Do You Ever Feel Like You Need a Family Gratitude Journal Alternative to Keep it Fresh?

Can we take a minute and be real about gratitude and how hard it can be sometimes to keep our kids centered on it? Getting kids to be more grateful can feel like a battle sometimes, right? Do you ever feel like you need to shake it up a bit?

Yup, me too...and that is coming from a woman whose life mission it is to tell kids, schools and families how important gratitude is. I noticed my own family’s gratitude game had started to falter. In the season we were in, our journals just weren’t cutting it. It happens, even at my house! Instead of excitement, we were all staring at our journals as if they were “just one more thing” on our long list of family to-dos.

We were missing the point and we needed to do something about it quick before we sank ourselves into the mud and muck of our everyday lives without any deep thanks or appreciation. Knowing how gratitude is a game-changer in our brains - how it boosts mood, helps structure important emotional regulation centers in our brain, ramps up our immune system, helps develop empathy, increases social skills and boosts cognitive function including focus - I did not want to lose that brain superpower, so I went on a mission to get my family to connect to gratitude again.

I hatched a plan for some gratitude activities.

I considered the idea of making short family activities and experiences that really connected my entire family with what gratitude means. What if I could develop something that the kids would look forward to instead of me lecturing them about the benefits of gratitude like I sometimes have to about teeth brushing?

I got to work. My creative teacher’s brain was on fire. I was so excited that I rushed in to tell my family that I had found a solution to our gratitude woes. I mean, I was mom-level excited. And you know how it goes when you are mom-level excited and you try to get your family to do things that are going to help them, right?  

You get eye-rolls. And groans.

I was dealing with some next-level whining when I cut a deal.

I honest to goodness made a bet with my family to complete my gratitude activities.

Yep, I made a bet to get them to try my gratitude activities for 21 days. If they didn’t like them, we wouldn’t do them anymore. But seeing that I had been creating meaningful, creative lessons as a teacher for years, maybe, just maybe, the ol’ mom might have some valid gratitude tricks up her sleeve.

If you are a mom, you already know the ending. They loved them and looked forward to doing them every day. They loved that each gratitude activity was different and they began to try to predict what our gratitude focus would be the next day. The brain coach in me wished I could actually see their brains lighting up and those neurotransmitters firing. Our home was full of laughter, discussion, and thankfulness. We got to be silly, thoughtful and empathetic together. 

21 days of different, interesting, engaging gratitude activities? You bet!

I passed them along to some family, friends and teachers to try in their classrooms and guess what? They saw kids get excited about practicing meaningful gratitude. Because that's the bottom line, isn’t it? We want our kids to feel inner gratitude and the peace and happiness it brings. If we wire that in their brains now, we boost their mental and physical well-being for a lifetime. 

I want my kids to be polite and say please and thank you. Who doesn’t? But even more than that I want them to feel grateful and thankful for the people and gifts in their lives from the little everyday things that aren’t so little to the big life moments. I want my kids to feel that and I want everyone’s kids to feel that. 

So guess what? I can already sense your mom level excitement, don’t push it down, go with it. I’m right there with you. With the help of my incredible friend Jen, we put them all together for you. You can have the same experience with your family that I had with mine and build beautiful, strong brains and truly grateful kids. Kids from 3 to 103 can all use this. Heck, if you don’t have kids you can use this. I am not kidding, you can challenge your friends. 

Go get your family started in Be Grateful: 21 Gratitude-Boosting Activities for Families!

I set you all up so you can set your family up for success. I even walk you through how to get your family on board so you elicit fewer eye rolls and groans when they see your mom excitement bubbling over. (I pass my wisdom onto you.) Let’s do this! You’ve got this. Taking gratitude and parenting to next-level status to boost those brains in short, super easy activities. But you don’t have to give that away. Let your family think you took all day to concoct this much fun...I’ll never tell.