Wellbeing

Positive Psychology is continuously finding evidence for the power of gratitude on our overall wellbeing and life satisfaction. Research is finding that those who are having the best life experiences don’t have all the riches in the world, but are rich in gratitude. If this is true, why aren’t we all chasing this wonderful experience? At the end of the day, all great things come with effort and practice. People who experience the most life satisfaction have been found to incorporate some form of gratitude practice in their routine. Gratitude is an experience which needs to be cultivated and practiced over time.

However, practicing gratitude doesn’t have to be an elaborate process of writing long gratitude letters or lists. It can be as simple as asking the question ‘What Went Well?’ (WWW). Asking this question commands the mind to hunt for the good and identify the positives in life. This simply strategy not only works well for adults, but does wonders for training the mindsets of children too! Why not try implementing the simple WWW question as an after school brain trainer? When the kids jump in the car, along with asking them how their day went, go one step further and ask: ‘What Went Well?’ Incorporating this simple question after school trains brains to hunt for the good and builds mental fitness. You will find that children can build this skill like a muscle and start to recall positive experiences faster and faster as this practice goes on. So, throughout the week, spend some time with the kids practicing the art of gratitude with ‘What Went Well?’

Food for thought:

“It’s not happy people who are grateful, its grateful people who are happy.”

ARTS ACTION TEAM

Bottle Top Art Project

A huge thank you to Mrs Jo Knott for sharing her art skills and expertise to help us design and create our bottle-top art picture. We chose to use plastic bottle top lids for our outdoor installation to highlight the importance of recycling and using the lids that would otherwise end up in the bin. We also liked the idea of showing that ‘rubbish’ can actually make beautiful, colourful art that will last. The design was based on Eli’s original drawing of a Leafy Sea Dragon which we enlarged and outlined onto the wall near our school veggie garden. The wall is quite large and we hope to continue to build onto the sea theme using the bottle top lids. Thank you to everyone for being very supportive and sending in all the plastic bottle tops to help us with this project. Take a walk through our mini school orchard and veggie garden and see the Leafy Sea Dragon. We think the result is very tactile and impressive too!

Thank you.

Tina Mouzakitis and West Beach Primary School Leaders