Mako Gratitude Archives - Mako Mindfulness

MANAGING TEACHER STRESS

This article contains FREE resources for managing stress
and a FREE training for educators!

To my teacher friends out there!

I know you are working harder than ever to support your students and help them be healthy, happy, and successful in your classrooms.

But I’m here to ask if you are supporting yourself right now too?

I know this is a difficult time; we’re embarking on another school year filled with uncertainty, constant change, and unpredictable challenges. Because this is such a demanding year, it’s more important than ever that you are implementing self-care and using stress management strategies to:

•Set boundaries

•Prioritize your health

•Make sure to get some sleep

•Connect with colleagues

•Make time for friends and family

•Ask for help

I know all of these tips are easier said than done. But you, your health, and your mental well-being are important. You give a lot, but you have to learn to take too. Especially this year!

You’re not doing a disservice to your students by taking time for yourself, infact, your students will be better served when you are fulfilled in your personal life.

We’re all familiar with the expression you can’t pour from an empty cup.

So I want to know, how much is in your cup right now?

Teachers tend to talk a lot about caring for our students - but what I’m NOT hearing enough of is the push for educators to take care of ourselves and make sure we are well.

We all want to pour out but if you just give without giving yourself the opportunity to replenish, well that’s a recipe for burnout.

So here’s some strategies you can use to make sure your cup stays full so you can continue to show up and serve your students:

• Breathing Exercises - Deep breaths can help you calm down and think clearly during high stress moments. Here’s a breathing exercise you can do throughout the day to help you take care of yourself and maintain a sense of calm.

• Schedule Self Care - Once the school year is in full swing, it can be a challenge to prioritize self care. Actually scheduling in time for yourself, writing it on the calendar, and making it a priority can increase your chances of engaging in self care. Remember, this doesn’t have to be scheduling a spa day, it can be as simple as scheduling an hour to read a book for pleasure, a half hour for a yoga practice, or 20 minutes to go for a walk.

• Connect Outside of Work - Make sure to have conversations about things OTHER than work.

The goal here is to find something that fills your cup. The more you start prioritizing taking care of yourself, the more equipped you’ll be to show up and be the best version of yourself for your students

One of the most important reasons for self care is preventing burnout.

• Do you regularly feel overwhelmed at school?

• Do you feel frustrated by how powerless you sometimes feel?

• Are you feeling more cynical about education, or do you lack the energy to be productive?

If you answered “ABSOLUTELY” to some of these, you may be experiencing burnout.

Anyone in any line of work can experience burnout, but it is especially common in jobs of service, like teaching. But just because burnout is common in the field of teaching, doesn’t mean it’s inevitable.

The chronic stress that can accompany burnout has the potential to be quite damaging, so instead of accepting your feelings of burnout as part-of-the-job, you can learn to manage them.

So what can you do to overcome burnout?

• Change your job!

Okay, yes. That is a great way to overcome burnout. But obviously that’s not a viable solution for many of us! When you love teaching and find joy in working with and helping your students, just abandoning your career simply isn’t an option.

Don’t worry. There’s others ways to manage burnout. You can:

• Practice breathing exercises and mindfulness strategies.

• Find a trusted colleague to talk with.

• Implement self-care strategies.

• Focus on your daily accomplishments and avoid criticising yourself.

• Practice. That. Gratitude.

Leaving teaching IS NOT the only solution to burnout. There’s a lot of steps you can take to prevent and recover from burnout!

One of the best ways to help you manage the feelings of stress triggered by school and students, is to start a regular gratitude practice.

The more we practice gratitude, the easier it is to remain positive during stressful situations.

I know it’s easy to recognize the negative during the school year. That’s because those neural pathways in your brain are well traveled. Turns out, we have a lot of practice being negative.

But you can choose to shift your brain to gratitude recognition.

The more we activate the gratitude circuits in our brain, the stronger the neural pathways become, and the more likely we are to recognize what’s going right, instead of always looking at the problem.

Start strengthening your gratitude practice by trying one of my favorite gratitude exercises.

Make It Count:

• Sit up nice and straight.

• Take a few deep breaths.

• Count 10 things that you are grateful for; extend one finger for each one.

• Once you’re finished, both hands will be open and you may find yourself feeling a little more grateful.

Incorporate this exercise into your routine to enhance your sense of gratitude - because that sense of gratitude has been proven to increase your wellbeing by improving mental and physical health, sleep quality, relationships, self-esteem, building empathy, and more!

