Gratitude

The topic of "gratitude" or "gratefulness" is a fairly popular one these days.  Just "google" one of these two words, and you will find a plethora of sites directed to this topic.

In my study of logotherapy through the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy, the topic of "gratitude" was addressed as possibly another avenue of finding meaning.  Viktor Frankl stated that meaning can be discovered through our works (creative values), through our encounters with others as well as through our experiences (experiential values), and finally, by the attitude we take when facing unavoidable suffering (attitudinal values).  Gratitude has been proposed as a fourth path to meaning, or at the very least, part of our attitudinal values.  

I have started talking to my students about gratefulness, not only in my individual meetings, but also during my classroom guidance lessons.  In my middle school class (7th/8th grade students), I am always interjecting logotherapy concepts during my "7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" lessons and the topic of "gratitude" has been no exception.  Recently, I showed this particular class a TED video about gratefulness, and followed that up with some handouts on ways to express our gratefulness (below I have provided links to both sites).  A question posed was whether happiness causes one to be grateful, or vice versa.  The speaker in the TED talk suggested that gratefulness leads to happiness (and I agree).  And as my instructor, Dr. Cyndi Wimberly, recently mentioned to me:  "You can't be grateful and worried at the same time.  Worry changes nothing, except maybe for the worse. Gratitude impacts our attitude tremendously."  

With the foregoing in mind, I plan on revamping and expanding upon my current presentation of gratitude for my middle school grades.  I would also like to find other suitable videos on this topic that students will find interesting (I admit, the TED talk mentioned above is a bit heady).  

As I find other materials on gratitude that may be useful for the classroom setting, I'll post them.

Here are the links:

Want to be happy? Be grateful - TED talk by David Steindl-Rast

How to Practice Gratitude - Sonja Lyubomirsky