. In this way, you are focusing on all the good things that happened to you in a given set of time.

What is the appropriate amount of journaling one should do per week? Some people propose doing it every day while others suggest once per week. The arguments against doing it every day are that it can be tedious and forced. It becomes a practice you feel you should do or need to do instead of something you want to do.

When journaling becomes a banal task and not an enjoyable practice then you need to adjust the amount of journaling you do.

Besides the benefit of focusing on the wonderful things, this practice actually can increase your quality of sleep, decrease symptoms of sickness, and increase joy (Marsh, 2011).

It is important to cater your practice to what you need. Perhaps journaling every day for a short amount of time works for you, but over time, it feels better to journal every Friday.

Paying attention to what you are grateful for becomes easier as you practice it.

Imagine your life without the things or people that matter to you, before you begin writing. That should definitely boost your gratitude barometer.

2. Gratitude Jar

The gratitude jar is a stunningly simple exercise that can have profound effects on your wellbeing and outlook. It only requires a few ingredients: a jar (a box can also work); a ribbon, stickers, glitter, or whatever else you like to decorate the jar; paper and a pen or pencil for writing your gratitude notes; and gratitude!

Step 1: Find a jar or box.

Step 2: Decorate the jar however you wish. You can tie a ribbon around the jar's neck, put stickers on the sides, use clear glue and glitter to make it sparkle, paint it, keep it simple, or do whatever else you can think of to make it a pleasing sight.

Step 3: This is the most important step, which will be repeated every day. Think of at least three things throughout your day that you are grateful for. It can be something as benign as a coffee at your favorite place, or as grand as the love of your significant other or dear friend. Do this every day, write down what you are grateful for on little slips of paper and fill the jar.

Over time, you will find that you have a jar full of a myriad of reasons to be thankful for what you have and enjoy the life you are living. It also will cultivate a practice of expressing thanks.

If you are ever feeling especially down and need a quick pick-me-up, take a few notes out of the jar to remind yourself of who, and what, is good in your life.

3. Gratitude Rock

This exercise may sound a little silly. You may be thinking, "A rock? How can a rock help me practice gratitude?"

The secret to this exercise is that the rock is a symbol, a physical object you can use, to remind yourself of what you have.

The instructions are about as simple as instructions can be: just find a rock!

Make sure to pick one you like, whether you like it because it's pretty because it is smooth or has an interesting texture, or because you picked it up from a special place. If you have another small object you'd rather use instead, feel free to substitute that for the rock.

Carry this rock around in your pocket, leave it on your desk where you will see it throughout your day, or even wear it on a chain around your neck or your wrist.

Whenever you see it or touch it, pause to think about at least one thing you are grateful for. Whether it's something as small as the sun shining down on you in this moment or as large as the job that allows you to feed yourself or your family, just think of one thing that brings you joy or fulfillment.

When you take the stone out of your pocket or off of your body at the end of the day, take a moment to remember the things that you were grateful for throughout the day. When you put it on or in your pocket again in the morning, repeat this process to remember what you were grateful for yesterday.

Not only will this help you remember the things you are grateful for, but also it can trigger a mini-mindfulness moment in your day. It will bring you out of your head and into the present moment, giving you something to focus your attention on. It can also act as a switch to more positive thinking.

When you flip this switch multiple times a day, you will likely find that your average day has become much more positive.

4. Gratitude Tree

The gratitude tree is a great activity for children, and it can also be effective for adults who are open to experiencing a childlike sense of fun and wonder. You will need several double-sided colored sheets of paper, string or ribbon, scissors, twigs or tree branches, some stones or marbles, a vase, and a sense of gratitude.

Step 1: Make one or more leaf cutouts to use as a template for your leaves. Trace leaves on your colored paper.

Step 2: Cut out the leaves, punch a hole at the top of each leaf, and loop your string or ribbon through each hole.

Step 3: Put the stones or marbles in a vase and stick the tree branch or twig in the middle.

Step 4: Have your (or your child) draw or write things that you (or your child) are grateful for on the leaves. You can also use photographs if you'd like.

Step 5: Hang the leaves from the branches, and behold your gratitude tree!

This activity is easy and results in a pretty reminder of the things that bring you or your child joy throughout your daily life. It may be intended for kids but there is no age limit on finding creative ways to cultivate your gratitude, so get to drawing!

Here's a quick how-to video on the gratitude tree:

5. Gratitude Garden

The gratitude garden activity is a good activity to follow creating gratitude trees. This is also intended for children, but adults can certainly follow along to get into the gratitude spirit.

Follow these steps to journey to the gratitude garden (All Done Monkey, 2012).

1. Start the Journey: Stand up in front of the group, with the Thankfulness/Gratitude Tree in clear view. Explain that you are all going on a trip to the Grateful Garden, but to get there you have to go through three dangerous places. (Insert a word other than "dangerous" if more appropriate to the age group). The Thankfulness Tree will help you get through each one so you can make it to the Grateful Garden.

2. The Frowny Forest: The first stop is the Frowny Forest. Have the kids all mimic you as you frown, cross your arms, and hunch over. There is a lot of wind in the Frowny Forest, so mimic being tossed about by the wind, turning back and forth as if you are trying to fight it. The only way to leave the Frowny Forest is to feel happy again, so ask the kids to shout out things they are grateful for (using the Thankfulness Tree as a prompt). After they have named a few things, mimic great relief, with a big smile.

3. The Sad Swamp: But, oh no! Just beyond the Frowny Forest is the Sad Swamp! Hunch over again, swing your arms down low, and walk (in place) in big, heavy steps, as if walking through mud or water. Again, have the kids shout out things they are grateful for, so you can all leave the Sad Swamp.

4. The Mad Mountain: Past the Sad Swamp is the Mad Mountain. Have them imitate you as you pretend to climb up the mountain with great effort, making angry faces. Again, have the kids shout out things they are grateful for, so you can all feel happy again.

5. The Grateful Garden: Finally, you have all arrived at the Grateful Garden! What a good job they have done! To celebrate, everyone can do a Happy Hop!

Going through each of these negative emotions can be a fun and interactive learning opportunity for kids. For older children (or young-minded adults!), you can even add in a few other, more complex negative emotions, like the "Disgusted Dock" or the "Petty Pier."

To read these instructions, click here.

6. Gratitude Box

The gratitude box is a thoughtful way to share your feelings with loved ones and cultivate your own sense of gratitude.

This is another easy activity that requires only a box, some paper, and a pen or pencil to write down gratitude messages. You can make the box yourself or buy one, the prettier the better!

On the paper, write down a heartfelt message of gratitude to your loved one. If you're not sure how to start, here are some suggestions to begin your message:

1) "Thank you for..."

2) "What I love about you..."

3) "My holiday wish for you..."

You can also collect messages from others about your loved one, to pack the box with multiple messages of gratitude and love.

Place the message(s) into the box, wrap it up or put a bow on it, and give it to your loved one as a special gift, to both your loved one and yourself.

Read more about gratitude boxes here.

7. Gratitude Prompts

Gratitude prompts are a great way to get started, continue your practice, or kick-start a stalled gratitude practice. This is also a relatively simple exercise, with only one instruction: fill in the blank!

These prompts provide several ways to begin a gratitude statement, with infinite possibilities for completion. They cover multiple senses, colors, people, and things. The goal is to identify at least three things in each category that you are thankful for.

The prompts include:

I'm grateful for three things I hear:

I'm grateful for three things I see:

I'm grateful for three things I smell:

I'm grateful for three things I touch/feel:

I'm grateful for these three things I taste:

I'm grateful for these three blue things:

I'm grateful for these three animals/birds:

I'm grateful for these three friends:

I'm grateful for these three teachers:

I'm grateful for these three family members:

I'm grateful for these three things in my home:

I'm grateful for these three people who hired me:

Etc.

This simple exercise is a great way to identify all the things you are grateful for. To see all of the categories and examples for each category, click here.

8. Gratitude Amble

This exercise only requires your sense of gratitude and a pair of feet or wheelchair.

When you are going through a particularly rough time, try cleansing your mind with a gratitude walk. Just as the combination of meditation and gratitude can combat stress or increase feelings of wellbeing, walking with a gratitude focal point can offer the same remedy.

Walking is therapeutic in itself.

It has health benefits like increased endorphins that decrease stress, increased heart health, and circulation in the body, decreased lethargy, and decreases in blood pressure. Couple this activity with a grateful state of mind and you are bound to nurture a positive mind and body (Rickman 2013).

The goal of the gratitude walk is to observe the things you see around you as you walk. Take it all in. Be aware of nature, the colors of the trees, the sounds the birds make, and the smell of the plants. Notice how your feet feel when you step onto the ground.

The effects are more potent when you can enjoy a gratitude walk with your partner or a friend. In this way, you can show them an appreciation for being able to spend the time walking together.

9. Gratitude Reflection

Reflection is an important part of mindfulness meditation and the cultivation of a sense of self-awareness. These practices can lead to an enhanced sense of wellbeing, among other benefits, although enhanced wellbeing is enough of a benefit for most of us.

