Teaching Children Gratitude

Teaching Children Gratitude

By: Vidhya Shailesh, SoulKids® Program Manager, www.soulkids.org

17 December 2018

Gratitude is an essential life skill for children and adults alike. It is the ability for us to be thankful for all that life presents to us. It is the ability to appreciate whatever comes our way.  Gratitude is a positive emotion that can help us become happier and healthier. It is a powerful force that lays the foundation for us to attract more good into our lives. Practicing gratitude is a skill we must inculcate not just in our children but in ourselves too. Gratitude can benefit children and adults in many ways. A person who is grateful often does not compare himself with others and is happy with himself.

As parents, we strive to provide the best upbringing for our children. Whether that means sending them to the best school there is, or supporting their education with classes, extra-curricular activities, the best clothes that we can afford and anything else that we can provide for them. Within our capacity we stretch to provide them the best that we possibly can. However, a parents struggle is just that – a parents struggle. A child growing up with all that they have received starts to believe they are entitled to have all that they do. They start to assume the parents will support them no matter what. The parents struggle is not what a child sees. All they see is what they are provided.

Inculcating the attitude of gratitude from a young age will ensure children have the ability to appreciate the many things in their own lives. Gratitude helps us foster better relationships, improves physical health, psychological health, enhances empathy and compassion, helps you get better sleep, improves self-esteem and mental strength among many other things.

Here are some ways we can encourage children to develop an attitude of gratitude.

1. Encourage the use of the magic words please and thank you.

2. Encourage empathy and teach them to help someone less fortunate than they are.

3. Teach them to openly appreciate and compliment others.

4. Appreciate the little things that they do for you and reciprocate your gratitude for their actions.

5. Children learn by imitation, express gratitude in your day and do it often in front of them too.

6. Share your gratitude – set a specific time in the day when you talk to them about the many things they are thankful for. It could be a bedtime routine or on the dinner table or another time best suited to you.

7. Encourage them to not just show appreciation but also be kind and considerate in their actions.

8. Volunteering and giving of your time, efforts and support is a great way to inculcate gratitude in them. Perhaps you can make it a family activity.

9. Encourage them to differentiate between their needs and their wants.

10. Be patient. While it might seem like instilling gratitude is hard, know that in time they will learn it.

Christmas is a wonderful time for giving. Encourage children to give or share with those less fortunate. Giving can be of your time, your efforts, your resources or money. Appreciate any efforts they take and encourage them no matter how small their efforts are. In time, the attitude of gratitude will become a way of life for them.

Our SoulKids® programs are designed to give children the skills required to create their own happiness and success. And gratitude plays a very important part in this. In our group classes, we encourage children to appreciate the differences among each other and see each other’s strengths. Rather than focusing on what they have, they learn to be thankful for the same things. Children learn many other valuable life-skills in a fun, positive and engaging environment. They always leave happy, excited, positive and wanting more.

To find out more about our programs, please visit www.soulkids.org or email us at soulkids@soulcentre.org for more information. We offer group programs for different age groups and even offer one-on-one coaching if your child requires specific help and guidance.

How to be truly happy - 5 Essential Secrets

Do you ever feel caught up in all the mundane things of life while happiness seems to elude you? Do you feel like life is just passing you by? Do you sometimes feel that you are doing so much but that you are not truly happy?

Life is too short to postpone happiness until the conditions are right. So if we are waiting for something is our world to be just right before we become happy, then we are keeping ourselves in an endless cycle of waiting!

Everywhere around, people are trying desperately to find their happiness in relationships, in expensive cars, mansions, overseas holidays, money, the perfect place or the perfect job – and yet after they have experienced some or all of the above, they are still not happy.

Happiness is the special sauce that makes everything else in life worthwhile. And if happiness is missing, then even a life full of wealth and health is not meaningful.

"If a person is happy, life is worthwhile" - Vikas

So how can one become truly happy?

What are the essentials to happiness?

