How to teach gratitude- help.

I have a gratitude board that I use with my son - we started when he was 5, he is 6 now. I cannot speak to how it would work starting as a 12 year old, but definitely worth a try. The board is a dry erase white-board that is on our wall. Every day (or at least most days) we write all of the things we were grateful for that day on the board. Since he is 6, we sometimes have a "contest" to see who can be grateful for the most things - this helps to teach him to think about/find more things to be grateful for each day. I know some people use gratitude journals as well - but I think that would be harder. I've also heard of families creating a gratitude jar - each day each member writes something they are grateful for and drops it in the jar - at the end of a month, year, etc. all of the notes can be read out to eachother.

Also, as other PPs have mentioned, modeling is very important. I always talk with my son about all the things I'm grateful for throughout the day in addition to doing the gratitude board. Cultivating gratitude is like building a muscle, so the more you do it, the easier it will get to feel grateful for more things.

I am grateful for the opportunity to have shared this with you - I hope it is helpful!