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Examples of gratitude letters

September 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

1. A gratitude letter written by a 17-year old girl to her mother:

I would like to take this time to thank you for all that you do on a daily basis and have
been doing my whole life….

I am so thankful that I get to drive in with you [to school]
everyday and that you listen and care about the things going on in our lives. I also
want to thank you for all the work you do for our church. Every week you work to
provide a great lineup of worship that allows everyone to enter in and glorify God
every Sunday….

I thank you for being there whenever I need you. I thank you that
when the world is against me that you stand up for me and you are my voice when I
can’t speak for myself. I thank you for caring about my life and wanting to be
involved. I thank you for the words of encouragement and hugs of love that get me
through every storm. I thank you for sitting through countless games in the cold and
rain and still having the energy to make dinner and all the things you do. I thank you
for raising me in a Christian home where I have learned who God was and how to
serve him….

I am so blessed to have you as my mommy and I have no idea what I
would have done without you. I love you a million hugs and kisses.

(this letter is from a scientific paper entitled Gratitude in Adolescence: An Understudied Virtue by
Jeffrey J. Froh and Giacomo Bono.)

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PERMA for remembering the five components of well-being

September 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

P = positive affect ( feeling happy)

E = engagement, flow, absorption in whatever you’re doing

R = relationships, positive ones

M = meaning in your life

A = accomplishment, pursuing success and mastery just because it’s satisfying

(from Flourish by Martin Seligman, p 16)

How to use PERMA?

  1. Add PERMA to your daily checklist of things to do and review. At the end of the day, think about how good the day was in terms of your sense of happiness, engagement, positive social experiences, meaning and accomplishment.
  2. Use PERMA to help you prioritize your activities. We can’t do everything we want to do, but we can choose to do the important things.
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How can I measure my well-being to see how well I’m flourishing?

September 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Answer: Click here to take the NEF online well-being survey.

The NEF well-being survey is used to assess the well-being of European countries.  (Denmark wins; the Baltic States do rather badly.)

The questionnaire takes about 10-15 minutes and asks 50 questions on a broad range of topics to assess your well-being.

At the end, you get your overall well-being score and your scores on the individual components.

Here is a list of the well-being components being measured:

From the latest national accounts of well-being report:

Personal well-being is made up of five main components, some of which are broken down further into sub-components. These are:

1.  Emotional well-being. The overall balance between the frequency of experiencing positive and negative emotions, with higher scores showing that positive emotions are felt more often than negative ones. This is comprised of the sub-components:

  • Positive feelings – How often positive emotions are felt.
  • Absence of negative feelings – The frequency with which negative emotions are felt, with higher scores representing less frequent negative emotions.
  • Satisfying life. Having positive evaluation of your life overall, representing the results of four questions about satisfaction and life evaluations.
  • Vitality. Having energy, feeling well-rested and healthy, and being physically active.

2.  Resilience and self-esteem. A measure of individuals’ psychological resources. It comprises the sub-components:

  • Self-esteem – Feeling good about yourself.
  • Optimism – Feeling optimistic about your future.
  • Resilience – Being able to deal with life’s difficulties.

3.  Positive functioning. This can be summed up as ‘doing well’. It includes four sub-components:

  • Autonomy – Feeling free to do what you want and having the time to do it.
  • Competence – Feeling accomplishment from what you do and being able to make use of your abilities.
  • Engagement – Feeling absorbed in what you are doing and that you have opportunities to learn.
  • Meaning and purpose – Feeling that what you do in life is valuable, worthwhile and valued by others.

4.  Social well-being is made up of two main components:

  • Supportive relationships. The extent and quality of interactions in close relationships with family, friends and others who provide support.
  • Trust and belonging. Trusting other people, being treated fairly and respectfully by them, and feeling a sense of belonging with and support from people where you live.

5.  In addition to these indicators, as an example of a well-being indicator within a specific life domain, a satellite indicator of well-being at work has also been created. This measures :

  • job satisfaction
  • satisfaction with work-life balance
  • the emotional experience of work
  • assessment of work conditions

How to use the well-being survey results?

  1. Look at the areas you score poorly in and think about how you could improve things.
  2. Take the test every month or so as a check-up on your “flourishing” health.
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