Free Gratitude Curriculum

Working with teams, I have seen the power of gratitude solidify teams, break through barriers and increase productivity. There is usually initial resistance in implementing a gratitude program as the language of gratitude has not often spoken in the workplace. On an individual basis, research shows that a regular gratitude practice helps with a healthy heart, a good night’s sleep, a positive mindset and many other benefits. With so many powerful transformations occurring within the organizations I work with, I have created a free downloadable gratitude curriculum (one for elementary and one for middle school) for our young leaders or for you to use at work.
The Short Curriculum – Teaches practical tools to teaching gratitude for the self, for others and for the world in a classroom. This curriculum includes a facilitator guide, handouts, a free downloadable copy of the I am Brilliant book and a free
The In-Depth Curriculum – Teaches the 9 steps to re-wire the brain, the science of gratitude and teaches practical tools to teaching gratitude for the self, for others and for the world. This curriculum includes a facilitator guide, handouts and the powerpoint is available on request.
Download the curriculum and pass it on.

Find at more at www.gratefulring.com or insitestrategist.com

 

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Make progress or Make excuses – Top three reasons for self-sabotage and how to move past them

When it comes to making changes in our lives, we have two options: make progress or make excuses. Working with many leaders, I have uncovered the top three sabotages to stop progress.

1. Unsure of what to do – Anytime we take a new journey, we may not know how to walk the path. We may spend so much time thinking about or worrying about what to do that we do not take action.
   Success tip: One of the best ways to move forward is look for role models of people who have already done what you are seeking to do. Be courageous and ask a role model about their journey. Often times, leaders, experts and creators are humbled to be of service to those seeking to make a positive difference. In sharing their experiential wisdom, you can uncover invaluable tools to avoid the pitfalls that they encountered and the keys to their success.
   Success tip: Set your ego straight that in every new venture there is a learning curve. After all, every master was once a beginner. Every pro started as an amateur. Every icon began as an unknown. 
2. The power of intention – There is tremendous power when the head and heart align to a common goal. A great example about the power of intention is the story of William H Murray. He spent three years in Prisoner of War camps during World War II. While imprisoned, Murray wrote a book entitled Mountaineering in Scotland. The first draft of the work was written on the only paper available to him – rough toilet paper. The manuscript was found and destroyed by the Gestapo. To the incredulity of his fellow prisoners, Murray’s response to the loss was to start again, despite the risk of its loss and that his physical condition was so poor from the near starvation diet that he believed he would never climb again. One of the famous quotes he wrote on the toilet paper was ““Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” (Source)

1. Success tip: Write out your intention and why it matters to you. When you write out your intention, you manifest it from just a thought into reality. When you write at least three reasons why your intention matters to you, you access the power of your heart to move you forward no matter what the circumstance.

3. Get an accountability buddy. The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) did a study on accountability and found the following statistics:
The probability of completing a goal if:
▪ You have an idea or a goal:  10%
▪ You consciously decide you will do it:  25%
▪ You decide when you will do it:  40%
▪ You plan how  you will do it:  50%
▪ You commit to someone you will do it:  65%
▪ You have a specific accountability appointment with a person you’ve committed to:  95%
1. Success Tip: Commit to contacting an accountability buddy at least one time a week. When contacting your accountability buddy, be clear about your intentions, have evidence of working towards your goal and make sure to ask for ongoing help in any area you feel challenged. Hiring a leadership coach has also been shown to help people take quantum leaps in your success.

