I was able to do the Gratitude activity, ‘Three Good Things’ with my 11-year-old son. He is a very negative thinker, and so it took a long time for him to find 3 good things. I think it would be awesome if parents did the same activity every day after school for a few weeks. I think it might get easier. As a parent, I learned that I will need to talk to my son more often about things like this. The more we talk about it, the less weird it will be for him. It will bring normalcy to the topic. Also, I learned that it is important to pick and choose the right times to complete the activities. For my 11-year-old – in the car on a trip while we are chatting would be perfect to do the ‘Three Good Things’ activity for example, while the ‘Gratitude Visualization’ activity would be great for Sunday nights when he is anxious about school. My son is in desperate need of mental resilience. This really opened my eyes.