To practice gratitude reflection, follow these steps (Still Mind, 2014):

1. Settle yourself in a relaxed posture. Take a few deep, calming breaths to relax and center. Let your awareness move to your immediate environment: all the things you can smell, taste, touch, see, hear. Say to yourself: "For this, I am grateful."

2. Next, bring to mind those people in your life to whom you are close: your friends, family, partner.... Say to yourself, "For this, I am grateful."

3. Next, turn your attention onto yourself: you are a unique individual, blessed with imagination, the ability to communicate, to learn from the past and plan for the future, to overcome any pain you may be experiencing. Say to yourself: "For this, I am grateful."

4. Finally, rest in the realization that life is a precious gift. That you have been born into a period of immense prosperity, that you have the gift of health, culture, and access to spiritual teachings. Say to yourself: "For this, I am grateful."

10. Gratitude Flower

The gratitude flower is similar to the gratitude tree, except that instead of creating leaves of gratitude, we create flower petals of gratitude.

Start by cutting out a circle from colored paper. Yellow is a popular color for this piece since it will be the center of the flower.

On the circle, write "Things I'm Thankful For" or write your name or family name, or even an overarching thing you're grateful for (i.e., "my family").

Next, use a template or freehand cut to create flower petals. You can use several different colors for a bright and vibrant flower, or the same color for a more uniform looking flower.

On the flower petals, write down things you are grateful for. These can be things like the sunny weather, having wonderful parents, or a promotion at work.

Glue or tape these petals to the center to create a flower. This is your gratitude flower!

11. Gratitude Letter or Email / Gratitude Visit

This might be the most powerful gratitude exercise. Write a hand-written letter to a person you are particularly grateful to have in your life.

Be detailed. Express all the wonderful qualities about this person, and how they personally have affected your life for the better.

If you have the time personally deliver this letter to the person yourself.

Do it unexpectedly. Your level of gratitude should skyrocket, as you observe the bliss the receiver gets from your generous act. It will probably be one of the greatest gifts you will ever receive.

The positive effects of this gratitude exercise were researched and carried out by Kent State professor Steve Toepfer, associate professor in Human Development and Family Studies.

In his 2007 study, his undergraduate students experienced enhanced levels of life satisfaction and happiness, as well as decreased symptoms of depression. Toepfer's goal of this study was to determine the psychological benefits, if any, for the authors of these gratitude letters (Vincent, 2007).

The results of this study are quite straightforward. If you wish to increase your gratitude and happiness levels then intentionally script letters to inspiring people in your life.

If you are feeling down and maybe even depressed, you should most certainly give this practice a try. For an even further joy boost hand deliver your letter to the receivers so you can witness the receiver's reactions for yourself.

This activity can be either an email or a letter which you can send off in the mail or deliver personally.

Think about a person who has recently done something good for you, to whom you have not yet expressed your gratitude. This person may be a friend, family member, coworker, teacher, or mentor.

Try to pick someone who you can visit within the next week if you are practicing the visit component.

Next, write them an email or letter. Use these guidelines to write an effective and grateful letter:

Write as though you are addressing the person directly.

Don't worry about getting your grammar or spelling perfect (unless you are sending the email/letter to them).

Describe what this person has done that makes you grateful, and how they have impacted your life. Be as concrete as possible here.

Describe what you are doing in life now, and how frequently you remember their act of kindness or generosity.

Try to keep your letter to about 300 words or so.

If you are writing an email or a letter to be mailed, go through the letter to make sure it is clear and you get the intended message across. Hit the "send" button or drop it in a mailbox.

If you are delivering your letter in person via a gratitude visit, follow these steps:

Plan a visit with the recipient. Let him or her know you would like to meet with them to share something, but be vague about what you have to share.

When you meet this person, let them know that you are grateful and that you would like to read them a letter you wrote expressing your gratitude. Ask that he or she does not interrupt you until you are done reading the letter.

Take your time reading the letter. While you read, pay attention to the reactions of both you and the recipient.

After you have read the letter, listen to his or her reaction to the letter and be ready to discuss your feelings together.

Remember to leave the letter with this person when you leave.

If you are located far away from this person, you can arrange a phone call or video chat instead.

12. Meditation

Gratitude meditations are a double-whammy for wellbeing. You are performing two of the most impactful happiness practice at the same time.

Meditation isn't always easy especially when the mind is aggressively wandering and distracting your attention, but if you practice this kind of mediation consistently be prepared to experience incredible upgrades in gratitude and joy.

Unlike a normal meditation where intentionally become aware of your breath and keep your mind clear, during a gratitude meditation you visualize all the things in your life that you are grateful for.

It is important to give each person or item the concentration it deserves. You can take the time to go through all the people you are grateful for or all the physical objects you are grateful for.

I like to simplify this sometimes and show gratitude for the things that are often taken for granted: the ability to breath, hands to touch, eyes to see, legs to walk and run, etc. There are numerous advantages to meditating. These advantages magnify when you take the time to target your reasons for gratitude.

Spend some time really taking stock of the things you are grateful for and I am certain you will feel much better afterward. It is a powerful exercise.

13. Collage

This is similar to the gratitude journal, except you are going to take pictures of all the things you are grateful for. This gives you the opportunity to visualize your gratitude.

Try taking a picture of one thing you are grateful for every day for a week. Notice how you feel. Take a look back at the pictures every week. You don't have to find grandiose things to be grateful for. A simple picture of a flower will do.

The more you do this the easier it will be for you to spot out the things you are grateful for. You will no longer take these simple things for granted.

Perhaps you will document multiple pictures in a day. After a given time period put all your pictures together in a collage and simply be grateful for all that you have.

A Gratitude Trick That Marie Forleo Learned from Robert Emmons

The following video shows the results of a USC study where students kept a gratitude journal for 10 weeks. Watch what happened when the three groups had different prompts-and results.

If one of the three prompts mentioned in the video resonate with you, why not give it a try? If not for 10-weeks, for two weeks? You might be surprised with the slow and steady benefits this simple tip brings.

Gratitude Exercise: The Can of Beans

The following gratitude exercise was invented by Seph Fontane Pennock. For this exercise you're going to need:

Many of us can buy a can of white beans without thinking much, let alone the food many of us are fortunate to put into our bodies. For this exercise, we invite you to have a meal of a can of beans. Nothing else that night. Just the beans.

There's no warming them up or pouring the beans into a nice cup. That beats the purpose of the exercise. You simply grab a spoon, open up the can, imagine you're sitting around the campfire at the foot of the Sierra Madra, and dig in.

What is the purpose of the exercise?

The purpose of this gratitude exercise is to realize and appreciate what we have. Appreciation. It can make you realize that every day, you are able to eat all sorts of foods, flown or shipped in from all over the world for you to eat. It is quite extraordinary if you think about it, but it can be easy to take for granted for those who have food security.

During this exercise, you may start to compare the beans that you're eating with other meals you crave. This allows you to take a moment and appreciate those usual foods, and how they fuel you.

The benefits:

Performing this gratitude exercise once a week:

1. Makes you a more mindful eater.

2. Makes you appreciate what you have in life, or at least, what you eat.

3. Makes you realize that we don't need so much in order to satisfy our basic human needs.

4. Allows you to actually enjoy the ritual and experience positive emotions while your eating beans that tend to last throughout the whole evening.

The most powerful thing about this gratitude exercise is its simplicity. Performing this exercise is easier than its alternative, which means cooking up a whole meal (and ending up with the dishes).

What about your spouse or kids?

In case you are living with someone or if you have kids, you're going to have more of a challenge in performing this exercise.

You can either explain the exercise to them and invite them to join you if they wish (it's important that they decide to do so themselves), or do the exercise on one of those evenings that you don't get to eat together with your family or spouse.

2 Gratitude Quizzes and Questionnaires

Looking for a quick way to assess how grateful you are? These quizzes and questionnaires are readily available on the internet.

1. Greater Good at Berkeley Quiz - This 20-item quiz is based on a scale developed by psychologists, Mitchel Adler, and Nancy Fagley. It is available online, and completion will give an overall gratitude score, as well as being given steps on how to promote further gratitude in life.

2. This is the GQ-6, a brief questionnaire that may take as little as about 30 seconds to complete. It was devised by Michael E. McCullough, Ph.D., Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., Jo-Ann Tsang, Ph.D. The GQ-6 gives an impression of how grateful a person is already. It consists of 6 questions, with responses in a Likert-type scale from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree'.

Handy Gratitude Worksheets

If you like easy to follow worksheets, we have several suggestions that can help you get started practicing gratitude.

Try one of the following worksheets.

Gratitude Exercises

This handout describes several useful gratitude exercises, some of which are included above, in a short paragraph. Consider this your master list of the best gratitude exercises with a quick and easy explanation.

You can find this worksheet here.

To learn about these gratitude exercises in more detail, try the worksheets below.

Gratitude Journal

This worksheet is a quick and easy way to document the things you are grateful for each day. It begins by noting that keeping a journal helps to improve your mood. The worksheet then instructs the user to write at least three entries for each day.

