The Little Things, They Aren't Little

The Little Things, They Aren't Little

Gratitude everyday and embedding routines with habit setting. The 1% gain.

Who doesn’t want to feel great and like they’re spinning the plates with ease?! If you’re anything like me though, this often feels like a million miles away from the reality of your day to day experience! The juggle of kids, relationships, work - let alone personal growth - is real and something many of us experience daily.

We want the best for our kids - whether as parents or as teachers. We want the best for ourselves - that’s a no brainer right?! But sometimes when the hamster wheel is spinning round knowing what to do to make things easier can seem like a massive task... 

In his amazing book ‘Atomic Habits’, James Clear summarises it perfectly: “Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action.” And this, to most of us, can seem overwhelming and something we put off until tomorrow, next month, next new moon…whenever the ‘perfect time’ for a monumental shift will occur.

The reality…that shift is hard to find. Until we change what we are doing, nothing changes. So many of us have a clear picture of what we want to be like - nourishing our bodies with beautiful natural food, effortlessly balancing family life and career success, weaving wellbeing routines into our daily life. But making the change can feel overwhelming. Inevitably something something comes up and throws a curveball to stop the integration of what we want for our families. 

2020-2022 has probably seen the most curveballs our generation has experienced. From lockdowns, homeschool and global issues, we are realising it’s not so much a case of “waiting for the storm to pass” but well and truly needing to “learn to dance in the rain!”

So how does this link to gratitude and habit setting? Gratitude has been scientifically proven to have a positive effect on wellbeing. Including studies from Harvard University, well-established psychologists and theoretical frameworks such as Positive Psychology, demonstrate the ‘power of now’ and learning to focus on the present moment - taking the positives we can from it.

Month 2 in Calmer Kids Online explores the theme of Gratitude. There are a range of activities to deepen your family’s experience of it and weave it into your everyday life. If doing all of the activities seems overwhelming, choose 3 to commit to doing this month. You can use the Month 2: Gratitude Overview to help you:

James Clear talks about the power of the “1% improvement.” It may not seem particularly noticeable but “few things can have a more powerful impact on your life than improving your daily habits” (Clear, 2018). 

Daily gratitude habits - such as a family Gratitude Jar or grateful moments as a dinner-time routine, can help support the shift from the hamster wheel spinning to appreciating the little things - which are actually often the important foundations of our lives.

This month’s tips:

• Reflect on (and maybe brainstorm with your family), how do you want to feel? What habit(s) could support you to feel like it?
• Where could you start with integrating gratitude into your life? Perhaps using this month’s focus on Gratitude could help set up a habit/routine that supports that 1% gain….

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