Learn to appreciate the positive qualities of the people around you and discover what values you all share.
What you’ll need: Paper, coloured pens or pencils
What’s it for?
This activity will help you to appreciate the positive qualities of the people around you and discover what values you all share. This will help you know how you fit in with the people you care for, and allow you to build even stronger connections.
Check In:
Notice how you’re feeling right now. Close your eyes and notice what’s going on inside your mind and body.
How are you feeling?
What are you thinking?
How does your body feel?
Method:
Make a list of the most important people in your life. These might be your parents or carers, siblings, friends and relations. Leave some space by each name.
Think carefully and identify three qualities that each of these important people have that make them such great people. These might be things like: kindness, courage, modesty, curiosity, loving, humour, loyalty, wisdom, fairness, forgiveness, playfulness, etc. Write three by each name.
Do the same for yourself.
Now carefully draw a large, strong and sturdy tree in the middle of the page. On each of the main branches write the name of one of your important people and their three qualities.
On the trunk of the tree write your own name and your three qualities.
Draw the tree's strong roots and on these write down any qualities that you all have in common, or qualities which seem particularly important for this group of people.
Colour the whole thing in and make a suitable background.
Extra Activity: Show your Tree of Positivity to the people you included on the branches. If they’re not in your household, you could send them a picture of it, or show them online. See how they react.
When you’ve finished, spend a moment reflecting on the activity and ask yourself the following questions:
Did you learn anything new about yourself while you did this activity?
How do feel about the people you wrote about after completing this activity?
Was it easy or hard to think of three qualities for the important people in your life? For yourself?
Did you discover any qualities that many of you share?
Where did you choose to place your tree? In a forest? On its own? In a sunny or dark landscape? What might this suggest?
If you showed your tree of positivity to the people you included, how did they react? How did it make you and them feel?
Conclusion:
This activity helps you to identify the positive qualities of important people in your life, the values you share with them, and helps to foster stronger relationships, a sense of purpose, and belonging. This is an exercise sometimes used in positive psychology.
Take a moment to notice how you are feeling at the end of this activity. Did you discover anything surprising? What can you take away to make you feel better about yourself from this activity?
If you would like to, share something about your experience with this activity with someone you live with! Ask the person who looks after you to send us an email if you have any questions or comments about the activity, or would like to send us any pictures (info@catcorner.co.uk). Don't forget to subscribe for more fun CAT activities!
Created by Ian Grundy © March 2020
Creative Arts Used: Art
Psychological Areas Explored: Relationships, Emotional Wellbeing, Self-Exploration
References:
This activity was taken and adapted from ‘The Tree of Positive Relationships’ (pg. 209) from:
Rashid, T., and M. Seligman (2018): Positive Psychology: Clinician Manual, Oxford, Oxford University Press
These activities could be done by children of all ages, but some may need the support of their parent or carer to read the instructions or complete the activity safely.
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