A Grateful Gathering

Resources you will need:

Flip chart paper
A hand full of coloured pens
A selection of A5 paper

Aim

To enable young people to understand the positivity in their lives.

Overview

This exercise is a fun way for young people to recognise and reflect on positive moments or people.

Instructions

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  1. Split the group into smaller groups.

  2. Give each group a flip chart paper and pens.

  3. Inform the group that this is a race against the clock and the group with the longest list will win. The time limit will be 2 minutes.

  4. Ask the groups to list as many good things as they can think of that happened in their day.

  5. Once they have finished, ask the groups to feed back a) how many things they thought of, and b) 3 examples from their list.

  6. Ask the groups to list as many things they can think of that they are grateful for.

  7. Once they have finished, ask the groups to feed back a) how many things they thought of, and b) 3 examples from their list.

  8. Encourage the young people to write down 3 things they are grateful for and 3 good things that happened today each day before they go to bed.

Taking it home

Suggest to your young people that they try and do these activities either in a notebook or in their heads every night before bed. A useful technique is to try and capture the positive energy in the room directly after the activity, and tell the young people that they just need to commit 2 minutes before bed every night to end the day on a positive note. In order to make sure the young people retain their choice and control, ask them to try it out for one week, then for the following week to report back to the group whether it had a positive impact on their wellbeing or not. This will allow members to evaluate the activity themselves, and decide whether it is right for them or not.

What we learnt

This excise equipped the young people with everyday coping strategies to increase positive thinking and introduced the concept of wellbeing as a transient state that we can influence through our thoughts and actions. Asking them to reflect on this before they go to bed enabled them to end their day positively.

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