Schedule a free interview with top leadership coach Jenny R Craig LCSW, BCD at jcraig@insitestrategist.com or learn more at www.insitestrategist.com

 

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Leading the Leaders of the Future

In partnership with the Texoma Council of Government’s (TCOG) Kid’s Matter program, grateful ring founder Jenny R Craig, LCSW, BCD completed a train the trainer program teaching probation officers and mental health professionals the Grateful Ring Curriculum™. The Grateful Ring curriculum offers practical, sustainable tools to heighten levels of emotional intelligence to reduce recidivism and increase the possibility of success in the workforce. Research has shown that those who are highest in emotional intelligence are the most successful in the workplace and in sustaining healthy relationships while those who are low in emotional intelligence are those most likely to be involved in unhealthy and/or criminal behaviors. The Grateful Ring Curriculum has been developed by combining research and tools in neuroplacisity, emotional intelligence and psychology to target key behaviors for success not traditionally taught in schools. These target teaching points include how to manage aggression, peer pressure, self-sabotage, impulsivity, depression and anxiety while uncovering tools to increase forgiveness, self-confidence and compassion. Throughout the six week training, students also embark on gratitude project challenging them on how to take personal responsibility, become an empathetic citizen and become part of the global community. TCOG will be working with Jenny on a long term sociological research project focusing on how learning these tools increases emotional intelligence which allows children to have higher levels of success in all areas of their life. We could not be more grateful for these next steps and look forward to sharing the outcomes with you! Find out more at http://www.gratefulring.com

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3 Steps to fill with joy

Joy is not in things; it is in us

HOW TO FILL WITH JOY

With so many different paths, opinions, and stressors in life, it is not uncommon that many of us end up on a path that does not bring us joy or encourage us to share our brilliance. One of the most important gifts to give yourself in life is to uncover what brings you joy. Not only will it help to fill you with joy, it will also keep you on the path to sharing your brilliance. To help you uncover what brings you joy, I encourage you to take time to build you an Joy Tank™ list. Your joy tank list is built by asking yourself three questions:
1) What are the things that you loved to do as a kid?
2) What are your favorite memories of your life so far?
3) If you had all the time you needed, all the money you needed, and nobody would think you were weird, what would you do?

To explain why these are such important questions and how they will help your mind and body, we will review each question.
1) What are the things that you loved to do as a kid?
When we were children, we allowed ourselves to be creative, use our imagination and do whatever brought us joy. As an international trainer, I have had the opportunity to assist helping professionals in building their Joy Tank™ lists. One interesting fact about the things we often loved to do as children cost very little money. Common examples of things that everyone loved to do were playing hide and seek, playing tag and climbing trees. Once you uncover the things that you love to do, the next question is to ask yourself is when the last time you allowed yourself to do your favorite activity. At my seminars, the helping professionals often giggle and say, “I am an adult, I can’t do those things anymore”. I then ask “Why not? It’s free, it’s fun and you love it. Why not go do it again?” I then offer the challenge to go out and try these activities again. After one seminar, I got an inspiring letter of a 67 year old woman who rediscovered climbing trees. She shared, “After you challenged me in your seminar to remember the simple things I loved to do as a kid, I wrote down climbing trees. As I sat in the seminar and daydreamed about climbing trees again, the smile on my face was contagious to everyone around me. On the drive home, I made a decision that has changed my life. I realized life is too short not to “Live your Power”. When I arrived home that night, I grabbed my 10 year old grandson and we went and climbed a tree. Not only did my grandson think I was the BEST thing since sliced bread, I had one of the best days of my life in 60 years. If there is anything I recommend – it is to get out there and Live your Power again! Thank you for reminding me about the small joys in life again.”
So what were the things that you loved to do as a kid? Allow yourself time to think back and write down everything you enjoyed.

POWERFUL CHALLENGE
Your challenge is to pick something off of your list and go and do it again. Play with play dough, color, skip, hula hoop, ride a bike, build a sand castle, fly paper airplanes, jump in a puddle, make mud pies or whatever brings you joy. While you may be most comfortable doing these activities alone at first eventually allow yourself to share your joy with others. For example, challenge everyone in your neighborhood to a friendly game of tag, have group board game nights, challenge your best friend to a hula hoop contest or anything to share the joy with someone else.

