Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Power of Gratitude


By Guest Blogger, Allison Kenny, Co-Founder of Glitter & Razz Productions 

Allison Kenny
According to the Greater Good Science Center out of UC Berkeley, it’s a scientific fact that practicing gratitude makes us happier, healthier people. 

For the Go Girls! at Glenview Elementary, I frame it like this: “Gratitude is like a superpower. When you are feeling negative or angry or lost or sad or scared, try remembering the things in life that make you feel happy- the things that you are thankful for. These thankful or grateful feelings can lift you up and help you feel better. Gratitude makes us happy.”

Then we got to work making our very own Gratitude Journals. Simple. Tiny books. Girls love to fill them with sketches, lists, poems, watercolor, stickers- whatever they can get their hands on. And the focus is gratitude, or as I tell the littlest girls if they look confused, “parts of life that make you feel happy.” I asked the girls to choose a special place where they could keep these journals and come work in them when they need to use their power of gratitude. One 4th grader decided to tape hers to the back of her frog’s cage. Whatever works! Go forth and be grateful.

Check out a few tips from parenting expert and Go Girls! mom, Christine Carter on practicing gratitude at home with your kids.
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Allison Kenny is the co-founder/owner of Glitter & Razz and serves as the Chief Officer of People & Programs.  She has spent a good part of her life leading and participating in creative and community-based activities focused on personal transformation. Growing up in Phoenix, AZ as the dramatic and extroverted one in a house with 3 other sisters, she built her values through active engagement in softball teams, theater productions, show choir, and youth ministry programs. She was a natural leader from a young age who was particularly influenced by her role in WomanStory, a Phoenix-based organization that supports the spiritual and emotional development of women and girls in intergenerational, arts-based camps and retreats. To this day, she has a personal mission to create healing spaces for women.


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