Homework Post Week 5: Choosing Attention and Gratitude

Skill Practice Reflection: Reflect on your intentional gratitude practices this week. Include a response to the following prompts for a total of about 1.5 pages double spaced.

• Take a few minutes to engage in one of the gratitude activities from class. How did practicing gratitude go for you? What activity did you try? Why did you pick that activity? Share what changes you felt in your mood from before the activity to afterwards.
• Complete a WOOP for using more gratitude practices based on the following four prompts. Remember to include all four parts of the WOOP, putting particular focus on naming an internal obstacle and an if/then statement for your plan.
• WISH: What is something you wish to change in your future in terms of your gratitude? This change can be longer term, but make sure to then also identify something for within the next 4 weeks.
• OUTCOME: What would a specific outcome be if you were to live out the above wish?
• OBSTACLE: What is an obstacle that has kept/will keep you from using gratitude? Name at least one internal barrier and one external barrier.
• PLAN: What are your plans for overcoming these obstacles and barriers to use gratitude? Make sure to include an if/then statement (i.e. If you face “obstacle x”, then you will do …) and then expand on how you will ensure you stick with that plan. Be specific!

Class Activity Reflection: Reflect on the gratitude practice during discussion this week and complete the following activity. Your response for this section should be about half page double spaced.

• When you go home, write a letter to the person to whom you are most grateful. While you are writing, observe the emotions you are feeling. After completing your letter, make a plan for how you are going to share the letter with that person. Remember, in person is best, but sharing it is better than not sharing it at all. Write a half page reflection that describes the thoughts and emotions you observed as you wrote and read the letter to your person (or describe your plan to share the letter).

Gratitude Practice: Write a half a page about something that happened or something you accomplished this week that you are grateful for.

Lecture + Reading Reflection: Reflect on the Week 5 lectures and the assigned readings and the associated videos. Respond to the following prompts in a half page.

• What is one thing that resonated with you from class, particularly from the lecture material? What do you still have questions about (if anything)?
• Identify one way you can see the content in the readings helping you going forward.

GRADING STANDARDS

Your post is worth a possible 10 points. To receive the full 10 points for this post, you must respond to all four sections of reflection and address all prompts fully, totaling around 3-4 double-spaced pages. Be honest; part of the goal of these posts is to have an opportunity to receive feedback and support from us – we have experience with using these skills and coaching on the use of them. Your grade is NOT based on how well you used the skills, but rather on how much we can see you reflected on the skills/content and have thought about how it applies to your life. Incomplete or late responses will be docked points.