As we follow along our model for social emotional health, you will see that the next step is Gratitude. We’ll share strategies that can help the children in your life become more grateful, but first, why do we include this in our model?
 
Gratitude is more than just sending the obligatory thank you note after a child’s birthday party. You know the phrase, an attitude of gratitude? Well, it really is an attitude! There is a lot of research on gratitude, but here are some of the highlights. People who regularly practice grateful thinking:

• Feel better about their lives as a whole
• Are more optimistic about the future
• Are more likely to help others
• Have better relationships
• Have better sleep, exercise more frequently and have fewer physical symptoms
• Are less lonely

There’s more, but those should be enough to convince you that it’s worth a shot, right? Don’t we want all of these things for our children?
 
Gratitude is really one of the easier steps on the model to implement. It doesn’t take much of a shift to instill gratitude in children. Here are a few examples of really simple strategies to help teach gratitude. Hopefully it will make you more grateful as a result!
 
If you want to dive into a great book about the benefits of gratitude, check out Thanks! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier by Robert Emmons, Ph.D.