Hi, Chris here …

Gratitude is a way of life that has the potential to make you happier and healthier.

Gratitude helps children develop a positive outlook on life, kindness, empathy for others, and self-esteem.

Gratitude practice is also an excellent way to demonstrate to children how our thoughts influence how we feel.

Studies have shown that gratitude breeds kindness and kindness breeds more kindness.

Gratitude makes us more emphatic, connected and helpful … and less anxious and less aggressive.

And this just might be the change we need to see in our world today.

A change that we can make happen in classrooms and at home.

The best thing about gratitude is that it can be learned.

This means you can learn to notice more positive aspects of life and thus feel and do better.

So, I created this page to inspire and support you in your gratitude practice.

This page is filled with resources for you to start and sustain a fun gratitude practice with both kids and youth.

I also included some of the most important research and studies here, for all the science nerds like me :)

Thank you for practicing gratitude and making the world kinder and happier <3

With ** Gratitude **

Chris Bergstrom

Chris Bergstrom is a bestselling mindfulness author, a leader in the field of mindfulness, and the founder of BlissfulKids.com, a community of parents, educators, and therapists dedicated to children’s mindfulness and psychology, with over 15 years of experience facilitating meditation and psychological interventions to people of all ages.

Chris is a certified mindfulness facilitator, trained to teach mindfulness to students in K-12, and has received psychology and mindfulness training from UPenn, UCLA, UNC, Mindful Schools, and Mindfulness Without Borders.

In a kid-friendly manner, explain and remind children of the amazing scientific benefits of gratitude.

Discover 8 surprising reasons why you should practice gratitude with children

Learn all about children’s gratitude practice in this two part article series by best-selling children’s psychology and mindfulness author.

According to a 2011 study published in Psychological Assessment, grateful teens (ages fourteen to nineteen) are more satisfied with their lives, use their strengths to improve their communities, are more engaged in their schoolwork and hobbies, and have better grades (Froh, 2011). They’ve also been shown to be less envious, depressed, and materialistic than their less grateful counterparts.

Another study with an emphasis on education found that encouraging students to deliberately practice gratitude toward learning can increase their capacity for concentration in the classroom and help them to remain resilient in the face of learning challenges (Wilson, 2016).

Here are a few more remarkable highlights from leading gratitude studies:

Gratitude increases happiness. Thankfulness leads to heightened well-being, and especially positive moods. (ref. ref ref).

Gratitude creates lasting happiness. An attitude of gratitude helps you not only increase positive emotion, but can also sustain it. (ref).

Gratitude protects you from both stress and negativity. Gratitude is associated with decreased anxiety and depression and increased social support (ref).

Gratitude leads to stronger relationships. Gratitude strengthens your relationships and helps you create and maintain good relationships and feel more connected. (ref and ref and ref).

Gratitude benefits people of all ages – from adolescence to adulthood (ref).

Gratitude makes you more socially intelligent (ref).

Gratitude improves sleep quality and duration (ref).

Gratitude has been shown to increase empathy and reduce aggression (Lambert, 2011 & Lasota 2020)

Gratitude makes us more altruistic, moral, and ethical (McCullough 2001, McCullough 2008).

We become more helpful and kinder to others (Bartlett 2006).

And gratitude makes others better people too because those we thank are more likely to become more ethical (McCullough 2001, McCullough 2008).