This simple worksheet lists each day of the week with five sections of blank space to fill out with things that make you grateful. Gratitude Journal

Why I'm Grateful Worksheet

This simple worksheet helps you find things you are grateful for, complete with prompts to get you started. These prompts cover multiple areas of life and dive deeper into your sense of gratitude.

Instead of just helping you identify what you are grateful for, this worksheet digs into why you are grateful.

The prompts include:

"I am grateful for my family because..."

"Something good happened this week..."

"I am grateful for my friendship with... because..."

"I am grateful for who I am because..."

"Something silly that I am grateful for..."

"Something else I am grateful for..."

Simply fill in the blanks on this worksheet to discover more to be grateful for in your life! Click here to use this worksheet.

Gratitude Letter

Produced by Allina Health, this sheet looks at 'overlooked blessings' and reflections on positive things about the individual's health and body, activities they enjoy, and relationships they are grateful for.

Finally, the worksheet prompts individuals to write a gratitude letter.

Daily Gratitude

This worksheet provides a template for a daily gratitude journal, with room to record three things in the last 24 hours the client is thankful for, and three things that they are looking forward to in the next 24 hours.

Gratitude Journal Activity

This provides a gratitude journal activity creating a list of 100 things an individual is grateful for by completing 5 mini-lists, each containing 20 lines. For example, the prompt for the first list is to "list 20 things that you are grateful worked out for you...evidence that the universe is on your side."

Examples of Gratitude Interventions for Adults

Many of the gratitude exercises described above have been used in interventions to increase gratitude, with varying results. Check out the following studies.

Gratitude as a Psychotherapeutic Intervention

A paper by Robert A. Emmons and Robin Stern (Emmons & Stern, 2013) describes how gratitude can have a positive impact on patients and clients in therapeutic relationships.

The authors also outline several different methods of applying gratitude interventions to adults, including keeping a journal. The article includes a case study of a woman facing severe stress and multiple challenges in her life.

Susanna was suffering from thoughts of leaving her marriage, her husband's motorcycle accident, the reveal of an extramarital affair on the part of her husband, and finding out that her husband had been hiding a gambling addiction that had nearly bankrupted them.

Susanna's therapist worked with Susanna to develop a course of treatment that heavily incorporated gratitude. Her therapist encouraged Susanna to reflect on all of the things she had to be grateful for and helped her "self-right" her perspective to truly appreciate each moment in her daily life while building a new life that better suited her strengths, weaknesses, and her circumstances.

This treatment improved Susanna's ability to function and helped her to remain emotionally available to her children and more self-aware.

The authors end by noting the ways that gratitude interventions differ from most other types of interventions.

First, the prosocial and relational nature of gratitude can build unique pathways to happiness and wellbeing. Gratitude is also a fulfilling practice, facilitating an appreciation of both the current moment and one's past.

There is much evidence that gratitude interventions result in many positive benefits, and that incorporating gratitude into therapy can help clients and patients realize these benefits.

Using a Gratitude Intervention to Enhance Wellbeing in Older Adults

This study (Killen & Macaskill, 2015) utilized the "three good things" exercise to enhance gratitude in adults 60 years and older. This exercise involves writing down three good things you have to be grateful for each day, generally at night.

The study was conducted on a group of 88 healthy adults aged 60 or over and lasted for 45 days. Results showed that this gratitude intervention improved wellbeing via flourishing, at multiple points throughout the duration of the study. Perceived stress also decreased over the first 15 days.

This intervention was effective whether administered via paper or online and showed that gratitude journaling can have a significant positive effect on older adults.

Gratitude and Wellbeing: The Benefits of Appreciation

This piece by Randy A. Sansone and Lori A. Sansone (Sansone & Sansone, 2010) explores the effects of gratitude on wellbeing.

The authors describe several studies that have provided evidence of a link between these two constructs.

For example, the authors describe three journaling methods for investigating these effects undertaken by gratitude researchers Emmon and McCullough, including one group that journaled about negative events or hassles in life, one group that journaled about things they were grateful for, and one group that journaled about neutral life events.

The group focusing on things they were grateful for reported significantly higher wellbeing than the other two groups.

Another study pitted a group who completed the "counting one's blessings" exercise, in which participants wrote about things they were grateful for or for which they felt blessed at the end of each week, against a group who identified challenges or hassles in life and a control group. Those who counted their blessings seemed to experience a boost in wellbeing.

The authors conclude that gratitude can be an effective way to enhance wellbeing, and suggest several exercises that can be used as interventions in therapy, including:

Journaling about things for which to be grateful.

Thinking about someone for whom you are grateful.

Writing and/or sending a letter to someone for whom you are grateful.

Meditating on gratitude The "count your blessings" exercise.

Practicing saying "thank you" and really meaning it.

Writing thank you notes.

If you are religious, incorporating your gratitude in prayer.

To read about these examples and learn how to measure gratitude, you can read the paper here.

4 Gratitude Lesson Ideas for Teachers

The modern classroom sees teachers educating about far more than literacy and numeracy. Social and emotional learning is now incorporated into the curriculum. Teaching gratitude provides students with powerful life-skills. Here are some resources to utilize in planning gratitude lessons.

1. What is Gratitude?

After an initial 'activation of thinking' exercise, brainstorm about gratitude. Then, students can watch a video, such as Gratitude HD, Moving Art on YouTube, and jot down reflections from it on post-it notes. Then, in pairs, students work through guiding questions and the teacher introduces a book that is age-appropriate.

After the story, in pairs, have students discuss what they noticed in the book, what they connected with, and what they are thankful for.

Use photos, calendar images or Visual Talking Cards to provide a starting point for a discussion about gratitude and sharing knowledge among the class. Before closing the lesson, use an ABC Brainstorm Template (available from the link provided below) to generate a list of things students are grateful for.

Find the lesson idea here at its source (Heart-Mind online, 2014).

2. Acts of Kindness (Grades K - 2)

This lesson is designed for students to be given the opportunity to identify ways that they have acted with kindness and caring towards others.

Firstly, provide an explanation to the class about feeling grateful and have a discussion. Then, have the students close their eyes and visualize someone they have been kind to or helped, and to recall how this made them feel as well as what the other person said or did.

Ask students to open their eyes and share what they visualized. Then, ask students to draw a picture of what they visualized and write a caption to go with it. Alternatively, students could write a short paragraph about it.

To extend this lesson, older students could be encouraged to record times when they show kindness to others, the reasons why they did, and how they feel, in a gratitude journal. Or, the class could be prompted to talk about an act of kindness they could do for someone in the school and the teacher can help them put this into action.

3. Food Gratitude (Grades 3 - 5)

The class lists as many different fruits as they can. Then, they vote on which fruit is the favorite fruit for most people in the class.

Guide students through a visualization of all of the people or resources who made it possible for them to enjoy this fruit.

In groups of four, students discuss the visualization and on a large piece of paper, draw all of the people, tools and natural elements necessary to produce the fruit. As students draw, discuss the many people involved in the process of making the fruit available, and prompt the class to think about how they would show gratitude to all of the people-they then add this to the drawing.

The following day, bring in some of the fruit that the students selected (being sure no student is allergic) and ask them to think of all of the properties of the fruit and reflect upon all the people involved in its production.

Finally, before the class enjoys eating the fruit, invite them to recall the expressions of gratitude that they wrote on the drawings and to feel that gratitude.

4. People Who Made a Difference (Grades 6 - 8)

This exercise is designed to help students understand that they can feel gratitude to people whose actions benefit the whole of society and these benefits can last for centuries.

Students identify a historical figure who did something that they feel grateful for. Then, helps students visualize the person, what it would be like to be with them, and the sense of gratitude the student has. Following this, students write an essay looking into what the person did that they were grateful for, and consider the intention and motives of the person.

Students should also think about the 'cost' of the figure's actions, not only in terms of money but more general personal sacrifices. Ask students to reflect upon how they have benefited from the person's actions and how the whole of society may have benefited.

To conclude the lesson, the class can present brief summaries of the historical figure they researched.

Here are the original sources for Lesson Plans 2-4 above (Zakrzewski, 2016).

Gratitude Games and Ideas for Kids

By now, you're probably thinking about all the good things that can happen when gratitude is incorporated into one's life. This is particularly true for children and using gratitude to boost resilience, enhance wellbeing, and encourage a positive outlook on life.

7 Tips for Fostering Gratitude

This piece describes seven ways to encourage the development of gratitude in children.

These tips include:

1. Model and teach gratitude. This is the best way to teach any trait you want your child to develop.

2. Spend time with your kids and being mindful with them. Quality time is not only a positive experience for both children and adults; it also offers opportunities to model empathy and cultivates a sense of appreciation for the things you love.

3. Support your child's autonomy. Allowing your children to be semi-autonomous helps them to build their strengths and talents, and encourages them to take ownership of their actions.

4. Use your children's strengths to fuel gratitude. Create opportunities for your children to be helpful and cooperative with others, enhancing their ability to feel and express gratitude.

