The power of gratitude
Are you aware that this power can transform your life?
Gratitude is an attitude that leads to happiness
Gratitude is an attitude that leads to happiness
Gratitude is a state of being: being aware that each moment, each encounter can be a source of joy, a learning opportunity. How do we get to this state of being? Well, let’s start by getting into the habit of saying Thank You. Not just out of politeness but out of a sincere sense of gratitude. Thank you for the gesture. Thank you for sharing a meal. Thank you for friendships, etc. Before bed time, let’s also express our thankfulness for all the great moments of the day.
All this tends to develop positive thoughts, to improve our relationships with others and to acquire a state of well-being by learning to Be and to be Love.
Let’s learn to be fully satisfied with what we have, turning our gaze from lack to fulfillment. Practicing gratitude as often as possible has a profound impact on our state of mind, on our physiology and therefore on our mental and physical health. It is the art of being happy. Moreover, this state of being has a contagious effect on those around us.
How to teach gratitude to children
Thanking our children
Let’s teach children to get into the habit of saying thank you, starting by expressing it several times a day. Thank you for your help, for tidying your room, etc.. This is a great way for children to learn this incredible virtue.
Learning to give thanks
After hearing the adult expressing thankfulness a dozen times a day, for their children’s various contributions, gratitude will come naturally. One must of course be absolutely sincere and express it from the heart.
Gratitude for what we have
Gratitude comes from the perception that we have everything we need, and much more. Learning to give thanks is practicing gratitude with our children, and helping them to develop and acquire a state of well-being in life.
Discover the basic virtue and passion versus gratitude
Contentment: how to be happy in life?
Greed, having it for a little power
Use our games to help children experience gratitude.
A great gift for our children would be if, from an early age, they were able to develop a vocabulary related to Contentment and its counterpart, Greed, which would lead them to Gratitude.
For example, if a player draws the card of Gratitude, you can ask participants to tell an event or story related to this virtue.
Playing VirtHU, Karma Buster or KaHUna is to better understand the sources of our sensitivities, to learn to know ourselves better and to develop our faith in life. And much more, one game at a time.
Testimony about gratitude
Q: Gaston, can you tell us about gratitude?
A: At the age of 18, I was involved in a train accident and it cost me my left leg. During that period, I was all alone to overcome these enormous challenges. So, during my rehabilitation, whenever I was overwhelmed by my fears, loneliness and despair, I would wheel myself to the rehabilitation center where amputees and severely burned victims received treatment. I would sit there, sobbing, watching others with missing limbs and disabilities of all kinds.
One day, with tears streaming down my cheeks, I dared to ask one of my favorite patients who was filled with so much joy, that it irritated me and made me uncomfortable. I dared to ask him this question: “So tell me, how do you stay joyful with one left arm missing, your right hand without any fingers and with your left big toe sewn on your hand, as well as 75% of burns on your whole body? Yes, desperate times always require desperate answers, to better understand oneself and others. He stopped running and came closer to me. I was the youngest boy in that institution. He knelt down and said: It’s a matter of gratitude, Gaston! It’s true that I’m missing a lot of pieces, and I don’t look very good either, but remember this: “It’s not what you lose that determines who you are in life, it’s what you do with what you have.” Here I was realizing the power of gratitude and the transformation it had on this man’s life. All I could hear was the word gratitude ringing in my ears. So I thought, I too could be as happy as he was.
The next day, my first temporary artificial leg arrived. It was the ugliest thing imaginable. My therapist asked me where I wanted to have my name written on it, so we could leave it with the others after we used it. When he took it off, I asked him to take off the shoe and sock and write the word gratitude on the bottom of that leg with his permanent blue marker.
Since that day, when I place my beautiful artificial leg on and take a step forward, I express my gratitude to God for all the sports, dancing and many other things I can do with it. Yes, gratitude is and will always be the greatest gift I have ever given myself.”
