Inspiration Through Gratitude
Improve your self-awareness, grow as a leader or coach, strengthen your resiliency and become a stronger human bean
Everyday Leadership means that each and every one of us, takes intentional and daily action to foster better connection, communication, sharing in the vision that we can do better, together.
Workshops and Events
Lorraine’s workshops are an effective way to explore how introspection and reflection can impact your days as you create positive change across all aspects of your life.
The Gratitude Trifecta
Write. Appreciate. Recalibrate.
NEW!
Build more positivity into your life. Decrease your daily levels of stress and overwhelm. Improve your relationships with others who may also be on the verge of collapse. Are you ready to skill up in order to make some good decisions? Working on your own BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)? This course will be customized to meet you and a trusted colleague to write from where you are – even if you are not quite sure where that is!
Gratitude Trifecta: Write, Appreciate, Recalibrate, has been tested with professionals from across the country and is now available for delivery to you and your buddy.
With guidance and empathy Gratitude Mentor and Master Journal Writer Lorraine Widmer-Carson will introduce you to the powerful connections that can be found by linking words, thoughts, beliefs and emotions to a practice that reveals your reasons for hope and optimism.
Who can benefit? You and a buddy… you might be
- Team Leaders
- Leadership Councils
- Coaches
- Instructors
- All who are curious about the benefits of writing longhand and how it can augment your personal levels of self-awareness, resiliency, and creativity
All sessions facilitated by Gratitude Mentor and Journal Writing Coach, Lorraine Widmer-Carson. In addition to writing prompts that are fuelled with creative and fresh insights, Lorraine generously shares resources, tactics and encouragements helping you become your own best ally – with an accountability buddy who will help you keep towing your lines.
Details
- Online format
- Ten hours of facilitated conversation scheduled within a 90 day period
- Group Size: Two persons. You and your accountability buddy.
- Sharing of resources, expertise, and mentorship between sessions
- Includes a blank journal and a signed copy of An Ecology of Gratitude
- Investment: $650.00 per person.
Contact Lorraine for more details.
The Writing Shift
A Workshop for Leadership Teams
“Simply journaling for five minutes a day about what we are grateful for can enhance our long-term happiness by over 10%” https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-gratitude-research-questions/#benefits-gratitude
Gratitude is a positive character strength that is best galvanized when we turn off our electronics, find a quiet desk and explore our thoughts by writing slowly, pen to paper.
The Writing Shift is a workshop that uses tried and tested tools and techniques, that are old school, retooled. Using quick lists, word bubbles, ear worms, and mind maps, participants will gain insight into their worries, joys, roses, and thorns – all in an atmosphere of human centred acceptance and collegiality. The program will conclude with a close-out discussion of successes, shifts, group consensus and commitment to keep leveraging learnings into the future — shifting with gratitude. A final report will be sent to group leader(s) as a reflection tool.
Who can benefit?
- Any leadership team that is eager to work together with greater efficiency, empathy, productivity, and positivity
- Leaders who work for pay or for community purpose. Groups work better together when they understand the benefits of an upwardly trending positivity quotient
Details:
Mix of in-person and online format
Max. 10 people / session
Six hours of facilitated conversation. Four sessions delivered within an 8 week period
Timing, delivery and schedule customized to meet group needs
In-person sessions if within 50 km radius of Banff. Otherwise travel charges apply
Includes 10 signed copies of Gratitude Ignition Guide: Inspiring Thoughtful Writing
Includes workshop launch and final debrief sessions with Lorraine
Customized writing prompts to inspire original thinking, creativity and spark positive change
Investment: $2,500 for groups that book before December 8, 2023
Contact Lorraine for more details.
#1 - Monday Meet-up: Karina Birch
Join us for a series of Monday Meet-ups starting August 21, 2023 at noon.
It’s been an honour to work with Karina Birch, CEO and Co-Owner, of @rockymountainsoapco. We’re delighted to announce that Karina will join us for Grassroots Gratitude’s inaugural Re-Zoomion on August 21, live at noon.