5. Help focus and support kids to achieve intrinsic goals. In steering children away from the pursuit of materialistic goals and toward intrinsic goals, you can help children fulfill their own higher-level needs and aid in their development. Savor their accomplishments with them as one way to boost their sense of gratitude even more.

6. Encourage children to help others and devote time to nurturing relationships. Volunteer to help others with your child, and encourage them to offer a helping hand to loved ones in need of support. Helping them to develop strong, positive relationships is a great way to make sure they have something to be grateful for.

7. Help kids find what matters to them. Assisting your child in finding what he or she is passionate about is a good way to help them find gratitude as well. A sense of purpose or meaning in life helps us all to discover what we love, contribute to society, and practice gratitude.

More information on cultivating a sense of gratitude in children can be found here.

Gratitude in the Classroom

If you'd like to build gratitude in your children or the children you teach or mentor, try these suggestions:

1. Create a classroom gratitude book for each child to take home and add a page of pictures and descriptions of what they're grateful for. Switch out each week so every child has the opportunity to add a page.

2. Take a picture of each student holding a large piece of paper with one thing they are grateful for written on it, frame the picture, and send it home as a gift.

3. Create a gratitude collage or bulletin board, with pictures of things each student is grateful for.

4. Have each child write down something they are thankful for on strips of paper, and use the strips to create a gratitude chain, which can be hung around the classroom.

5. Hold a "Special Friends Day" before Thanksgiving, in which each student brings someone special to class. Each pair will write or draw something they are thankful for, which will be posted on a bulletin board.

6. Have the children create gratitude surprise sticky notes. Hand these sticky notes out to students and have them write down something they're grateful for in regards to someone else around the school, then encourage them to "deliver" the note to that person's locker, mailbox, or classroom door.

For many more classroom gratitude ideas, visit this website.

Gratitude Exercises for Children

The website www.blissfulkids.com also provides popular gratitude exercises that can help develop gratitude in children.

The top three gratitude exercises according to Chris Bergstrom and Blissful Kids are:

1. The Gratitude Journal. Provide your child with a journal and encourage them to write down five things they are grateful for each day. Bedtime is a great time to practice this exercise since children will have the whole day from which to choose what to write about.

2. The ABCs of Gratitude. Have your child sit comfortably and close their eyes. Tell them to list things they are grateful for, beginning with "A" and working all the way through the alphabet to "Z." Don't be surprised if this exercise gets a little silly-it's bound to get silly at some point, so just embrace it and enjoy the laughter with your child!

3. Bedtime Thank Yous. This can be incorporated into the gratitude journal or practiced as a standalone exercise. Help your child to think of happy things that happened to them during their day. They can simply say these things aloud, write them down in their journal, draw a picture of them, or simply think of them. This exercise can ensure that your child drifts off to sleep with a heart full of love and gratitude.

How to Develop Your Own Gratitude Ritual

Creating a gratitude ritual can be tough, just as starting any new habit can be difficult to stick with at first. Like most other practices, the more you do it, the easier it will get.

Try these tips to help you cultivate a fulfilling and impactful gratitude ritual (Rodrigues, 2017):

Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and take several slow, deep breaths.

Think of something good that has happened to you recently.

Think of a person or animal you love.

Think of an occasion when you were honored or appreciated by others.

Think about your present situation and what is going on in your life.

The popular website www.tinybuddha.com also provides several useful suggestions on implementing and sticking to a gratitude ritual.

Their steps are as follows (Russell, 2016):

1. Commit to your practice. There will be days when you feel like doing anything other than finding reasons to be grateful, but pushing through these days will empower you and help you build the strength and resilience necessary to push through other challenges.

2. Begin your practice. Just do it! Sit down with a pen and paper or a computer and start simply, with a prompt like "I am grateful for..." You may need to sit and think for a while, but that's okay. If you give it time and put in the effort, it will come!

3. Write it down. Sometimes thinking about what you are grateful for will not be enough. Be sure to write down what you are grateful for. Writing can have a powerful impact that just thinking may not bring about.

4. Feel it. Allow yourself to fully experience gratitude. Let it come up from your heart and throughout your body. Savor the feeling.

5. Choose a set time of day. This can be extremely helpful when starting a practice. Some popular times to practice gratitude are first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but choose a time that works for you.

6. Practice present-moment gratitude. While you may be writing these things down at the beginning or end of the day, make sure to notice all of the things for which you are grateful as they pop up throughout your day. Allow yourself to be in the present and to fully appreciate each thing you are grateful for as it arises.

7. Share the gratitude. Find a gratitude partner to share your list of things you are grateful for with, to discuss your challenges and your successes with, and to motivate you when you are not feeling up to the task (and vice versa).

8. Don't stop when you start noticing results! Although counterintuitive, it can be tempting to stop any practice once you start seeing the benefits. Make sure you are committed to your practice, whether it feels beneficial in the current moment or not.

9. Allow yourself to be human. It's alright to miss a day once in a while, and it's alright to feel grumpy about having to follow through on your commitment when it's the last thing you want to do. We are human, and we will make mistakes. If you're having trouble coming up with anything, at least write something like "I am grateful I am writing my gratitude list."

The popular dating website eharmony also provides tips on how to cultivate gratitude, especially in the context of dating and relationships. They suggest four steps (Libby, 2016):

1. Breathing. Simply close your eyes and take a deep and intentional breath, repeating until you feel calm and grounded.

2. Awakening your awareness. Allow yourself to meditate on your truth in the present moment.

3. Recognize your blessings. Think about what you are experiencing with your five senses if you have trouble getting started.

4. Emotions flow. Allow your emotions to come and go, to rise and fall as they will. Focus your attention on enjoying the feeling of gratitude working its way through your mind and to your heart.

5. Finally, Chris Libby from www.livehappy.com provides four rituals that you can implement to build gratitude in your life.

These rituals are (Libby, 2016):

Amazing Grace. Reflect on what you are grateful for at the dinner table before you begin eating, whether alone or with your family.

Focus on the "Haves." Instead of thinking about what you are missing, think about what you have. Write down at least three things you are grateful for each night.

The Write Stuff. Write a letter to someone you are grateful to or for, and read the letter aloud to them if possible. you can find more instructions for this exercise earlier in this piece.

Thankful Awareness. Try something new and fulfilling, such as volunteering at a food bank or soup kitchen, or handing out toys at a children's hospital. Witnessing the trials and challenges of others can often be a spur for you to notice the good things in your own life.

Gratitude Apps That Help You Stick to It

Sometimes, even when we know all of the right steps and have all of the right tips, practicing regular gratitude can be difficult. This is where an app can help! Try one of the gratitude apps described below to help you keep a regular gratitude practice.

1. Gratitude Journal

This classic gratitude exercise is put into digital form, with a daily journal for you to fill with things you are grateful for. It includes space for writing down several things each day, ratings of your feelings, daily quotes, and up to three photos per journal entry.

This app is available through iTunes here.

2. Gratitude Garden App

This app not only allows you to recall and record the things you are grateful for each day, it also rewards you with points for journaling. You can build up a gratitude garden with these points, a pretty space that can bring you joy by reminding you of what is good in your life.

You can also receive gratitude cards, which contain suggestions for further actions that can increase gratitude and happiness.

This app is free, and you can download it on iTunes here.

3. Grateful: A Gratitude Journal

Grateful was developed to make expressing gratitude both easy and fun. By recording your blessings in Grateful, during those 'down' moments you can be reminded of all the things in your life that you have to be grateful for.

Available here from iTunes.

4. Happyfeed

This is a private gratitude journal app allowing you to record happy moments each day. As well as securely recording these moments as they happen, Happyfeed also writes fun, silly, and informative daily reminders.

The more you use this app, the more valuable it becomes.

Head here to get the app.

6 Podcasts Focused on Gratitude

Podcasts are a convenient way to hear from experts, and can also be a good use of time such as when on public transport. There are some available on the topic of gratitude. Here they are...

1. The Gratitude Podcast is by Georgian Benta. It is devoted to all things gratitude, with over 500, 000 downloads. It includes interviews with successful people and getting them to share fascinating stories about how gratitude has helped them get to where they are now.

2. Episode 18 of the 'Being Well' podcast sees Dr Hanson and Forrest discuss the 5th of 12 strengths to be examined in the series - gratitude. They look at the role of positive emotions generally and especially the value of "thankfulness".

3. This podcast, "Why Gratitude Works" is by Christine Carter and Rona Renner. In it, these experts discuss the science of gratitude and the reasons why consciously practicing gratitude can improve people's happiness so markedly.

4. Featuring acclaimed author and grounded theory researcher, Brene Brown, the topic of this podcast is "On gratitude, vulnerability, and courage". When gratitude and the power of appreciating the smallest moments were discussed, the podcast became emotional.

5. This relatively short podcast, featuring Lewis Howes from the School of Greatness, looks at developing an 'attitude of gratitude'. Howes shares both expertise and personal experience - such as almost losing his father in a car accident, and how he learned not to take things for granted.

6. This podcast is slightly different to the others discussed above. It looks at gratitude as a skill, and how to build this skill. There is a lot covered in the podcast. If you don't have the time, or the inclination, to listen to a podcast a summary of the points covered is available on the site which is accessible from the hyperlink provided.

