Sunday Connection: The Mellow Minute and the Power of Gratitude

When is the last time you stopped and were genuinely thankful for something or someone?

This month is all about gratitude, and here’s why it’s worth your time: studies have shown that being grateful is actually good for your mental health. In a well-known experiment, people who counted their blessings felt better about their lives. Another study found that people in therapy who wrote gratitude letters reported better mental health weeks later. Harvard Health says it plainly: giving thanks can make you happier.

Life can be hard, and negativity seems to breed quicker than positivity. So sometimes you have to stop and remember the things around you to be thankful for. You have to actively choose to find them, however little or big they are.

This month also happens to be my daughter’s birthday month, and she is genuinely one of the things I am most grateful for. Her uncle lovingly describes her as “all gas, no brakes,” and as you can probably tell from the picture above, she truly lives up to her reputation.

The Mellow Minute

When I was unit director at the Boys & Girls Club, summer days were longer and emotions ran higher. I figured out that right after lunch was when all the littles got cranky, so I started a new routine. I would turn out the lights and have the children sit in a circle. Then I would turn on Spotify and crank one of those ambient, relaxing videos. They would get comfy, close their eyes and focus on their breathing. I had them breathe in the stress and breathe out the gratitude.

What I found was that some of the real cranky ones would actually fall asleep. Haha. One kid slept for like two hours.

We called it the Mellow Minute, and we did it every day for a whole summer.

Once the “minute” was over, I would turn on Circle of Life and teach the kids that the words at the beginning were “Pink pajamas, penguin in a bottle.” I’d get them to sing along. Right when the song was building toward that infamous line, “It’s the circle of life,” I would tell them to pick an animal in their mind. On my signal, they made the loudest animal noise they possibly could.

This was more for my entertainment than theirs. It was so funny watching them flap their arms or roar like a lion. Some were jumping around, swinging from the rafters. Just kidding. Or am I?

Sometimes that’s what we have to do: take a minute, breathe through the moment and find the gratitude. Or jump around like a fool making animal noises.

Try your own Mellow Minute this week, at home or in your classroom. Then tell me what you’re grateful for.

Gratitude resources

Free reads and practices

• Greater Good Science Center: Gratitude, research-based articles from UC Berkeley.
• How Gratitude Can Help You Through Hard Times, from Greater Good.
• Gratitude Letter, a step-by-step practice from Greater Good in Action.
• Gratitude Journal, another simple practice from Greater Good in Action.

Picture books for families and classrooms

• The Thankful Book by Todd Parr
• Thankful by Eileen Spinelli
• Gratitude Is My Superpower by Alicia Ortego
• Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora

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More ideas for families and classrooms are on the Creative Dad blog.