Gratitude Mindset - Help Your Kids Develop an Attitude of Gratitude

1. Gratitude makes you feel happier
2. Gratitude shifts your focus from living in a state of lack to living in a state of sheer abundance in every possible way.
   Whatever we focus on, we move towards.
3. Having gratitude reduces your innermost fears.
   It is hard to be fearful and grateful at the same time. When we’re utterly grateful for everything we have, including our problems, fear has little place to live in our minds. 
4. Gratitude emboldens you to reach for your goals.
   As long as you're happy, healthy, and sound in your mind, body, and spirit, you can reach for your goals without too much external distraction.
5. Gratitude gives you peace of mind.
   There’s an inner belief that develops when you’re truly grateful for things. It provides a sound piece of mind, the kind that doesn’t exist when you live with the expectation of certain things. 
6. Gratitude helps people form, maintain, and strengthen supportive relationships.
   It also helps people feel connected to a caring community.
7. Gratitude is linked to greater social support and protection from stress and depression over time
8. Gratitude is a positive emotion, and emotions have an impact on our health. Those who engage in gratitude practices have been shown to feel less pain, go to the doctor less often, have lower blood pressure, and be less likely to develop a mental disorder.
9. People who express gratitude are more resilient, and overcome life obstacles faster.
10. Gratitude increases self-esteem.
11. Gratitude makes us less self-centered.
12. Gratitude increases optimism.
13. Gratitude makes us more empathetic and kind.

and the list goes on…

If your mind is not yet set for gratitude, you can start practicing for the next 30 days. Make it a family challenge, and see how it will become your habit.

In this brand new GRATITUDE KIT you can help your kids (and yourself) start developing an every-day gratitude habit.
The kit includes every-day fun activities, like writing thank-you letters, a gratitude cube, coloring sheets, a gratitude jar, and much more.  

Our children want to be like us. We provide the blueprint for what to say and what to do and in what contexts. Expressing gratitude through words, writing, and small gifts or acts of reciprocity are all ways to teach children how to become grateful. Doing this will help make your appreciation for the goodness in your life more public, showing your kids that blessings abound and that being thankful is a valued attitude. Adults can promote gratitude directly in children by helping them appraise the benefits they receive from others—the personal value of those benefits, the altruistic intention of people providing them, and the cost to those people. This helps kids think gratefully.

One of my favorite ways to practice gratitude and teach the kids gratitude is to go around the dinner table each night and have every person share one thing they were grateful for, that day.

It can be simple things like being grateful for a yummy snack or a tv show, but this is where the foundation of gratitude begins.

When parents share the things they are grateful for – which are generally broader and not tied to materialistic objects –  kids begin to adapt their grateful practice to the bigger picture. You’ll start to see the transformation towards meaningful things such as health, home, family, stability, relationships, time, and experiences than materialistic objects.

Making a gratitude mindset is an effort when you begin practicing it, and even might seem a little fake at first. But after a while it will become your second nature. And it will transform your life and your kids' life for the better. It's a life-changing mindset that has so many benefits.