A Take-Home Message

I hope you have found this piece useful. I'm grateful for you, as a reader, who took the time to process some of these ideas.

The "gratitude muscle" is like any other muscle, in that it must be flexed periodically to remain strong.

Return to this page whenever you need a reminder about why gratitude is important to practice, or suggestions on how to boost your own sense of gratitude. Visit the section on developing gratitude in children to encourage your own children, clients, or students to commit to a lifetime of gratitude and happiness.

Thank you for reading, and please be sure to find at least three things to be grateful for today.

Do you have a regular gratitude practice? Are there other gratitude exercises that work for you? Please let us know in the comments section below.

We love hearing from you!

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

For further reading, we suggest:

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13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises & Activities

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We share gratitude exercises for your private practice or for teaching others about the science of happiness. Worksheets included!

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15 Best Self-Esteem Worksheets and Activities

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15 Best Self-Esteem Worksheets and Activities

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Purpose:

Help with people with Low Self-Esteem and Low Self-Worth

Who it helps:

Kids in Primary School, Teens in Middle or High School, College Students and Adults.

Resources:

prompts, worksheet, article

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We all experience moments of self-doubt and uncertainty. Even the most confident and happy people have moments where they think, "I'm such a failure."

It's a part of being human. However, if you find yourself having these kinds of negative thoughts frequently or letting these feelings get in the way of living a healthy and happy life, it may be time to do something about it.

Luckily, there are many ways to increase your sense of self-worth. It probably won't be easy, but it can certainly be done.

Building self-esteem can be a difficult, though rewarding, journey in adulthood. It's much easier to develop this characteristic at a young age and to foster it while growing up. If you are a parent, child therapist, teacher, or any other valued adult in the life of a child, you can use these tools to begin cultivating a healthy sense of self-esteem in the children in your life.

We'll provide several methods and activities for building self-esteem, starting with self-esteem worksheets for young children and ending with self-esteem worksheets for adults.

Before you read on, we thought you might like to download our three Self-Compassion Exercises for free. These detailed, science-based exercises will not only help you show more compassion and kindness towards yourself but will also give you the tools to help your children, young clients or students learn how to practice self-compassion and develop healthy self-esteem.

Self-Esteem Worksheets for Kids in Primary School

Primary or elementary school is a fantastic time to start helping a child develop self-esteem. A child's mind is generally much more flexible and open than an adult's, so it's ideal to begin planting the seeds of healthy self-esteem at an early age.

The worksheet and activities listed below are some of the ways you can help a child develop the self-esteem that will act as a buffer against some of life's most difficult obstacles and challenges.

Something About Me: Self-Esteem Sentence Completion

This is an activity that both children and adults can get engaged with, although this worksheet is geared toward children. A similar worksheet for adults is included later in this article.

This "Something About Me" worksheet is intended to help children identify their own positive traits and characteristics and to recognize their accomplishments.

It's a simple worksheet with six sentence prompts and space for a child to fill in the blanks.

The sentence prompts are:

My friends think I'm awesome because...

My classmates say I'm great at...

I feel very happy when I...

Something that I'm really proud of is...

I make my family happy when I...

One unique thing about me is...

These sentences are constructed with clear and uncomplicated language that most elementary school students should understand, but it may help to go over this worksheet with your child. Encourage your child to think about each sentence and not to rush.

Completing this activity can help children build the foundations of an authentic and healthy self-esteem that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Click to see the Something About Me Worksheet.

Things I Like About Me Worksheet

This worksheet was created to help young children learn how uniqueness makes a person beautiful. This worksheet should be completed with a parent or other trusted adult to help explain the distinction between inner beauty and outer beauty.

The worksheet includes the following instructions:

"You are beautiful because you are unique, both on the inside and on the outside. Look inside and outside at your personality, what you can do, how you treat others, and who you are, then write down some things that you like about you on this mirror."

Also included is the prompt "Things that make me beautiful" and space to write five things. It's okay to write something external, like "my hair" or "my eyes," but make sure your child writes at least one or two inner traits or qualities in addition to the external qualities.

It's never too early to start combatting the extreme focus society places on external beauty, and this worksheet is a great start. Of course, it can also be used with boys to help them learn the same lesson.

Click to download the Things I Like About Me Worksheet and give it a try.

"I'm Great Because..." Worksheet

This worksheet can be an excellent way for young children to explore what makes them good and likable people, and to help them build a foundation of healthy self-esteem. The instructions are to print it out and complete the statements-without worrying too much if the user can't complete them all-and keeping the worksheet handy for the next time the user experiences feelings of low self-esteem.

The worksheet lists 20 sentence-completion prompts that children fill out with something positive about themselves. A reason, in other words, that they are great. These prompts include the following:

I like who I am because...

I'm super at...

I feel good about my...

My friends think I have an awesome...

Somewhere I feel happy is...

I mean a lot to...

Others reckon I'm a great...

I think I'm a pretty good...

Something I really enjoy is...

I really admire myself for...

My future goals are...

I know I can achieve them because I'm...

I'm naturally gifted at...

Others often praise my...

Completing this worksheet will give your child an opportunity to list all of the good things about himself or herself without fear of being overly proud or self-absorbed.

It's good to be both realistic and positive about yourself, and this is a good way to begin a habit of positive realism. Children may need an adult's help in completing this worksheet, but try to let them come up with their own ideas about the traits and characteristics they like about themselves.

Try this I'm Great Because... Worksheet for yourself.

Friendship Ingredients

This is a great worksheet for helping children learn about what makes them good friends and what they should look for in a friend. Completing this worksheet will likely take some guidance from an adult, but it can be a positive way for children to start thinking about what kind of people they want to be.

It's a simple activity with only one short set of instructions:

"Making friends is like making a cake. List the traits that are important for making friends"

Next, it provides spaces for the child to write down five traits-or friendship "ingredients"-and explain why they are important in a friend. The simple nature of this worksheet allows children to put their imagination to good use.

They might need some help from an adult, but they should be able to come up with several traits that they find important in a friend.

Click to download this Friendship Ingredients Worksheet and help your child learn how to both find and be a good friend.

Self-Esteem Journal For Kids

This activity is great for any age, but this template is meant specifically for young children. We'll explore an adult version later in the article.

Keeping a self-esteem journal is a great way for children to begin thinking about the good things that they do and experience, setting them up for a positive outlook on life. This worksheet lists three-sentence completion prompts for each day of the week, starting with Monday.

The prompts include " One thing I did great at today...," " Today it was interesting when...," and " I made someone smile when... "

Completing these prompts every night for a week should help your child feel more optimistic and begin focusing on the good things that happen instead of the bad. Follow this link to download and use this Self-Esteem Journal Worksheet with your child.

5 Self-Esteem Activities for Teens in Middle or High School

While it's best to start self-esteem building young, there is still tons of room for growth and development in this area for middle- and high-schoolers.

The activities and worksheets below can help your teenager start or continue to build a healthy sense of self-esteem.

Designing Affirmations Worksheet

Affirmations are a popular way to help combat low self-esteem in both adults and adolescents (Bloch & Merritt, 1993; Lynch & Graham-Bermann, 2000).

This worksheet will guide adolescents through one of the most popular, tactical approaches to designing affirmations. You'll find instructions on how to create effective affirmations, as well as example goals, affirmations, and tips to help you.

In a nutshell:

Affirmations start with the words "I am...";

Affirmations are positive. Never use the word "not" in an affirmation. For example, instead of writing "I am not afraid to express myself," you could write, "I am confidently sharing my opinion";

Affirmations are short;

Affirmations are specific. For example, instead of writing, "I am driving a new car," you would write, "I am driving a new black Range Rover";

Affirmations are in the present tense and include a word that ends in "-ing";

Affirmations have a "feeling" word in them. Examples include "confidently," "successfully," or "gracefully";

Affirmations are about yourself. They should be about your own behavior, never someone else's.

Once you have read and understood the guidelines, the worksheet provides space for you to write down some affirmations of your own. Refer back to the guidelines as much as you need.

When you have a set of affirmations ready to put to use, you can try these tips for using them:

Use positive self-talk;

Set big goals and stay mindful of your goals (write them down and place them somewhere you can see them every day);

Say and visualize your affirmations every day;

Take time to see yourself accomplishing the goals you've set;

Think about how good it will feel once you have accomplished your goals.

To get into the habit, try to start by sticking with a schedule-for example, you might try repeating your affirmations:

Visualizing and planning for success makes it much more likely that you will achieve your goals. If needed, give your child guidance and support when coming up with affirmations, but allow them to take ownership of this activity and see the amazing results of their commitment.

You can access the Designing Affirmations Worksheet here.

Understanding Self-Confidence Worksheet

This worksheet can be completed by adolescents who wish to build up their self-esteem and self-confidence. The completed worksheet can be kept handy for the next time you're feeling low in self-esteem and need a boost.

You can always your worksheet and be reminded of your personal power, and use it to transform situations in which you feel less confident.

