The Power of Gratitude

Kia ora koutou,

Here we are on the cusp of welcoming back spring. I personally love the feeling of longer days and the sense that the world is warming back up, gathering energy and preparing for another burst of growth and renewal.It always fills me with a sense of hope and excitement as colours become brighter, birds sing more loudly and the air fills with the scent of growth and abundance.

As we head into spring and the second half of term three I urge you to take time to reconnect with nature in a way that best suits you. Plant something in your garden, sit in the sunshine, eat the fresh fruit and vegetables that are beginning to become available again. Take the time to utilise the energy of spring to nourish your own body and mind, and ponder where your energy lies.

This term we have been learning about Gratitude in class. While initially tamariki tend to focus on more material elements of their lives, I really love the way the children pick up the idea of being grateful for the small things really quickly. At the age I teach, they are always openly grateful for their family, friends and /or people who care for them. They also quickly recognise how lucky they are to have a roof over their heads, legs to run around, eyes to see, and many of the other wonderful gifts we have that can be taken for granted on a daily basis.

I truly believe that by discussing these things with our tamariki we are opening their eyes to the wonders of being human and giving them tangible ways to reconnect when the going gets tough. Martin Seligman devised the idea that there are 3 p’s of Optimism, personalisation, pervasiveness and permanence. Our underlying beliefs around these factors directly impact how quickly we will recover following a ‘negative’ experience. Pervasiveness means how much we believe that this event will pervade our whole life. For example, something bad has happened at school which then leads us to believe that all things in life are bad at the moment. By learning about gratitude tamariki gain the skill to see that while a bad thing may have happened there are still plenty of good things happening in their lives. This will ultimately allow them to see that one event does not pervade their whole life and allow them to bounce back from this negative event much more quickly.

We have also begun looking at kindness, what it means and the effect it has on ourselves and others. We watched this powerful Youtube clip called Kindness Boomerang One Day. They thoroughly enjoyed this clip and it seemed to really resonate with them just how kindness spreads and comes back to us. I urge you to take a look with your class and I’d love to know how they receive it.

I will be offering PLD sessions with a small group of schools for the remainder of the year.

These can be either full day sessions in the coming holidays or as six one hour online sessions over a six week period. I am really excited about this opportunity to spend time with schools, assessing their current needs and looking at how they can best implement the principles of positive psychology and education to enable their rangitahi to thrive.

If you haven’t already I’d love you to join me on Instagram or Facebook at beingeducationnz. I’ve found this to be a great pace to share ideas and connect with other kaiako.

Wishing you a fabulous week ahead.

Nga mihi,

Natalie