Is gratitude the answer?

People in the United States celebrate their Thanksgiving holiday at the end of every November. But it will probably look vastly different this year. The pandemic squashed tradition. Even if families meet this year, some will be missing due to death and illness. Food may be less bountiful because of lost income. 

 But even in the midst of a pandemic, gratitude might be the best way to cope. 

Gratitude is a learned character quality. ISP’s DreamMakers-DreamBreakers curriculum for elementary students builds thankfulness in children through activities and stories. Developing appreciation is essential even in tough times, like the pandemic, children can choose to be thankful.

Gratitude helps your mental and emotional health. 

Brene Brown, an author, scholar, and public speaker says, “Practicing gratitude invites joy into our lives.” Brown’s family puts gratitude into practice by sharing one thing they are thankful for during dinner.

On one of her Mentally Strong People Friday Fix podcasts, Amy Morin, an author, college psychology instructor, and psychotherapist, described how to make an uncomfortable emotion more tolerable. She says when people “name their feelings”, it reduces stress from those feelings. By naming and numbering your emotions, it causes a brief distraction in your brain to help you process them both now and in the future. An example of this is “I feel angry, and I am an 8 on a scale between 1 and 10.”

Author Gabrielle Oettingen discusses “mental contrasting” in her book, “Rethinking Positive Thinking.” This is dreaming with a dose of reality. In other words, dream your dreams, but visualize the obstacles in the way that would distract you from achieving them.