Welcome to Part 2 of our Health and Happiness week. The following tasks and challenges help us to reflect on our feelings. It is so important to acknowledge our feelings and to learn how to manage them. Our emotions really do drive us each day, looking after them and understanding them helps us to become emotionally resilient.
BEING THANKFUL AND GRATEFUL
Gratitude is always Saint Ignatius’ starting point. Before we reflect or begin a new day, or embark on anything important, he calls on us to remember everything that we have to be grateful for.
St Ignatius asks us to notice that instead of being grateful and thankful our natural human response to daily life comes down to feelings of entitlement – a feeling that I am due certain things, courtesies, privileges, comforts and rewards. Ignatius wants us to think and feel in a different way. Instead of insisting on our entitlements, consider rather what has already been gifted to us: our health and family, shelter and security, enough to eat, plentiful clean water, friends, freedom, the rights and protection of the law, education, talents and pastimes, the love of God in Jesus Christ, and all the small daily blessings that, when noticed, bring joy to life.
Science agrees it is noted that gratitude is a transformative power. Practicing gratitude can improve our health, help us build deep and lasting relationships, and has even been linked to a longer, more fulfilling life. One study showed that practicing gratitude is linked with an up-take in weekly exercise and it can increase our happiness by 25%!
We can help children practice gratitude by teaching them how to:
Enjoy the little moments
Reflect on lessons learned
Pass kindness on to others
““If the only prayer you said was ‘Thank you’, that would be enough.”
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GRATITUDE CHALLENGE 1
We have been together at home with our families for 10 weeks. During that time we have shared new experiences. Find an empty jar or box and label it “Lockdown Gratitude Jar”. Now cut several small pieces of paper (squares) and hand these out to your siblings and parents, reflect on all the things you have been grateful for during lockdown: food, warm home, card games with dad, time in the garden, long walks, making a birthday cake with for grandad and singing happy birthday over zoom etc. Place it somewhere special for all the family. Keep adding to it and reflecting on all the things we are grateful for.good things this time has brought.
GRATITUDE CHALLENGE 2
Now that we have reflected on the fun times we have had together and the events we are grateful for let’s complete a scavenger hunt. Time to wonder around our safe home and feel grateful for the things around us. You could do this together with your siblings or you could do it separately and then come together to share
GRATITUDE CHALLENGE 3
Over the past year we have had Yoga lessons in school. These lessons have taught to children sooo much about stillness, self awareness, relaxation and breathing. Slowing down and being in touch with our body gives us a sense of well being. Click on the picture to open “gratitude yoga exercises for children” and share the mantra and positions together. Now create a quiet space to practice. Why not lead your parents - after all you are the expert.
Click on the picture to open the guide
MANAGING OUR FEELINGS
being able to name the feelings we are feeling is an important place to start. Throughout the day we can feel many different emotions. Being able to say what emotion we are feeling opens up the conversation with others to hep us understand the feeling and how to handle it. Watch this short clip - you may recognise the film - can you name the emotions the little girl is experiencing. It is a lovely film as she appears to be in lockdown trying to complete her school work!
CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO OPEN THE FILM
FEELINGS CHALLENGE 1
The little girl in the film is called Riley. She feels: HAPPY, SAD, ANGRY, DISGUSTED and SCARED. It is important that we know that there are other words that mean the same (similar degree). The wider our vocabulary about our feelings the better we can explain them and then understand them. Can you find synonyms (words that mean the same/similar) to each of Riley’s feelings. You can write these down, make posters of the words - collect them in a brainstorm - if you’re older- use a thesaurus on line. We have also attached some posters for you to download and display at home too. If you have the words you can better explain your feelings.
FEELINGS CHALLENGE 2
One of the feelings that is really tricky to manage is anger. It is OK to feel angry- we all do- but it is really important that we learn to notice when we are angry and what to do to help us manage it. Watch this video it teaches us how we can manage anger it in 5 steps.
BEING GENEROUS
Just as St. Ignatius begins his day with gratitude (saying thank you), so he finishes the day with generosity (giving back). As we become more practiced at being grateful, we realize just how blessed we are, often without really deserving it. Out of this growing realization comes a powerful desire to be generous, “to give and not to count the cost.” Generosity is the inevitable consequence of the practice of gratitude. St Ignatius had an important principle- that acts of kindness were more important than words. More often than not, it is the small acts of daily kindness and generosity, putting others before ourselves, which have the greatest impact on us- we feel happy and connected to the love of Jesus Christ. Now settle down with your siblings to listen to the book “The Rainbow Fish”. It is a reminder of how generosity changes the way we feel.
CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO OPEN THE FILM
Your final challenge:
This is a challenge to do secretly- Find another empty jar or box. Now collect small stones or make little paper hearts. Place them next to your jar. Everyday perform an act of kindness: smile at your sister, lay the table, tidy your toys away (without being asked), make your bed, hug you mum, make a thank you card- any act of kindness. Once you have done your act of kindness- pop a stone or heart into your jar. See how it feels as your jar fills up.
““You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” ”