Gratitude Session

Gratitude Session

At Hope Academy, we focus on therapeutic sessions that promote healing and wellness for our Kindergarten-5th grade students during after-school time. One of the activities that we do during our weekly Wellness Session is gratitude journaling. Gratitude is a perspective, a shift that has the power to dramatically change your outlook on life and improve your emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual wellness.

When you start practicing gratitude, you become increasingly aware of all the things you can be grateful for that you may have otherwise taken for granted. You’re grateful for the warm house that keeps you safe from the elements, which leads to the gratefulness of the comfortable bed you sleep and rest on, the cozy blanket you can snuggle up in, and the photos on the wall which capture eternal memories.

Gratitude helps you to see that even if much in your world feels hard, you can hold on to the truth that it is not all bad. Gratitude gives you hope and strength during difficult times.

During our journaling time a few weeks ago, one of our 4th-grade students that has faced tremendous adversity and who we have watched grow leaps and bounds over the last three years wrote that Hope Place makes him smile! Watching him go from being so angry at everyone and verbally telling us how much he hated us to now being able to express his emotions appropriately and regularly writing about his gratitude for Hope Place makes our hearts swell!