Plus, as you strengthen your gratitude practice, you can share that with you students and find time for gratitude in the classroom. You’ll be helping cope with your own stress while helping your students build their emotional resilience as well.

Looking for more gratitude exercises to help you manage your stress? Try this 7 day challenge! Check-in with yourself at the end of the 7 days to see how focusing your perspective on gratitude has lessened your reaction to the stressors around you.

I just discussed the importance of practicing gratitude and how a positive perspective can help you manage your stress, but I want to give a warning about staying positive and always looking on the bright side.

Do you know there’s a point where being positive may be received negatively?

We call this toxic positivity.

It’s the idea that while optimism is great, BOMBARDING others with insincere positivity can actually create feelings of guilt and shame for those experiencing negative emotions.

And negative emotions like stress, fear, frustration, and anxiety are NOT reasons to feel ashamed! They’re normal emotions. Both for your colleagues and for your students.

You can create a space within your school with less tension, less judgement, and more acceptance.

Avoid toxic positivity during your school day by:

• Letting others express their emotions.

• Validating others’ emotions without immediately offering suggestions or putting a positive spin on things.

• Showing empathy.

Finally, remember that avoiding toxic positivity does not mean not showing your colleagues and students your positive and optimistic side.

Do try to model a growth mindset and ability to overcome barriers, but be genuine and sincere!

Play Video

Do you ever feel like by the end of the school day you’ve collected a bunch of stories you just HAVE to share?

When your work involves helping others, there’s a high probability that you often experience or hear about difficult situations that you want to share with others. It’s completely normal to feel like you need to unload about your day. There’s even a name for it.

Informal debriefing.

But if we aren’t careful when it comes to this kind of debriefing, it can have damaging effects on the person we are sharing this information with, which in turn, can create more stress for us.

So here’s a tip:

Breath before you debrief.

Before unloading about your day at school, take a moment to consider how the weight of your collected stories may impact the well-being of others. It’s still important for you to share, but make sure to do it in a way that is considerate of the mental well-being of those you share with.

Looking for a breathing exercise to use? Try this breathing guide.

I KNOW if you hear a student say something negative about another student, you consider that unacceptable behavior and immediately intervene.

But do you ever intervene regarding the words you’re saying to yourself?

It’s time to start paying attention because positive self-talk and affirmations have the power to lower feelings of stress and anxiety while increasing feelings of self-worth and self-compassion.

But that doesn’t mean you say one nice thing to yourself and move on.

Positive affirmations require regular practice if you want lasting, long-term changes to the way you think and feel. When you repeat a thought multiple times every day, your subconscious mind works to believe that thought and in turn acts in ways to align with your positive statement.

When you say things like:

• I am a GREAT TEACHER.

• I deserve to take a break when I need it.

• I am doing ENOUGH for my students.

• The work I do is important and valued.

Your brain starts to believe it.

And you can think of your brain like a muscle, the more reps, the stronger it becomes. The more you repeat these positive statements, the more your brain begins to think and act in accordance with that thought.

Your thoughts and feelings are POWERFUL. Take advantage of that power by being kind to yourself and making positive affirmations part of your daily routine.

And once affirmations are a part of your routine, you can share this practice with your students as well!

GRATITUDE ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS

This article includes FREE printables and resources for Educators.

Have you ever asked your students to share their stress levels with you?

If so, you probably discovered your students are STRESSED! They’re often stressed about school, stressed about their families, and stressed about world events they’re working to understand.

As an educator, you surely hate when your students are stressed, and you understand that stress impacts them negatively both at school and at home. But do you ever think about how the stress your students face actually runs the risk of negatively impacting your health as well?

In an effort to help your students and protect yourself, consider implementing a gratitude practice into your classroom.

Regular gratitude exercises are one of the best strategies for managing stress and helping students think more positively and experience more positive emotions.

Gratitude has been proven to increase wellbeing by improving mental and physical health, sleep quality, relationships, self-esteem, building empathy, and more.

Learn about the benefits of a gratitude practice in this video. Feel free to share it with your students too!

Expressing gratitude can have significant benefits on students’ overall well being. It can help students think more positively, experience more positive emotions, and even increase their physical health. Here’s the science behind these benefits of expressing gratitude:

• Regularly practicing and expressing gratitude can release the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, which help reduce and regulate feelings of depression and anxiety. This means practicing gratitude can help students feel happier, calmer, and more focused.

• Expressing gratitude helps students shift away from negative or toxic emotions towards positive emotions.