The worksheet is divided into three parts:

Part A involves thinking of a situation in which you felt confident and experienced a sense of self-worth, and answering the following questions:

1. What is the situation?

2. What do you say to yourself about the situation (self-talk)? How do you feel physically?

3. What sensations and feelings do you have in your body?

4. What do you do as a result of this?

Part B involves thinking of a recent situation in which you felt lacking in self-confidence and answering the same four questions listed above.

In Part C, you are instructed to look at your answers to Parts A and B, then use that information to answer these questions:

Completing this worksheet will help adolescents explore their feelings in two very different situations, analyze their responses to these situations, and come up with an action plan for the next time they experience low self-esteem. This exercise will help them take control of their development and give them a sense of ownership in their own wellbeing, a trait that will serve them well in the future.

Click this link to see the Understanding Self-Confidence Worksheet.

You, At Your Best Worksheet

This worksheet is a great way to help clients reflect on the personal character strengths that define them at their best. The exercise aims to use narrative and storytelling; clients are asked to identify their unique strengths by writing a story about a past experience where they were "at their best".

It takes them through four stages:

1. Start by asking your client to recall a specific occasion during which they were at their very best. It could be a problem or difficult time that they overcame successfully, or where they accomplished something they were proud of. It should be a situation in which they felt energized, positive, and proud, and they will create a (true) story about it.

2. They then write the story, emphasizing their own character strengths and personal values in the narrative. Using descriptive language, this second step is about recounting what happened, what they brought to the situation, the emotions they felt, and/or the ways they helped others.

3. Your client's story should be structured with a start, middle, and a powerful ending. Writing the narrative might be easier if they try to vividly reconstruct the experience in their minds while doing so.

4. This handout/homework worksheet then instructs the client to go back over their story, circling or highlighting keywords and phrases that they feel relate to their personal strengths.

This subjective, feelings-based exercise is a useful way for you or your client to reflect on their unique character strengths and qualities, helping to enhance their self-esteem.

Find the You, At Your Best Worksheet in our Positive Psychology Toolkit©.

My Wins

This activity is especially great for kids and younger teens who are crafty and creative, although people of all ages and talents can take part.

The My Wins Worksheet is an artistic prompt for you or your child to draw, paint, or otherwise represent the things-their achievements and qualities-about themselves that are important to them. You may wish to use a theme for this activity or for each 'win', like "family," but it's okay to engage in this activity with no specific theme in mind as well.

This is a simple worksheet that has only the outline of different certificates. In each, your child can represent the personal qualities, achievements, and traits that they value.

For example, if your child is dealing with self-esteem issues, he or she can use the theme "What Makes Me Great" and focus on filling the frames with reasons why he or she is a good friend, a good child, a good student, and a good person in general.

Before You Die

This activity uses a very basic technique that you can build upon as needed. The point of this activity is to help your client identify meaningful goals that are connected with their personal values.

Striving toward and achieving one's goals is an important way to build self-esteem. You build the most solid foundation of self-esteem and self-confidence with the building blocks of positive experience and success. The more individuals recognize their ability to meet the goals they set for themselves, the more likely they are to feel confident and worthy.

This ' Before You Die' Bucketlist Worksheet provides more information on the theory behind goal-setting, motivation, and positive behavior change, as well as an applied framework that will guide your client through the process.

The first column of the table provided is for specifying the goal that your client would like to accomplish 'before they die'. Try to make these as specific as possible, regardless of whether or not they are practical. A useful question to ask when filling out this column is, what would I like to accomplish if I had only one year to live?

In the second column, the client is encouraged to dig a bit deeper into the personal motivations for this particular goal. Why is it important to them? How might it enhance the meaning in their life?

Use the final column to rate the meaningfulness of these items on a scale of zero to ten, where 0 = not at all meaningful, and 10 is extremely meaningful.

At the end of this exercise, the user should have a list-or at least the beginnings of a list-which features meaningful life goals, a stepping stone toward confidence, self-worth, and self-esteem. You can access the worksheet by subscribing to the Positive Psychology Toolkit©, with over 400 exercises.

Exercises for Building Self-Esteem in College Students and Adults

Again, while building self-esteem is a practice best started young, it's never too late to begin investing in your own self-worth.

Self-Esteem Sentence Stems Worksheet

This worksheet leads the reader through a sentence completion exercise for adults. This exercise is exactly what it sounds like: It includes prompts with space for you to complete the sentence in the way that feels right to you.

Completing this exercise can help you explore your thoughts and feelings, and to open up and share them with others. For users of this worksheet, this exercise will help them become more comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings with others, making it easier to work through their self-esteem issues.

Next, it instructs users to set aside 5-10 minutes several times a week to complete the worksheet. After two weeks of completing the worksheet, users can review their responses to get an idea of their general outlooks on life and see how things have changed since they began.

The intended result is for the answers to become more positive over time.

After the instructions, the sentence prompts are listed, including:

I have always wanted to...

I'm secretly afraid of...

This week I would enjoy doing...

I often look forward to...

I feel something that the future holds for me is...

I get my strength from...

One person couldn't live without is...

I would never...

It made me feel great when...

I love when...

I find it hard to...

My dream is to one day that...

It makes me angry when...

I sometimes fear that...

This week is going to be...

Something I deeply desire is...

I flourish when...

This week I hope to...

Something I do secretly...

I find it hard to admit...

Answering these questions can give you helpful insight into yourself, what makes you happy, and what you struggle with. If you're a therapist, you can introduce this exercise to clients by filling out a few prompts together.

This allows you to communicate important messages to your client and to help them feel comfortable with the exercise. For example, you can finish the prompt "Right now, I'm happy that..." with "my favorite hockey team won last night." This can be a good way to defuse tension and start off with an easy and relatively harmless example.

Download and work through this Self-Esteem Sentence Stems Worksheet.

Self-Esteem Journal Template

For those of you who have heard of or kept a gratitude journal, this exercise might feel familiar. Not only can journaling help you find more things in your life to be grateful for, but it can also give you the opportunity to reflect on your own thoughts and feelings, leading to discovery and understanding of the self (Kaczmarek et al., 2015).

The worksheet begins with a short paragraph about the potential benefits of journaling, including improved self-esteem and wellbeing. Users are encouraged to use this template to reflect on the meaningful moments of their days and review the changes in their emotions and general outlooks over time.

Next, there are five tables set up with prompts and space to write. The first table includes the following prompts:

The prompts in the second table are:

The third table includes:

In the fourth table, the prompts are:

The final table lists these three prompts:

You have probably noticed that these prompts are intended to provoke positive responses. The positive focus of this exercise is what sets it apart from ordinary journaling or writing in a diary. Even when you've had a rough day, these prompts can help you find the good things in your life and remind you that no matter how hard things have been, you've survived them.

If you are a therapist providing this worksheet to your client(s), encourage them to think critically about what their answers reveal. This exercise can be a quick and short-term mood boost, or, with commitment and effort, it can facilitate positive growth and development.

Click the link for this Self-Esteem Journal For Adults Worksheet.

Gratitude Worksheet and Journal Template

If you are not familiar with the gratitude journal technique, this worksheet is an excellent way to give it a try. Research has linked gratitude to a multitude of positive outcomes, like increasing wellbeing (Wood, Froh, & Geraghty, 2010), improving relationships (Algoe, Haidt, & Gable, 2008), increasing optimism (Dickens, 2019), and helping people find meaning in their work (Waters, 2012).

Gratitude journaling is one of the best ways to inject more gratitude into your daily life, and it can be done in just a few minutes a day. The gratitude journal worksheet opens with some tips to help you journal effectively, including recording at least five things you are grateful for each day, aiming for one new thing to be grateful for each day, and reading through old entries to see how far you have come since you began.

The template is simple, with space for the date, and two prompts below.

Alongside Blessings in the second row, list things that you feel thankfulness for. Examples might be an encouraging friend, particular capabilities or qualities that you possess, or even just being alive.

The second prompt, Reflections, encourage you to elaborate on them. Research suggests that this reflection builds on the positive impacts of simply listing things that you're grateful for, by focusing your thoughts on them in detail. For instance, you might use this last row to consider what things might look like if you didn't have that supportive partner or that ability to be patient.

It's a good idea to fill in the journal once or twice a week, thinking of something that you have not yet expressed gratitude for. More examples include a teacher who profoundly affected your development whom you never thanked or something you may take for granted, like good general health. There are many ways to set up and complete a gratitude journal, but this is a great way to begin.

This Gratitude Journal is included in the Positive Psychology Toolkit©, but this simplistic PDF can also guide you.

Reframing Critical Self-Talk Worksheet

This exercise is a great way to address negative automatic thoughts and self-talk, challenges that people with low self-esteem and/or mental health issues often face. It's not surprising that talking down to yourself will lead to and exacerbate self-esteem problems, but the good news is that it is not an unsolvable problem.

Challenging negative self-talk is a core technique in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a type of therapy that has proven effective in helping a wide range of conditions, diagnoses, and problems. CBT helps clients discover some of their most deeply held, often unconscious, beliefs, allowing them to evaluate these beliefs and challenge those that are not useful.