2) What are some of your favorite memories in your life so far?
For each of these memories, allow yourself to write down the details of the sights, smells, sounds and feelings that arose from this time.
For example, if one of your memories is being on a fantastic vacation at the beach, you may write:
I am lying on a towel at the beach and feel my toes in the sand, the sun on my face and a slight trade wind keeping me cool. As the trade wind blows, I smell the coconut scent of my sun tan lotion. I open my eyes to see Caribbean blue waters that are so amazingly beautiful that I find myself closing and opening my eyes to ensure that I am not dreaming I am here. The temperature is absolutely perfect. I feel relaxed. All the chatter is stopped in my brain and I hear the breeze and the ocean lulling me deeper into relaxation. I am not thinking about the past. I am not thinking about the future. I am completely immersed in this moment. I am at peace.
As your mind does not know the difference between real and imagined, you may feel the peaceful feelings from that moment being released. The more specific and detail oriented you are at remembering these memories, the more you release the chemicals that produce that specific emotion. With practice, you can bring yourself any emotion you wish to feel by remembering a memory attached to this emotion. It is recommended that you practice releasing positive emotions every day. There is no cost to do this and the rewards can be amazing. It also supports you in building positive pathways and cells throughout your body and even can boost your immunity. This is also a great exercise to practice when you are under stress as it allows you to access your right brain and can help lower your stress thermometer.
In my seminars, this exercise has been powerful enough to bring out tears of joy in others. For example, a woman raised her hand and said that one of her favorite moments was holding her daughter for the first time. As we progressed into remembering the details of the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings, the woman burst into tears of joy. The release of her joy triggered the other helping professionals to tune into her joy and changed the whole feeling of the room. The feeling of joy actually became palpable as complete strangers opened up and shared their joys with others. It is one of my favorite moments as a speaker. So I challenge you to take the time to write those moments that make up the best times of your life. It will not only honor those moments of beauty in your life, but also allow you to tune in and notice when another amazing moment happens in your life.
Share these moments with others with the passion and joy they brought to your life.

3) If you had all the time and money you ever needed and no one thought you were weird, what would you do?
Imagine that you receive a check today that will give you more money that you can spend within this lifetime. After you pay off your debt and everyone you know’s debt and donate to charity, you can now afford to be or do anything you want.
Along with this check you receive a suit case marked “Time for Joy”. Anytime you feel that you won’t have enough time to do something that will bring you joy, you can open the suitcase and all the time you ever needed is in the suitcase. You also receive a certificate that states, “I am not weird”. This card can be presented to anyone who thinks you are weird for doing things that bring you joy.
Now that you have all the time you need, all the money you need and no one will think you are weird, what are you going to do with your time? Allow yourself to think big, think outside the box and day dream about anything and everything that you might want to do and write it down. Your mission is to listen to anything your inner self says and write it down. The items on your list are to be anything that has or may bring you joy.

Hang up your Joy Tank™ List in a place you can see it.
Hanging up your Joy Tank list will:
Allow your logical mind to become aware of your joys and dreams. Your logical mind will then be able to begin planning steps to bring more joy into your life.
During stressful times, most people cannot get out of their logical mind to remember what brings them joy. Under stress, you will now have easy access to remind yourself how to bring yourself joy.
Posting your list will stimulate conversation from your friends and family. During this time, you can explain that you have committed to living a life of joy. This list is to be posted to help remind you the things that bring you joy.
Why make your joy a secret? One of the biggest mind viruses in society is that “If you loved me you would know what to do to make me happy”. As we are all unique, everyone has different ways of filling with joy. Sharing your Joy Tank™ List can provide others in your life with specific examples of what brings you joy. I encourage you to share your list with everyone you know (and even post some of your joys in the comments to inspire others) to allow others to share in the joy of who you are.