• Practicing gratitude has long term effects that help students be more in tune with future feelings of gratitude. This means students start actively looking for things to be thankful for in their world.

• Brain research suggests people who regularly practice gratitude have increased activity in the hypothalamus, which helps control eating and sleeping patterns. So, practicing gratitude can have a positive impact on overall physical health in addition to mental health.

1. GRATITUDE GROWTH TREE:

Create and decorate a tree trunk from construction paper or another creative way. Have students fill out a Gratitude Growth Leaf. They can use this template to write what they are grateful for. Then, have students decorate their leaves and cut them out to decorate a class gratitude tree.

2. GRATITUDE STUDENT WALK:

Guide students on a nature walk outside. Encourage the students to be mindful of the nature around them. After the walk, use this worksheet to have the students list three things they are grateful for seeing during their walk and draw a picture.

For older students, instead of using the worksheet, have them journal about what they were grateful for seeing during their walk and reflect on why they were grateful.

3. GRATITUDE BREAK

Take a few minute break during class to guide students through this Gratitude Break. This activity can be done quickly, without taking up too much valuable class time, and can significantly help students relieve stress and shift to a more positive mindset.

4. GRATITUDE JOURNAL

A great way to further strengthen your students’ gratitude practice is through starting a gratitude journal. Starting a gratitude journal can help students become more intune with future feelings of gratitude, which means they may start actively looking for things to be thankful for in their world. But for many students, starting a gratitude journal and consistently writing in it can be a challenge. Providing prompts can help guide students’ practice. Consider giving these gratitude prompts to students...

5. MAKE IT COUNT

Guide students through this exercise to help them focus on the things they are grateful for. Tell students to sit up nice and straight. Students may close their eyes if they’d like, otherwise encourage them to bring their eyes to a low gaze. Then, have students take a few deep breaths, and count 10 things that you are grateful for. Students should extend one finger for each item. Once students are finished, both hands will be open and they may find themselves feeling a little more grateful. Use this visual to help coach students through this exercise!

1. FOR OLDER STUDENTS, GUIDE THEM THROUGH CREATING GRATITUDE JOURNALS
Set aside time for students to spend a few minutes journaling about the things for which they’re grateful. Give them prompts that specifically ask them about their feelings of gratitude. Have a consistent schedule so students know when each day, or week, they will be journaling. Expressing gratitude has a higher likelihood of becoming a habit when it is part of some sort of consistent, regular routine.

Remember, journaling can be done in both in-person or virtual classrooms. In an online classroom, you can post journal prompts for students or consider starting a gratitude discussion board. In either environment, try to give students an opportunity to share what they wrote to create a classroom that encourages giving thanks.

2. HAVE STUDENTS WRITE GRATITUDE LETTERS
This is especially great for students new to the practice of expressing gratitude. It can sometimes be difficult to identify all the things in one’s life to be grateful for, but expressing thanks and gratitude for what others have done for us, can feel a lot more manageable. Coach students through writing letters of gratitude and thanks, and assist them in sending those letters out, either through the mail or through personal delivery. Encourage students to be as specific as possible about what it is the person they are writing to did and why they are grateful. You could also simplify this and have students make post-it notes to express gratitude and post them somewhere they will be seen by the recipient.

3. HAVE YOUNGER STUDENTS WRITE GRATITUDE LETTERS OR DRAW GRATITUDE PICTURES
You can do gratitude letters with younger students, though depending on the age, you might need to provide a little more assistance. Have students draw a picture expressing their gratitude. They can draw a picture of a nice deed someone has done for them, and if they can write to explain the picture, great! Otherwise, you can have them dictate to you why they are grateful and write a quick note of thanks on their behalf.

4. CREATE GRATITUDE ARTWORK
All students, but younger students especially, tend to enjoy opportunities to express themselves through art and crafts. You can have students create construction paper flowers and write something they’re grateful for on each petal. Students can trace their hands and write something they are grateful for on each finger. You can cut green construction paper into the shape of leaves and have each student write down something they are grateful for on each leaf, and then compile the leaves into a classroom tree of gratitude. There’s a lot of different artistic ways to have students give thanks, and the great thing about all of these options is you can then display these expressions of gratitude around the classroom, creating a classroom community that values gratitude and each other. This practice can easily be adapted for virtual classrooms where students can share what they are grateful for and you can compile what students share into a word cloud or some other graphic that can be posted on a class website.

