Celebrate and Appreciate

Look in the mirror and congratulate yourself on your hard work and accomplishments this year-you have almost made it to the finish line! Big and small, we must build a habit of celebrating and appreciating all the work it takes to get you from day one to the space you're holding now. Celebrate and appreciate those around you who have also played a part in your journey. Individual and collective celebration, as well as the practice of gratitude, are both VITAL to building and maintaining educator resiliency.

As we all work together to end this year in positive and productive ways, explore the following resources on celebrating and appreciating to support this last leg of the journey.

Explore Chapter 12, pages 289-306, of Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators for more detailed support for this month's habit of celebrate and appreciate.

Consider including some of these as the topic of conversation during your weekly mentor/mentee meeting.

Why Celebrate?

There are certain times of our lives, milestones, special occasions, where we find a need to celebrate. On a surface level, the reasons for these events seem pretty straightforward-birthdays, graduations, new babies, marriages, remembering lives lost. But there is so much more to the "why" behind the human need to celebrate. Check out the articles below for more on this.

"Without Celebration, We Wither Away" - ResilienceI see celebration as one of those things that nourishes us psychologically, emotionally, spiritually. I was thinking about this also in terms of how important celebration is in keeping us going.

Sheryl Sandberg: 'Finding Gratitude and Appreciation Is Key to Resilience'Read Sheryl Sandberg's commencement speech at UC Berkeley

The Role of Gratitude in Building the Habit of Celebrate and Appreciate

Developing the habit of gratitude is foundational to finding authentic reasons for celebrating and appreciating both the highs and lows of life. There are opportunities to cultivate resilience in both. Explore the resources below to learn more about the role gratitude plays in our ability to find genuine and authentic ways to celebrate and appreciate all that life puts in our path.

7 Scientifically Proven Benefits of Gratitude You'll be grateful that you made the change (and you'll sleep better).

Thermostat vs Thermometer - OnwardLove this video, Happiness is Overrated: Be Grateful, that talks about the importance of gratitude in your life. The thermostat vs thermometer analogy is...

Learning About Gratitude Journals - OnwardI can’t even tell you how many gratitude journals I have started throughout the years, so when I found this video by one of...

Ways to Celebrate Ourselves and Others

As we learn more about why celebrating and appreciating are essential to building our resilience, it is important to find comfortable ways for us to practice the "how." Below you will find a variety of resources curated to help you explore different ways to approach celebrating and appreciating yourself and others. Our resilience is strengthened exponentially when we learn to show gratitude on both the individual and collective levels.

Give Me 30 Seconds - OnwardThat’s all I need right now. 30 seconds of your time. Not too much to ask right? Close your eyes and take 30 seconds...

Appreciate Others - OnwardWe know how good it feels when we are appreciated and for those reading Onward, we also know that the habit of appreciation helps...

Don't Forget to Appreciate Yourself - OnwardThis month here are Onward, we are focusing on the habit Celebrate and Appreciate to cultivate our resilience. We know how good appreciation feels,...

Could you thank one person each day for an entire year? This guy did! Watch this video to follow his journey! Really fascinating!

Tips for Writing Thank You Notes - OnwardThe habit this month is Celebrate and Appreciate, and in May at the end of a school year, you often find yourself writing many...