Living with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) can sometimes be challenging, but there are many reasons to be thankful. Showing gratitude can make you feel happier and help you focus on the good things in your life.
Here are some fun and easy ways to express gratitude:
- Gratitude Jar: Decorate a jar and each day write down one thing you’re grateful for on a small piece of paper. Put the paper in the jar. When you’re feeling down, read through your gratitude notes.
- Thank You Dance Party: Put on your favorite upbeat music and dance to celebrate the people and things you’re thankful for. You can dedicate each song to something specific you appreciate.
- Gratitude Scavenger Hunt: Make a list of things to be grateful for (like “something that makes you smile” or “a favorite food”) and go on a hunt to find and take pictures of these things.
- Kindness Rocks: Paint small rocks with colorful designs and write short thank you messages on them. Leave them in places for others to find, like a park or near your home.
- Gratitude Alphabet Game: Try to think of something you’re grateful for that starts with each letter of the alphabet. You can make this a daily game, doing a few letters each day.
- Thank You Cards with a Twist: Instead of writing, draw pictures or use stickers to create thank you cards for people who have helped you.
- Gratitude Photo Challenge: Take a photo each day of something you’re grateful for. At the end of the week or month, look through all your photos to remember the good things in your life.
- Gratitude Sing-Along: Make up silly songs about the things or people you’re thankful for. Don’t worry about how it sounds – just have fun with it!
- Gratitude Collage: Cut out pictures from magazines that represent things you’re grateful for and glue them onto a poster board. Hang it where you can see it every day.
The goal is to make gratitude fun and accessible. These activities can help you focus on the positive things in your life, even when things feel challenging.
Family gatherings can be really hard. When I was little all the people and the noise overwhelmed me and I would react by melting down. It was hard to be me. As I have gotten older, I am more able to handling these events.
Here are some ideas that families and friends can use together: It is important if you are
- Pass the Neighborly LOVE Paper: Give each person a paper and write your name. Now pass the paper to the right and have each person write or draw something they appreciate about the person whose name is on the top.
- Gratitude Jar: Have a decorated jar where family members can add notes about what they’re grateful for throughout the gathering. Read them aloud at the end.
- Thankful Tree: Draw a tree on a large piece of paper. Cut out leaf shapes from colored paper. Write things you’re grateful for on the leaves and stick them on the tree. Create a tree (drawn or 3D) where family members can add “leaves” with things they’re grateful for written on them.
- Gratitude Scavenger Hunt: Make a list of things to be grateful for and have family members find and photograph them during the gathering.
- Appreciation Circle: Have everyone sit in a circle and take turns expressing gratitude for the person to their right.
- Gratitude Alphabet Game: Go around and have each person name something they’re grateful for, starting with each letter of the alphabet.
- Thankful Placemats or a Linen Table Cloth: Have family members create placemats with drawings or words expressing what they’re grateful for. Write notes in permanent marker on a linen table cloth.
- Gratitude Charades: Act out things you’re grateful for and have others guess.
- Memory Sharing: Have each person share a fond memory they’re grateful for involving another family member present.
- Gratitude Stones: Pass around a special stone or object, with each person holding it sharing something they’re thankful for.
- Thankful Photo Booth: Set up a photo area where family members can take pictures holding signs expressing what they’re grateful for.
These activities can help foster a sense of appreciation and connection during family gatherings, making them more meaningful and enjoyable for everyone involved.
TODAY’S NOTE: “Sometimes I am so busy taking care of my needs that I forget all the people who help me live the best life I can.” – In Solidarity, Liz“
Red Shoes Rock 