Looking to stop your self-sabotage and live a life filled with joy?  Contact Jenny R Craig LCSW, BCD to learn about her coaching practices at jcraig@liveyourpower.com

Jenny R Craig, LCSW, BCD

Jenny R. Craig, LCSW, BCD is a transformation specialist, utilizing her expertise in assisting leaders in creating authentic, profound, long-lasting impact in their organizations and personal lives. She is a confidential advisor and sounding board to top senior and emerging executives and leaders, CEOs, nonprofit leaders, diplomats, entrepreneurs, artists and visionaries, giving tools to unleash their potential and take quantum leaps to success. A dynamic and riveting speaker, Jenny has taught her life-changing training all over the world. She is a powerful influence in her field in psychology, having trained psychologists and coaches in 48 states on her techniques, has spoken at the United Nations, published three books and been part of two best sellers. Jenny leads the Live Your Power Alliance and helps people break through their challenges with transformational coaching. As an innovator in brain-training tools, Jenny is the creator of the “ I am grateful for™” ring, numerous train-the-trainer programs and a six-week self-guided curriculum on emotional intelligence. Her curriculum has helped people move past self-sabotage and train their brains to break through to higher levels of success. She also offers her curriculum to help increase entrepreneurship, decrease bullying in schools and increase total wellness.
As a top change agent, Jenny has appeared on WINK, CBS, FOX, PBS and the Lifetime Network, been named WE magazine’s 2014 Who’s Who Among Women, 2012 American Business Woman Association Neapolitan Woman of the Year, Gulfshore Business’s 40 under 40, the guru of interest in Gulfshore Life, Sapphire Award Inscape Publishing, IMPACT Leadership 21’s United Nations Academy, distinguished speaker on Emotional Intelligence at Hodges University and recently taught on Emotional Intelligence for an independent course at Columbia University School of International Public Affairs. Find out more about leadership training at http://www.leadershipdeepdive.com, her performance coaching at http://www.liveyourpower.com or her world wide peace movement at http://www.gratefulring.com

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Why be grateful for hard times?

“Child. Listen to me. Open up your heart for a moment and listen. You don’t need to banish your anger or bury your grief and sadness. The fact that you may feel anger about some injustice or inequity; the fact that you have the capacity to feel grief and sadness means that life still touches you. Learn to trust the wisdom-river flowing beneath the river of these emotions. Learn to walk with your depression, your anxiety, your anger as a teacher and a friend. The fact that you feel means that you care. The thing you ‘really’ have to watch out for is indifference. The ones who don’t feel anything are the ones who are destroying the world.” ~Doña Río de Gracian

Gratitude is the path to inner peace -JRC

Be grateful for all your emotions… They are gifts that are telling you if you are on the right path and that you are still fully engaged with the gift of life. When we try to repress, bury, hide or protect our emotions, we are giving them more energy and focus than they were meant to have. Learning to listen to what your emotions are saying, learning from the experience and letting them go is the natural process of life. When we practice gratitude, it makes us more resilient to bounce back from the difficult challenges that help us grow.  Learn more at http://www.gratefulring.com

What is the Grateful Ring?

IF YOU HAD THE POWER TO CHANGE THE WORLD, WOULD YOU?
The gratitude ring movement was started to teach people that they have a source of inner power that can decrease depression/anxiety, increase immunity, decrease blood pressure, connect them to others, make others happy and much more. Through the power of grateful thoughts and actions, the grateful ring has saved lives, saved marriages, helped people through chemotherapy, been used for proposals and wedding rings and more.. read here. All this has been done though people taking small steps each day. Join us in changing the world.

Our Vision:
The grateful ring envisions a world where all humans are able to achieve their highest good in healthy mind, body and spirit.

Mission:
The Grateful Ring improves lives by harnessing the power wisdom, caring, community and collaboration to create the highest good for all.

Our pledge:
I pledge to be part of the movement of positive individuals taking small steps each day within themselves and their community to make a positive change in the world.

#gratefulring #keepitmoving #worldwidepeacemovement

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