Four activities for positivity: Be thankful with friends, family, or coworkers
Sharing what you appreciate with others nurtures a positive, healthy environment for you to feel and perform at your best. Among friends, family, and coworkers there are several activities you can try out to foster an environment of thankfulness and put yourself and those you care about on the path to emotional and physical wellbeing. The suggestions below can be tweaked to fit your lifestyle, your budget, and for the season!
Construct a Gratitude Tree or a “Thanksgiving Tree”
The gratitude tree activity is popular both in the commercial and arts and crafts world. Create or buy a tree for you and your family, friends, and colleagues to hang ornaments of gratitude on. If creating a tree from scratch, try placing branches with bare limbs in a vase or cut a tree out of construction paper and tape it to a wall or flat surface.
Whether buying or making a tree, you’ll want to have plenty of “leaves” to write gratitudes on. If creating your own “leaves,” cut out the shapes you desire from durable paper into realistic leaf forms or get creative with your shapes. Try experimenting with different-sized leaves, just make sure they are big enough to write on!
Attach a piece of string, ribbon, or twine to the end of each leaf by looping it through a hole made via a hole punch or, alternatively, attach to your paper shapes with a glue gun or tape. You can get creative: if you don’t have access to string, just instruct people to prop leaves on the branches! And if your tree is made of paper, you will simply tape the leaves to your tree.
Instruct participants to record what they are thankful for on the paper leaves as they go about their day and to hang them on the tree.
Each time you pass by the tree, take a moment to pause, write a gratitude, and read the leaves to see what others are grateful for. Feel your energy shift to a more positive place!
Create a Gratitude Circle or Wreath
Form a group where people can voice what they are thankful for in person or virtually. This activity can be a one-time occurrence or a weekly or monthly event! Use the Gratitude Plus phone app to make this easy.
Gratitude meetings are conducted in different ways and can be dictated by the environment and the people you are with:
The group can meet in person: one participant speaks at a time about what they are grateful for (the trees, your brother, healthy food)... this could be a good pre-family dinner exercise around the table. You might even want to join hands!
More appropriate for a work setting might be specifically targeted gratitudes, where each person voices what they appreciate about a certain colleague.
Perhaps participants are in different locations and time zones. This is a great opportunity to reap the benefits of a virtual gratitude circle.
Gratitude Plus allows you to create virtual circles among friends, colleagues, and family members to share what you are thankful for whenever and wherever the urge strikes. Post what you are thankful for throughout the day, see what others are grateful for, and even respond to what others are writing!
Create a Festive Gratitude Guest Book
Put a notebook or pad of paper in a high-traffic common area of your home or office space; it should be in an easily visible and accessible place, such as at the center of a kitchen island or where people tend to grab a cup of coffee during a break at the office. You could even post a magnetic list to your home or company’s fridge!
Invite friends, family or colleagues to record what they are thankful for as they pass by the “book”: start off the list yourself; leave some directions or make an announcement about the activity in person or via email.
When you see the gratitudes of others and reflect on your own, take in the positive vibes.
Tip: If you pause by the book at the same time as another activity participant, perhaps take a moment to connect with them about their day and discuss the gratitudes in the book; share a smile and a conversation to nurture the quality of your relationship.
Form a Gift of Gratitude Box, Bowl or Jar
Choose or create (and maybe decorate) a bowl, box or jar as a vessel to hold notes of gratitude.
Cut pieces of paper into shapes large enough to write gratitudes on: perhaps try leaf shapes for fall or snowball circles for winter. You can get creative and make this fun!
Put your vessel in a common area and invite people to record and store their gratitudes in it.
Each time you pass by, reflect on something to be grateful for and add another piece of paper to the “box” in thanks. Try reading out gratitudes already in the box to see what others are grateful for; it might give you ideas and boost your spirits.
Create a Gratitude Wall
There are many ways you can approach this exercise, but the main idea is to create a wall or common space to advertise gratitudes, so that when people walk by they will see and feel positivity.
Designate a wall in a high-traffic area that everyone is sure not to miss in your home or office. You could even use the refrigerator if you want to be absolutely sure people will take notice!
Whatever location you decide, place post-it notes or slips of paper with removable tape near the designated location. Show how the space is to be used by posting the first few gratitudes on the wall.
Alternatively, tape a large piece of paper to the designated wall and place a pen or marker nearby to write gratitudes with. You can make this fun and seasonal by decorating the paper with an appropriate border or cutting the paper into a large seasonal shape like a turkey or snowball.