I’ve read numerous books and articles that claim your happiness or joy for life will increase if you develop a daily habitat of expressing your gratitude. Depending on the author, the suggestions lean toward keeping a journal in which you write three-to-ten things for which you are grateful. Apparently, it is impossible to feel down or depressed when you are acknowledging those people, occurrences, and events that you appreciate.
Try taking a walk with your children, naming those things for which you are grateful. Be specific. Saying that you appreciate trees doesn’t say anything about trees. Instead, notice that gratitude focuses on particular things.
On my solo walk today I was grateful for the dozen robins doing their quick-stop-quick tango-like dash over the drab lawn. I was grateful for the crisp air that helped wake me up – particularly since we turned the clocks ahead and I woke earlier than my normal time. I was grateful for the view of the early morning sunlight frosting a line of pines. I was grateful for the blue sky and sunlight while walking (an hour later the sky was blanketed with gray clouds). I was grateful for the gray squirrels dashing around; they always cheer me up.
As you walk, state aloud something that catches your eye and for which you are grateful. Encourage your children or whomever you are with to do the same. You may find that expressing your gratitude for nature persuades you to make connections to the other aspects of your life for which you are grateful. For example, watching the birds chasing one another makes me think of the approaching mating season and then prompts me to express my gratitude for the presence in my life of my husband of four months.
If you are doing this with your children, you may want to go home and record some of these in a journal or as a poem. Children can draw or paint a picture and include a line with the image expressing their gratitude for nature.
Don’t limit this to a “do it /did it” sort of activity. Repeat it often. You will find that stating your gratitude while sitting in the house and while moving outdoors creates a different quality to the things that are mentioned.
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