This reframing worksheet opens with an explanation of negative self-talk and how you can identify and confront it.

Next, the tool is described. It includes two main steps intended to help you understand where your critical thoughts are coming from and what they feel or sound like.

1. Increasing your awareness of self-critical talk: To begin tapping into your self-awareness, take some deep breaths. When you realize that your inner critic is doing the talking inside your head-perhaps when you are unsuccessful at something-pay attention to what that self-talk sounds like. Are there specific core phrases that you tend to say to yourself? How does that negative voice sound?

2. Taking action to soften your self-critical voice: Once you've become aware of when you're criticizing yourself, it's time to try self-compassion instead. In these instances, the worksheet suggests, consider what you might say to someone you care about if they were in the same scenario.Try changing the mental tone you're using and take on a more positive one you might use when you're feeling good about who you are. Finally, try to come to terms with what exactly it is that you're being self-critical about. Is there something you might learn from this criticism if it were presented more constructively instead?

This tried-and-true technique will help you or your client recognize self-directed criticism and challenge it on the spot, leading to greater self-esteem and peace with oneself.

If one of your clients is having trouble coming up with positive responses to their self-critical thoughts, encourage them to consider what they would say to a dear friend or loved one who was struggling with these thoughts, as the sheet suggests. Sometimes it's easier to be kind to others than to ourselves, but that is something that can be remedied with time and practice.

The full version of this worksheet can be downloaded from the Positive Psychology Toolkit©.

Identifying and Challenging Core Beliefs

Similar to challenging negative thoughts, it can be an extremely effective therapeutic technique to discover, identify, and challenge your core beliefs. We often carry negative or false unconscious or semiconscious beliefs, never stopping to recognize the values and norms that we buy into on a daily basis.

This exercise will help you or your client explore and define deeply held beliefs that guide thoughts and behavior.

The worksheet begins with an explanation of what core beliefs are:

"Core beliefs can be defined as the very essence of how people see themselves, others, the world, and the future."

Next, it explains how core beliefs can influence one's thinking and emotions through an example interaction.

"Interaction: You are attending an interview for a job that you really want."

In this situation, you must choose between three briefcases to bring along to work, each representing a different core belief:

Internal thought associated: "I am naturally adept with lots of experience in this field. I deserve this role."

Your reaction: You feel confident as you enter the interview, and subsequently land the job.
Purple briefcase-"I'm talented"
Internal thought associated: "I have lots of experience and I think I'm good, but someone else will probably get the job over me."

Your reaction: You don't feel great heading into the interview. You relatively positive feedback but don't land the role.
Orange briefcase-"I'm unsure whether I'm talented."
Internal thought associated: "There's no way I'm getting this job. Other candidates are much more capable than me."

Your reaction: You don't get the job.

These examples show that the thoughts we carry with us, everywhere we go, can have a profound impact on our feelings, our behavior, and the associated outcomes.
Green briefcase-"I'm not talented."
Finally, the worksheet presents an opportunity to apply what you have learned from these examples to your own life. You are prompted to identify three negative core beliefs and three reasons why each belief is not true.

It can be difficult to identify the first core belief, especially if you have several very deeply held negative beliefs that you have never even considered challenging before. However, once you get the ball rolling with the first belief, it should get easier as you go.

To give this Core Beliefs Suitcases worksheet a try, follow the link.

Assertive Communication Worksheet

Low self-esteem and poor or underdeveloped communication skills often go hand-in-hand (Blood & Blood, 2004). It can be difficult to share feelings with others if you don't feel your feelings have value, an all-too-common symptom of low self-esteem.

Learning to communicate assertively will not only help you form better relationships and find new opportunities, but it can also facilitate a shift in the way you think about yourself (Law & Sivyer, 2003).

The word "assertive" may make people with low self-esteem hesitant. Being assertive might sound overly aggressive, pushy, or just too out of character.

The worksheet addresses this right away with an explanation about how three common communication styles differ:

Aggressive Communication
Defined by speaking in a mean, harsh, or sarcastic manner, taking instead of compromising, maintaining glaring eye contact and speaking in loud or threatening tones, putting others down, being inappropriately honest, and bullying or trampling others.

Assertive Communication
Defined by being firm but polite, compromising, maintaining warm and friendly eye contact and a conversational tone, building up others and oneself, being appropriately honest, and standing up for oneself.

Passive Communication
Defined by being too nice or weak, being overly compliant, avoiding eye contact, speaking softly, putting oneself down, being emotionally dishonest, and allowing others to trample you in conversation.

When laid out in this way, it is clear that being an assertive communicator is nothing like being an aggressive communicator. Assertive communication is simply expressing yourself honestly and directly, while being polite and open.

The worksheet provides space and instructions to record three scenarios in which you communicated assertively and list the emotions you felt afterward. If you can't think of an instance where you have communicated assertively, don't worry! You can make that a goal for yourself in the next week.

You can see this Assertive Communication Worksheet for yourself and begin building up your communication skills.

Tips for Overcoming Low Self-Esteem and Low Self-Worth

Apart from these worksheets and activities, there are tons of tips out there for building self-esteem and self-worth.

Dr. John M. Grohol (2011) offers these six tips:

1. Take a self-esteem inventory to give yourself a baseline. This can be as simple as writing down 10 of your strengths and 10 of your weaknesses. This will help you to begin developing an honest and realistic conception of your self.

2. Set realistic expectations. It's important to set small, attainable goals that are within your power. For example, setting an extremely high expectation or an expectation that someone else will change their behavior is virtually guaranteed to make you feel like a failure.

3. Stop being a perfectionist and acknowledge both your accomplishments and mistakes. Nobody is perfect, and trying to be will only lead to disappointment. Acknowledging your accomplishments and recognizing your mistakes is the way to keep a positive outlook while learning and growing from your mistakes.

4. Explore yourself. The importance of knowing yourself and being at peace with who you are cannot be overstated. This can take some trial and error, but it's a lifelong journey that should be undertaken with purpose and zeal.

5. Be willing to adjust your self-image. We all change as we age and grow, and we must keep up with our ever-changing selves if we want to set and achieve meaningful goals.

6. Stop comparing yourself to others. Comparing ourselves to others is a trap that is extremely easy to fall into, especially with social media and the ability to project a polished and perfected (and false) appearance. The only person you should compare yourself to is you.

Henrik Edberg (2017) offers a similar set of tips for improving your self-esteem:

Say "stop" to your inner critic;

Use healthier motivation habits;

Take a two-minute self-appreciation break;

Each evening, write down three things that you can appreciate about yourself;

Do the right thing;

Fight against perfectionism;

Handle mistakes and failures in a more positive way;

Be kinder toward other people;

Try something new;

Stop falling into the comparison trap;

Spend more time with supportive people (and less time with destructive people);

Remember the "whys" of high self-esteem.

To read these tips in more detail, you can visit Edberg's blog post on improving self-esteem here and read more about positive body image here.

Ten Days to Self-Esteem Improvement: An Action Plan

While it can take time to build up a solid sense of self-esteem, it's possible to kickstart the process.

For a guide on quick ways to put the process in motion, check out the book Ten Days to Self-Esteem by psychiatrist and author David Burns. While self-help books are often hit-or-miss, Burns has an impressive record of success with his patients and his readers. At the very least, it can't hurt to give it a shot.

This book helps the reader identify the causes of low self-esteem and provides activities and exercises to start increasing self-esteem. It's written in plain English, not psychiatric jargon, and has earned an impressive four-star rating on Amazon.

If you don't have the patience to go through an entire book, there are some simple things you can do now to jumpstart your self-esteem journey:

1. Think hard about the root cause(s) of your insecurities. The first step to defeating formidable foes is to learn about them, and this situation is no different. Identifying the events that led to a low sense of self-worth can provide valuable information for challenging these negative beliefs.

2. Use the "Negative Self-Talk" and "Identifying and Challenging Core Beliefs" worksheets (available in the adult worksheets section of this article) to help you identify negative thoughts and begin to replace them with alternative thoughts.

3. Be kind to yourself. If you find yourself being excessively negative to yourself, stop and consider how you would feel if someone said those things about a close friend or family member. Extend the same compassion you'd give a friend or family member to yourself.

4. Make a plan. Set achievable and realistic short-term goals for yourself to complete in the next week or so. Achieving something, no matter how small, can be an excellent boost to your motivation.

5. Celebrate your success. When you accomplish a goal, successfully challenge a negative thought, or catch yourself extending kindness toward yourself, mark the achievement with a celebration! Taking the time to revel in your success and enjoy the moment can give you the inspiration you need to continue your journey to self-improvement.

A Take-Home Message

We hope this piece helped you find useful ways to begin or continue improving on your self-esteem, but if you only leave with one lesson learned, we hope it is this:

You can improve. You can get better. You can reach your goals.

It may not feel like it at the moment, but know that no matter how down you might be feeling, there is always room for growth and improvement.

Which techniques have you used to improve your self-esteem? Were they effective? Please share your experience with us in the comments section.

