Being there for your kids - How grateful are you?

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Being grateful is not just a moment. It's a mindset. Having an attitude of gratitude can set the context for each of your days. I know. You are grateful for your spouse, for your job, for life. That's the big stuff. How about the little stuff? She really made an effort to put together a great meal tonight. Your little girl gave you a big hug and said, "I love you, daddy" just out of the blue. You hit all green lights coming home from work. Gratitude energizes you. Give it a shot. Make a habit of noting in your journal even just one grateful moment each day. It will help you launch from your stuckness to soaring. For more, buy my new book, The Healing Journey: Overcoming Adversity on the Path to the Good Life, available on amazonbooks.com. Follow this link: https://a.co/d/0dxH5xOL Blessings, Dr. Jon

Hi, I'm Dr. John Robinson, and this is Teachable Moments. In our practice of mental and psychotherapy, that's MPT, helping professionals artfully weave together three treatment strategies. First, mindfulness sets the stage for your client's healing journey. Sweeping out the emotional debris left in the mind from being stuck lets them focus on being present. Let go of why is this happening? Embrace, what can I do to help myself heal? Second, trade out what's wrong with me. That question has weighed you down for a long time already. Embrace what's right with me. Start your healing journey on this positive note. This is where your

MPT therapist uses positive psychology strategies to help you own your positive. Third, your MPT therapist will challenge you with behavioral prescriptions using cognitive behavioral techniques to nail down mindsets that will begin the neurogenic process of rewiring your brain. Finally, gratitude in your daily walk is a positive psychology strategy that presents as a cognitive behavioral technique. So, Aaron, I began as my next patient took his seat on the sofa in my office. What have you got for me? Aaron handed me a neatly folded, typed piece of paper. I call it my, what am I grateful for list? Took me a while during the week since our last appointment, I found myself in a stuck spot and just asked how bad can this be. What can I pull from this

rubble that I can appreciate now? Then this stuff came to me over time. I took a moment to scan the list, exhale a deep breath, and then lit up. Wow, I'm impressed. Great job, Aaron. Aaron grinned as he bowed his head and looked at his hands folded in his lap. Look at this, I directed his attention to the list I held out. You came up with 23 separate items for your list. That's huge. I was treating Aaron for mild depression and social anxiety. He was a loner, but didn't know how to climb out of his hole. Aaron leaned forward and took the list from me. See, I covered the obvious stuff, like being grateful for life, food, a job. He gushed, but he added with pride, but I also found myself being grateful for seemingly little things. Like what? I encouraged him to go on. Well, my server at lunch

smiled at me when she gave me the tab. I wouldn't have noticed that gesture before or just dismissed it as her doing her job, but she really brightened my day in that moment, and I appreciated it. It's the little things like that that help us get through our days without going crazy. I'm glad you noticed. Sounds like an attitude of gratitude, both big and little things, to help make a better day. Aaron nodded. Then I asked, is that your regular lunch spot? No, not usually. But I'm going to go back tomorrow. Ah, I joked. Going to check her out, huh? Like you told me before, one step at a time, Aaron blushed as he concluded. Aaron's attitude of gratitude helped him unburden his depressive self-talk and develop courage to challenge his shyness, reaching out to make new friends. To find out more about

Aaron's healing journey, by my book, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path to the Good life on amazon books.com. If my comments, stir questions of your own, contact me through my website at www. www. therefrommykids.com or email me at John Robinson 0.0. at bell south.net. I'm Dr. Jonathan C. Robinson, licensed clinical psychologist and author of Teachable Moments Building Blocks of Christian Parenting and my new book, The Healing, The Healing, Overcoming Adversity on the Path of the Good Life. Blessings, Dr. John. Teachable Moments, Building Blocks of Christian Parenting is available online at AmazonBooks.com and in local and national bookstores.

More on Dr. Robinson at TMC-P-I-N-C.com.