While establishing a new classroom routine can sometimes feel like a daunting task, incorporating a simple gratitude practice only needs to take a few minutes a day. In those few minutes, you can help your students manage their stress, improve their mindset, and find ways to start focusing on the positive. This regular gratitude practice can lead your students to higher academic scores, fewer behavior disruptions, and an overall healthier and happier classroom community! Be grateful, and create a great day!

Discovering The Mako Method™ (Our Framework for Managing Stress)

New Year – Same Me. The New Year isn’t about reinventing myself. But it is a great time to reintroduce myself, and for all of us, it’s a great time for re-evaluating our goals, our work, and our intentions for the upcoming year. I work as a stress management consultant helping people build resilience to the stress they are experiencing. I also work with teachers, mental health professionals, police officers, and others who work around stressed populations. My goals are to:

Help people manage their stress.
Help people teach these practices to those they serve.

The foundation of my work is called The Mako Method™. This is my personal framework for building resilience to stress. The framework consists of different actionable strategies that I teach folks to help them navigate their way through stressful experiences. When it comes to stress management, The Mako Method™ strives to:

Make It Accessible: You don’t have to pay to go to a yoga class, or meditate for an hour – this framework consists of things you can do from anywhere on any budget.
Make It Manageable: The framework is made up of actionable practices; exercises you can actually do to start managing your stress.
Make It Work: The Mako Method is evidence-based strategies that have been proven to help people change the way they can process and perceive stressful information.

The Mako Method™ has the power to change the way we process and perceive stressful information and ultimately change the way we respond to stressful situations.

Watch the full video to learn more about The Mako Method™ and to learn more about my journey as an entrepreneur.

And be sure to download my FREE Mako Method Guide to start taking control of the stress in your life.

Establishing & Enforcing Boundaries for Helping Professionals

As a caregiver or helping professional, you give a lot of yourself to the people you serve. You give your TIME, your ATTENTION, your EMPATHY, your PATIENCE, and COMPASSION. You do this because you want to provide the best care possible for those you serve, and that’s awesome, but *WHEW* all of that giving can be quite draining. If you don’t learn to set AND enforce some boundaries, you run the risk of continuing to take on more & more responsibilities until you are no longer effectively able to serve because you’re bogged down by feelings of burnout, exhaustion, and possibly even resentment. But let’s be honest, enforcing boundaries can be tough. Here are 3 of my tips for establishing & enforcing your boundaries and protecting yourself from burnout and compassion fatigue:

Reflect and Prioritize – Make a list of the things you need time for in order to be happy, healthy, and able to provide care for others. Make these things a priority.

Learn to Delegate. When you recognize you’re stressed or starting to develop feelings of anger & frustration, know that it’s time to ask for help!

Accept the Guilt, and Move On. Don’t be ashamed of feelings of guilt as you start to enforce your boundaries – that guilt’s a reminder of your generosity & desire to help! But don’t let that guilt trick you into altering your boundaries. Acknowledge feelings of guilt and then move forward with your boundaries still in place.

Want to learn more about boundaries and making sure you can recharge so you can be more fully present and compassionate as you support others? Check my Cost of Care course!

Benefits of Gratitude

10 Gratitude Journaling Prompts

Starting a gratitude journal can help you become more intune with future feelings of gratitude, which means you may start actively looking for things to be thankful for in their world. But for many, starting a gratitude journal and consistently writing in it can be a challenge. Sometimes having prompts can help guide your practice. If coming up with something to write about is difficult for you, try writing to these prompts. As your practice develops, you may alter the prompts or combine and rearrange them, and before long you may find you don’t need a prompt at all to write about your gratitude.

Focus on the present. Look around you right now. What do you see that you’re grateful for?
Think about your past. What’s a happy memory you have? Or where is a place you have been that you’re grateful to have visited?
Consider the future. What’s something that you are looking forward to in the upcoming weeks or months?
What’s something about your body and/or your health for which you’re grateful? Don’t mention any of the things you wish you could improve. Focus only on the positive.
Write about someone who you’re grateful to have in your life. Explain why you are grateful for them and the positive things this person has brought to your life.
What conveniences do you have in your life that you sometimes take for granted? What things do you have access to or what items do you own that make your life easier. Write about as many of these things as you can think of and give thanks for each.
Write about what you are grateful for about yourself. What accomplishments are you proud of or what traits do you like about yourself?
Find the good in where you live. Write about what you’re grateful for about your home or neighborhood.
Write about three things that simply make you happy. You might write about a person, a hobby, your favorite TV show or musician, your favorite food, or anything else that you just enjoy.
Write about the best part of your day (or your yesterday, if you’re writing in the morning).

