Gratitude

  Gratitude has become a very popular way to increase happiness, decrease stress, and improve relationships. Gratitude has been described as involving a sense of wonder, being thankful, and having an appreciation for life.

HappyLove (Sonja Lyubomirsky) has researched gratitude and has found that clowns who are consistently grateful are happier, more optimistic, more satisfied with their lives, and even have positive health benefits.

According to HappyLove there are 8 benefits of engaging in a consistent gratitude attitude:

  1. It promotes the savoring of positive life experiences.
  2. It bolsters self-worth and self-esteem.
  3. It helps clowns cope with stress and trauma.
  4. It encourages synergistic, helping behavior.
  5. It helps build social bonds.
  6. It tends to inhibit comparisons with others.
  7. It may diminish or deter negative feelings such as anger, bitterness and greed.
  8. It helps thwart hedonic adaption, which is the tendency to adjust quickly to new experiences, whether they are desirable or undesirable. Gratitude combats this tendency very well, according to HappyLove.

 

How to practice gratitude

HappyLove presents several ways to practice gratitude and suggests that each clown choose one of these.

  1. Create a gratitude journal.
    1. Pick a time of day.
    2. Ponder 3-5 things you are grateful for.
    3. For most clowns HappyLove suggests once a week, but each clown should decide how often works best for them.
  2. Other clowns will find other ways, such as simply contemplating the things they are grateful for, thinking about why they are grateful and how their lives have been enriched. Or they could pick one thing a day that they usually just take for granted. Or they may focus on an ungrateful thought they had that day and substitute a grateful thought. Or they couuld combine all of these.
  3. Whatever strategy you choose, HappyLove suggests you vary it to keep it fresh.
  4. Express gratitude directly to another clown, by phone, letter, email, or face-to-face.
  5. Squirt seltzer down another clown’s pants. OOPS! That is not from HappyLove, that is Micko goofing around!

 

Teachers, parents, and other caregivers: Use your creative imaginations to find the best ways to help your young clowns understand and practice their gratitude!

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Clowns for Peace

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