12 Easy Ways to Show Gratitude with Random Acts of Kindness

As parents, we’re constantly looking for ways to help our kids navigate life’s ups and downs with resilience and joy. One of the most powerful tools we can give them is a grateful heart. Teaching our children to focus on the positive things in life can go a long way to improving their happiness. It’s not about ignoring life’s challenges or pretending everything is perfect. Rather, it’s about helping them develop the habit of noticing and appreciating the good stuff that’s already there.

 Expressing gratitude, which studies have shown makes you happier, is an excellent way to do this. The best part is that gratitude is contagious. When your family starts practicing it together, you’ll likely notice the whole household feeling a bit brighter.

There are many ways to show gratitude.

• You can take a few minutes at the start of a shared meal to have everyone say a few things they’re grateful for.
• You can have slips of paper for everyone to anonymously write down something they’re grateful for during the week and put them in a bowl. At the end of the week, you can read them off.
• You can keep a gratitude journal.
• You can send thank-you notes to the people who’ve helped you or the family during the past month.

Use your imagination to come up with a way that works for your family, and ask your kids to come up with something that excites them.

Studies have also shown that kindness can make you happier as well. When you combine gratitude with kindness, you can make yourself happier and have a positive impact on those around you and your community.

There are many ways to show gratitude and be kind. With World Kindness Day on Monday, November 13, 2023, we wanted to make it easy for you to come up with a way to be kind by sharing different ways to show gratitude through random acts of kindness.

We’ve broken the different ways to show gratitude into three different types of kindness. There are many ways to give back to your community. Use our list as a starting point and see what other ways you can come up with.

Although one of the ways is with money, you don’t have to have a lot of money to make a difference. Even spare change can brighten someone’s day and bring them happiness.

There are also plenty of other ways to support those around you and your community if money is tight.

The beautiful thing about combining gratitude with kindness is that it creates a ripple effect that extends far beyond your family. When your kids see you expressing appreciation and spreading joy through small acts of kindness, they naturally want to join in. Before you know it, you’ve got little kindness ambassadors running around, making the world a bit brighter wherever they go.

While you’re teaching your children these valuable life skills, you’ll find that your own mood and outlook improve too. It’s a win-win that keeps on giving. So why not start today? Pick one idea from our list, gather the family, and see how a little gratitude and kindness can transform not just your day, but your entire perspective on what it means to live well together.