Why bother expressing gratitude?

Why bother?! In a forthcoming book called ‘Exceptional’, Professor Daniel Cable highlights how the value of gratitude and a strengths based approach can be pivotal to unlocking peoples potential. Click here to hear him speaking about this in a webinar that he gave last week. He reasons that people tend to all too often overlook the great benefits of expressing gratitude; rather they tend to “withhold the positive and share the negative”.  Professor Cable encourages us to celebrate “the best contributions of others” and “what makes them unique”.  
 
How to do it? Professor Cable encourages us to consider writing specific stories about another person that we care about; stories that capture positive memories of when we saw them at their best. Whilst these can be brief, he nevertheless suggests that the stories include: (a) “the setting” (why it mattered); (b) the response “what the person did that made such a difference”; and (c) “how it made you feel”   
 
What are we incubating?!The Commitment’ is now just over one year old. We’re very pleased to be part of the team and helping it to grow. Its mission is to speed up government action on the climate and biodiversity. To read a newsletter, click here. The intention of The Commitment is to give a voice to the many, many citizens who want to see more action for the planet. Click here to read a second research report. This delves deeper into people's thoughts about government action for a healthy planet.
 
Thank you to everyone who contributed to our appeal. We’ve raised over £11,500 towards an emergency response initiative of Children Watch. This is a small NGO that we’ve been working with in recent years in Tamil Nadu, India
 
International Presentation Association. Here is a picture of some inspirational IPA representatives from different countries. It was taken during a four day online programme that we facilitated in recent days. A key element was to help identify an advocacy focus for the IPA’s engagement with the UN in New York.  

Chicago Online Programme in action.jpg

Covid-19 songs with a big message to bring a smile - and perhaps some dancing!? Previously we shared a terrific song by Sunny Neji, created in collaboration with United Purpose. If you missed it, click here; and here if you’d like to hear another very uplifting song, this one supported by UNICEF.  
 
Maya Angelou quote: ‘when you get the chance to sit out or dance, I hope you dance’.

Have a great week!

Rosie, Lorna and Ian