Let me guide you to the 5 essential secrets that will create real happiness for you.

SECRET NO: 1 – START YOUR DAY WITH GRATITUDE

All of us have so much to be grateful for; it’s just that most times, we don’t realize it.

Gratitude helps to cultivate a positive mindset, which will help you to accept yourself for who you really are. Remember, as your day begins, you don’t know what the day will bring to you, but you can decide what you will bring to this day! So choose to bring a grateful and happy ‘you’ to your day and see the benefits happen.

Start your day with a positive attitude and a positive mind-set. Spend 3 minutes before you get active in the morning reminding yourself what is great in your life.

Start your day on a positive note, because a spiritual law is that whatever is inside you is what comes out of you. So if you create happiness inside by being grateful, you will ooze happiness all day, which in turn will make your day a happy one!

SECRET NO: 2 – DURING THE DAY, STRENGHTEN YOUR POSITIVE MUSCLES

As your day begins to unfold, many types of things, results and people will be encountered.

No matter what comes your way, choosing to be positive will help you to stay strong within the challenge and handle it in a peaceful and powerful manner. Even when things are difficult, try being positive and strive to make the best of whatever situation you’re in. It will help make even the most challenging situations easier to bear.

So as you live your life during the day, look for the positive not for the negative.

Often, during the day, repeat positive affirmations about what you want. Do so with faith, feelings, intention and focus. Your mind is the filter for this world around you, so look for the good in every situation, and you are sure to see it.

“Don’t gain all the wealth and lose your soul” - Vikas

SECRET NO: 3 – JUST FOR TODAY, ACCEPT IMPERFECTION

It’s a fact that we all have imperfections. When we stop worrying about our imperfections and what others think about us, and just start being what we are, then we can truly offer the world the best we have. For as long as we are living a life of pretense, we are sure to be tense, and real happiness will elude us.

Moreover, you can’t expect people to be perfect all the time. Perfection comes when you’re ok with imperfection.

Our ideas about the way the world works are based, in part, upon our expectations. Those expectations color our experience, good or bad and influence our reactions and responses to just about everything and everyone that we encounter.

Expectations help us form a world view, but they can also skew that world view in unexpected and sometimes unwanted ways. The more the expectations, the more the disappointment.

Being a perfectionist will not make you happy, I promise. So ease up a little bit, check the expectations you carry and lower them if necessary, and see how much more you can enjoy life.

You will be happily surprised.

SECRET NO: 4 - TRAVEL LIGHT

Keep your mind light. Carry the good experiences with you, and the lessons from the bad experiences. Both will help you and make you a better person. But carrying negative memories will only take your happiness away.

The best short-cut to happiness is meditation, which teaches you to train your mind to be calm and happy. Never put the key of your happiness in anyone else’s hands.

“Life is not a race, don’t make it so” - Vikas

SECRET NO: 5 – HUG TODAY. IT WON’T COME BACK

So many people keep themselves constantly busy, but spend their whole life waiting to start living. And in the meantime, this beautiful gift from life called ‘today ‘is passing by forever!

Give your attention to the value of today. This day is your life, and you are alive only today! So value it, cherish it and live it fully while it is here. Because it’s soon going to be gone forever.

Take action in your life on the problems you face, if any. Any action is better than burying your head in the sand, hiding from the world, and more importantly yourself. But at the same time, don’t let your pains and problems define your experience; you also have a lot of blessings in your life, so let that be the flavor of the day!

"Create happiness, don’t wait for it!" – Vikas

Quit waiting for life to work out. Make a change and take control. You control your own happiness; don’t waste any more time waiting for it to come find you.

So embrace and HUG your life today. Bring some happiness, understanding and gratitude to your life today!

“H – Happiness; U – Understanding; G – Gratitude” - Vikas

There is always a lot in life to be happy and grateful for. Start living in the only moment that matters, right now. The more you are focused on the past or the future, the more you are missing out on happiness right now.

Pay attention to this day and make yourself truly happy, no matter what!