3 Ways to Practice Gratitude

Expressing gratitude can have significant benefits on our overall well-being. It can help us think more positively, experience more positive emotions, and even improve our physical health. Consider incorporating these practices into your routine to begin reaping the benefits of a regular gratitude practice. The Morning 3! Start your mornings by thinking of three things you’re grateful for. The more specific you can get, the better! This is also a great place to start for those of you who find the breathing exercises a bit more challenging. Make it Count Sit up nice and straight. Take a few deep breaths, and count 10 things that you are grateful for. Extend one finger for each one. Once you’re finished, both hands will be open and you may find yourself feeling a little more grateful. Peak and Pit Try this at the dinner table or the next time you’re chatting with a friend. Ask them to tell you the peak and pit of their day. What went well and what is something they wish had gone better? Tip: You may be able to help them find a way to turn the pit into a positive by asking them what the experience is teaching them?

#GRATEFUL4

Day 1: Write 10 Things You Are Grateful For. Simple as that. It could be the shoes on your feet, the roof over your head, the phone in your hand, or the fact that you’re alive. Just find 10 things to say “thank you” for. Day 2: Compliment a Stranger. Make someone you don’t know feel good today. We’re in this time where when we pass someone we barely notice because our heads are buried in our phones. Put the phone away and be human, just for today, seek someone out and make them feel good. Day 3: Clean Something. Take some time to declutter today. Show gratitude for your space by keeping it clean. Clutter never generates a good feeling whether we notice it or not. Notice the good feeling you get when you create space. Sidenote: This could be mental clutter as well. Take some time to do a brain dump and write down what’s been lingering up there. Day 4: Write a Thank You Letter and Mail It. This is one of my favorite things to do for my clients and people that have impacted my life. Not a text, not a call, but a thank you note. Yes, snail mail, with a stamp. It doesn’t have to be long but just tell someone, “thank you”. Day 5: Reach Out to Someone Who Has Influenced You Big Time. Okay, now you can text or call, or slide in a DM. But this time, make it someone you haven’t spoken to in awhile. Maybe save this one for an old teacher or friend. Let them know that you’re calling them to thank them for the difference they’ve made in your life. Day 6: Hug Someone You Care About. Hugs actually have been proven to reduce stress and boost your immune system. So open up your arms and give someone a hug. If you get to this day and no one is around, shoot me an email and I will give you a VIRTUAL hug. Day 7: Forgive Someone. Here’s the thing. This challenge is pretty easy. Say you’re grateful, do some nice things…OK. All of these exercises help us to build a gratitude practice and make us feel really good. But there’s something a lot of us need to do in order to feel even better. Forgive someone. A lot of us are holding onto anger, pain, and hurt that was “caused” by someone else. Make the hard choice to let something go. The thing is, holding onto anger does nothing to the other person, it just hurts you. Also, it’s really hard to be angry and grateful at the same time. Today is about gratitude. So, whatever happened – take a moment to find the good in it today. Whatever sliver of good you can find in it, then, make the conscious decision to let the bad go. Create an amazing week!

Jotting Down The Good

Stress from work, friends, family, and mundane routines have a tendency to put us in a pattern of negative thinking that literally feeds on itself and creates more stress and unhappiness for us.

This cycle of negativity that develops from prolonged stress can lead to irritability, more stress, insecurity, anxiety, depression and so much more. So, it’s important to find a way to cultivate a positive attitude that can reprogram our thoughts to be dominantly positive, break the cycle of negativity, and start bringing some good stuff into our lives.

One of the ways you can shift your mindset out of the negative is by gratitude journaling.

Writing can be a great release. Often, when we write about things that make us feel good, we generate a feeling of gratitude. You might find that a gratitude journal is the best approach for incorporating a gratitude practice into your schedule.

How you decide to go about this gratitude journaling practice is up to you. Maybe you’ll have a journal solely used for gratitude purposes or maybe you’ll use a journal that you use for a handful of purposes. Some people have a personalized journal or use one that was given to them that evokes some type of emotion or sense of importance. Maybe you’ll find journaling in the morning right after you wake up works best, or maybe you’ll find writing in the evenings is a better fit. For some people, writing by hand feels easiest, while others prefer to type. Allow yourself to be flexible as you find the approach that works best for you, but do try to put some effort into sticking to a gratitude journaling routine. Once you get into the habit of gratitude journaling, you will find endless benefits.

