I’m so excited to have just returned from Puerto Rico where I was the resident Confidence Coach at a dance retreat
One of the challenges that I set to the group was to be mindful and to create focus on gratitude. To make it more fun, we used these sticky notes to give a ‘high five’ to each other for things that we were grateful for.
As you can imagine there was a lot to be grateful for – an exotic location, great topical weather. As days went on
though it was easy to forget how fortunate we all were, surrounded by the lush gardens of our mansion high in the rain forest.
That’s why the challenge was so important. To help us to create, with intention and volition, our attitude of gratitude.
Reading through the anonymous outpourings of thanks was an awesome way to start or end the day and helped us all to take note of the small (and big) things that people helped us with on the trip.
It reminded us that none of us are here alone and of all of the goodness that is around us – if only we look. I’m sure that we could have all found hundreds, if not thousands of things to be grateful for during our week in Puerto Rico. I know that I found myself in lots of situations where I thought, ohhh I must high five that person when I get home, only to forget to write it down.
I figure that if nothing else, my attention and focus was reinvigorated through this conscious noticing and I found that we discovered how easy it became to not have to wait for the perfect moment to write down the perfect high five – that telling the person in the moment was just as good, if not even better.
My challenge to you is to initiate the same thing in your family – whatever it looks like – to start a space for high fives. It doesn’t have to be fancy post it notes, just a space to write down gratitudes. They work both ways to make good feelings – the giver for noticing and writing them and the receiver for the gift. Try it and let me know how you go.