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

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18 Best Self-Esteem Worksheets and Activities (Incl. PDF)

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Here are PDF self-esteem worksheets, activities, and exercises for kids, teens, and adults. Use these resources to build up self-worth!

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Purpose: provide a variety of strategies for supporting mental health at various tiers of the school system (student, family, teacher, school, board, etc.)

Who it helps: students, parents, teachers

Specific resources included: grade-by-grade guide for teaching about mental health, tipsheet for parents identifying mental health warning signs

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The evidence and answers you need when you need them
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Find evidence-informed resources and information to support student mental health

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Purpose:

Increase awareness of adolescents’ mental health needs and provide ways to be involved in designing and implementing strategies for meeting these needs in a school.

Who it Helps:

The kit is made for educators to help their students.

Includes:

Information, Mental health surveys, and activities that can be utilized within the classroom

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Purpose: Providing mental health resources, and supporting youth. Provides culturally relevant resources for Indigenous Students

Who It’s Made For

- Children and youth - but most resources are specific for those in close vicinity to Mission District School Board

What SPECIFIC resources are included

- FNHA: First Nations Perspective on Health & Wellness

- Mission Child and Youth Mental Health

- Foundry: Centennial Place (centre guided by psychosocial rehabilitation model)

- FamilySmart (parent peer support for families experiencing mental health or substance use challenges

- Mission Community Services (programs to handle stressors for ages 13-17)

-

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The resources on this page have been recommended for Mission families by MPSD Student Services and Siwal Si'wes Indigenous Education Department: __________________________________________________________ FNHA: First Nations Perspective on Health & Wellness "​​​The First Nations Perspective on Health and Wellness aims to visually depict and describe the First Nations Health Authority Vision: Healthy, Self-Determining and Vibrant BC First Nations Children,...

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Purpose:

This resources allows for reflection, and gives students a chance to share their stories, identities, passions, likes, etc. This will promote overall wellbeing, personal reflection and gratitude, and connection through writing.

Who It Helps:

Students of all ages. Some prompts are better for P/J, some for I/S, but can be used for all.

What Does the Resource Include:

This resource provides 26 writing prompts about yourself, and has a link for 36 prompts for a personal story. it also provides tips and strategies for writing, as well as the purpose of it.

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Writing Prompts About Yourself plus two bonus prompt lists on What to Write About Myself and Writing About Yourself topics. These ideas are great for writers of all ages and for kids, too. Take a look now and enjoy!

Sometimes it can be quite a challenge to get anyone - including kids - to write. One idea to engage the interest of young writers and students is to ask them to write about themselves.

You see, the subject of " Writing about yourself" is an interesting topic for kids and writers of all ages because, well...

It's all about them!

Truly, who wouldn't love the idea of writing about yourself? It's both an easy and fun topic to write about for writers of all ages. Plus, these journaling prompts are, well...fun!

Dive into Personal Information (with No Thought of Grammar nor Punctuation)

Yep, it's time to drop all the writing rules and focus instead on accomplishments, qualifications, talents, personality traits, and all manner of good things. In other words, it's time to get super self-aware. You could even encourage your writers to do a self-appraisal or personal inventory.

You see...

When people write about themselves, they learn about their likes and dislikes, their dreams, and their future plans. Because their writing is focused 100% on them, they may even discover some new things about themselves, like the fact that they are a talented writer or an amazing inventor or a very thoughtful, kind person.

Personal Accomplishments Are Not Everyone's Cup of Tea

Of course...

Some writers are not comfortable focusing on themselves and may find it easier to get creative with the assignment by engaging their creative writing skills and making up stories.

They may engage their imagination and see themselves as a cartoon character and then write about themselves and their own life from the perspective of the character instead of from their own perspective.

-> Check out this creative writing prompt collection of journal prompts from blog posts available to you on our website 🙂

The key to writing success for writers of all skill levels is to make writing fun, enjoyable, and engaging. Doing so will help to ensure that writing is a positive growth experience for them.

However...

If your writer is in a reluctant frame of mind when it comes to writing about themselves, encourage them to start with the story of their life. (You could use this list of 19 Personal Story Ideas to help them find inspiration.)

The bottom line is this: find the best fit for your writers and they will not only write but also, perhaps, learn that they wildly enjoy it.

Ok, without further ado, here is that list of ideas to write about yourself. Take a look now and enjoy!

26 Writing Prompts About Yourself

Here is a luscious list of writing prompts for people of all ages that are fun and all about yourself. Yes: you!

Use this list of things to write about yourself to write a story of your life, a personal essay, or just some random journal entries. However you choose, just get to it and use these writing about yourself prompts today (and be sure to have fun doing so)!

1. What is something you are good at doing?

2. What is your favorite color and why?

3. What is the story behind your name?

4. Which country do you want to visit and why?

5. What is your favorite cartoon?

6. What do you want to be when you grow up and why?

7. What is your favorite thing about school?

8. What one thing do you want to change about your school?

9. What is your favorite season and why?

10. What would you like to invent and why?

11. Where do you want to travel to as a kid? As a teenager? As an adult?

12. Where do you want to live as an adult?

13. What is your favorite food? Describe it in detail.

14. What are you scared of and why?

15. Write about your very best friend.

16. What is the color of your room? Describe the things in it.

17. Write about your pet animal.

18. Write about which pet you want but do not have.

19. What is your favorite holiday and why?

20. Describe the night you _______________ and what happened.

21. Design a tree house for yourself and describe what you will do in it?

22. What is your favorite dress/outfit and why?

23. What is your biggest dream for your future?

24. Ten interesting things about you are...

25. What makes you happy?

26. What makes you sad?

I hope you enjoyed these writing about yourself prompts. Oh, and they make good essay topics and wonderful practice ideas for those college applications, too.

15 More Ideas Focused on What to Write About Myself

For those of you looking to write a self-introduction cover letter and/or apply for a scholarship, check out the ideas below.

Use them to write your first draft, use a friendly tone to engage your readers, and don't worry about using the right words. Instead, focus on telling good stories, disclosing personal details, and, above all, enjoying the writing process, because a happy writing experience shines through in the final draft!

1. Write about three goals that you have for high school. How will you accomplish these goals?

2. Write about a time when you were truly frightened. What happened? How did you feel?

3. Describe your most successful moment so far. What did it take to get there? How did it feel to be successful?

4. Is there anyone in your life who has overcome significant challenges? How did they address those challenges? What can you learn from that person?

5. What is the most important lesson that you learned in high school? What did you learn from it?

6. What was the most defining moment of your childhood or adolescence? Describe that moment in detail and write about how it impacted your life today.

7. Write a detailed description of a day in your life.

8. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up? How does your actual career compare to your childhood career aspirations?

9. What is the most significant challenge that you have faced in your life? What did you learn from that experience?

10. What animal do you feel you are most like? Why?

11. Think about what life has been like during the past week. What is one small moment that stands out to you? Describe that moment in detail.

12. Who do you consider to be the most important members of your family? What role do they play in your life?

13. Do you know the story of how you got your name? Do you feel that your name suits you? Why or why not?

14. Describe your hometown. Did you move away from your home town, or did you decide to live there in adulthood? Write about your decision to leave or stay.

15. What is your favorite song right now? Why?

When you write self essays, you learn about yourself and help others learn about you, too. It's personal growth at its best.

9 NEW Writing About Yourself Ideas

1. Write about your achievements and what makes them unique. Explore why others should care about them also.

2. What one habit would you like to change about yourself and why?

3. You can become a better writer by sharing a personal anecdote that would be of interest to others (perhaps your family members, friends, or a college admissions counselor).

4. Memoir Ideas:

What is something that you believe strongly? Write about your belief and choose an event from your life to explain why it matters to you.

Write about a time when you didn't do something that you really wanted to do. Was it the right or wrong choice?

Write about a time when you felt truly loved by someone else.

What is the greatest struggle you have with your parents? Describe how you have clashed and the challenges you face.

Write about a time when you learned something about yourself.

5. Share the most vivid details your recall from your childhood and explore why you think they stand out to you. Perhaps you want to include your earliest childhood memories.

6. What personal struggles have you faced and how have you overcome them (or explore how you are still trying to do so)?

7. What are your greatest weaknesses and greatest strengths (and/or character traits)?

8. What are your best qualities and how have they served you in life thus far? How do you think they will help you in the future?

9. What past experiences do you wish you had not had and why? What have you learned from them that you now know is valuable?

I hope you use and enjoy these writing about yourself topics and ideas.

Now, check out these...

Until next time, write on...
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I appreciate it!

Now Offering You 17,000+ Prompts!

Hello! I'm Journal Buddies Jill. I am so happy you found my blog.

You have discovered an awesome resource of wonderful writing ideas and fabulous journal prompts. Take a look around, enjoy and write on...

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26 Free Writing Prompts About Yourself Writing Prompts About Yourself

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Sometimes it can be quite a challenge to get kids to write. One idea to engage the interest of children and students is to ask them to write about themselves! #WritingPromptsAboutYourself #WritingIdeas #JournalBuddies