Here are some tips for success as you start your gratitude journaling practice.

Positive Words, ONLY: Don’t use this space as an area to vent out the negative. Stay focused on the good stuff. Do NOT fix your pen to write the words “don’t, can’t, won’t, not” – none of it. Use positive words, only. Use Prompts: Writing prompts are a great way to help your gratitude practice and process come easier. I would aim to write about 5-10 things each day. Here are some of the prompts I use: “I am so grateful for..” “I always feel good when..” “Today was amazing because…” Be Genuine: Please don’t do this if it feels like a chore. If it’s too much of a hassle, we can find you something that is a better fit. Allow this to be something therapeutic for you. A release, that pours right back into you. The worst thing you can do with your gratitude practice is simply go through the motions. In order to really reap the benefits you have to cultivate the feeling of goodness and thankfulness. You have to make a conscious decision to make an effort to be more grateful. You need to be able to feel what you write and believe that it’s true. Speak It Into Existence: I don’t use my gratitude journal just for the things I’m grateful for now. I write about the things I’m grateful for in advance because I know the potential of my mind and positive thinking. “I am so blessed in my business. I work with 8 clients per week to help them strengthen their yoga/mindfulness practice. “I am so thankful for all of this opportunity through A Peace of Yoga. I work with the best and the brightest everyday to master my craft and become great at what I do.” There’s No Right Time: While I do advise you to start writing down things that you’re grateful for in the morning, don’t limit yourself to that time frame. As good things happen to you throughout the day, write them down! I like to jot down a few feel goods before I call it a night too. It leaves me with a sense of peace and oftentimes I awake with that same sense of gratitude. It’s okay to journal when times are bad too. Use this as a tool to help shift you into a better mood by reflecting on the things that make you feel good. You can’t be mad and grateful at the same time. It’s just how it works. So choose gratitude. Turn the negatives into positives – but only write in the positive tense. Does that make sense? So for example: “My relationship didn’t work out.. (insert name) turned out to be a waste of time, but at least now I have time to focus on myself and know what I want.”

Nah.

DO NOT Waste Your Energy Throwing Shade in Your Journal.

Try this: I am thankful I have time to work on myself and I know that when the time is right I will attract the perfect partner with all the qualities I desire. Maybe elaborate from there on what that relationship will look like..Have a little fun with it.

See the difference. The key is to Stay. In. The. Good. Don’t even acknowledge the negatives. This is specifically about GRATITUDE.

Elaborate: Depth over Breadth. So, I just mentioned elaborating on your journal entries. Explore what you really feel by going in depth on what you’re grateful for. This will help you in the genuine department. Make it clear what you’re writing about so that if you were to go back a year from now you could understand what you felt in that moment and maybe even regenerate that good feeling. There is a big difference between: “I am so grateful for my favorite student, Alex.” & “I am so grateful for my favorite student, Alex. That boy cracks me up everyday. Today, I convinced him that he set the school on fire with his magic powers (we had a fire drill) and had him confess on video… Don’t Rush: Give yourself time with this exercise. Don’t just jot it down and run out the door. Write it, absorb it, feel good about it. Mix it Up & Get Creative: Don’t put the same things everyday. Continuously find reasons to be grateful. I know people who use ticket stubs, pictures, receipts, etc. as prompts to reflect on. I personally like to keep a picture or two of my niece, Aria, laying around. She’s amazing too. But This Is Corny…Listen, if you find something that makes you feel good and helps you to live a life you enjoy, you need to keep doing that. No one has to know that you do this, or that you repeat affirmations in your mirror, or that you say “thank you” to yourself with every step. This is a process for you and if it feels a little weird, great. It’s good to step outside of your comfort zone! Just Be Patient: Most studies will say it takes 21 days to form a habit so let’s give it three weeks before we give up and say it isn’t for us. After all, according to my audience, we’re probably dealing with at least 20 something years of mostly negative thinking. It’s going to take some time for the brain to get used to this new way of thinking.

The goal here is to get to a point where your brain automatically defaults to looking for the good in every situation. You want to make gratitude what your brain looks for when it needs to feel good. Always searching for something positive, always pulling away something positive from every circumstance. What you will learn overtime is that your thoughts are like any muscle, the more you exercise them, the stronger they become. Positive thoughts reap positive results. Negative thoughts reap negative results. So, stay in the good. Happy journaling and as always, create a great day.

Mako Gratitude

This article contains FREE resources for managing stress and a FREE training for educators!