“Leadership excellence is a priority at Rocky Mountain Soap Co., and we believe strong leaders are first able to lead themselves. Journaling is a way to build clear, growth-oriented thinking and a path forward. I was excited to work with
Lorraine, master journal writer and gratitude thought leader, as we grow our leadership capacity. Her skills and experience enable us to unlock the secret strength of personal leadership, and simultaneously develop a caring and growth-minded workplace culture.”
Book your front row seat by sending an email to lorraine@dev.dev.grassrootsgratitude.ca to register and request the Zoom link
#2 Monday Meet-up: Mayor Corrie DiManno
Mayor Corrie DiManno and Grassroots Gratitude Founder, Lorraine will talk about “Capital L” leadership as an elected official comparing her world to the world of “Lowercase l” everyday leaders like most of us. Mayor DiManno and Lorraine will compare notes about being “analog gals in the digital world” and how she, as a trained journalist and communications expert uses words, knowing that words matter and planning to use a better word takes effort.
Date: Monday September 18, 2023
Time: Noon – 1 pm
Venue: Virtual – Zoom room
Cost: Free
THANKS TO BANFF MAYOR CORRIE DIMANNO and to all who made time to take time… To view this conversation, click Grassroots Gratitude YouTube channel the link here:
#3 October 16 - Monday Meet-up: Steve Ashton
Monday Meet-up #3 is October 16 which just so happens to be National Boss Day. Join us at noon on October 16 for Virtual Meet-up #3 with Steve Ashton, CEO, Boss and Founder of Ashton Construction Services. Steve will share his vision about running a growing construction company that is grounded in community values and as the local entrepreneur who has invited his leadership team to be part of The Writing Shift. Steve will tell us how he uses his personal journal to stay focused on the results he wants to see in the real world, and how gratitude grounds his days. Steve is a straight shooter, gratitude advocate and is leading his company in accordance with their core values. Free. Registration required.
Date: Monday October 16
Time: Noon – 1 pm
Venue: Virtual – Zoom room
Cost: Free
To register, send a request to lorraine@dev.dev.grassrootsgratitude.ca
NOTE: If you have to miss Meet-up #3 with Steve Ashton, check back on October 17. YouTube Link will be posted here
#4 November - Monday Re-Zoomion’s: Lorraine Widmer
Monday Meet-up #4 is November 20 – Book Launch for Gratitude Ignition Guide v 2! Just in time for National Philanthropy Day and Giving Tuesday, Lorraine will launch an updated version of her second book newly subtitled: Notes for My Leadership Self. Lorraine is eager to share her vision related to Gratitude as the secret sauce for everyday leaders building relationships that are generous, kind, caring and connected with the
Question: What is everyday leadership?
Answer: Everyday Leadership is when each and every one of us, takes intentional and daily actions to foster better connections, communications, in our community, sharing a vision that – together, we can do better
Date: Monday November 20
Time: Noon – 1 pm
Venue: Virtual – Zoom room
Cost: Free
To register, send a request to lorraine@dev.dev.grassrootsgratitude.ca
NOTE: If you missed Meet-up #3 with Steve Ashton – YouTube Link will be posted here
Save the Date for Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is November 28. Hey Canmore! Giving Tuesday is coming to your end of Rundle Mountain for 2023. Grassroots Gratitude has been selected as the Community Convenor for Giving Tuesday 2023. The local organizing committee will be convening soon and making plans. Have an idea? Want to join the committee? Already planning your own thing? Great! Please send a note to: lorraine@dev.dev.grassrootsgratitude.ca and lets find ways to celebrate – together!
Date: Tuesday November 28, 2023
Time: 8 am – 9 am
Venue: Eclipse Coffee Roasters, Canmore
Cost: Free
Event Sponsor: Ashton Construction Services
To register, send a request to lorraine@dev.dev.grassrootsgratitude.ca
Custom Workshops
Let Lorraine build a custom gratitude program best suited for you.
Need to focus on a specific theme or outcome? Lorraine will work with you to build a customized gratitude plan for you and your group. All you need is the vision to start your journey and Lorraine will add sparks and kindling.
- Developing a journal writing practice: Being reflective and honest.
Gratitude: A powerful social, emotional, mental, and spiritual muscle. - Leadership Learning and Development: Keeping a gratitude journal where you can track, refine, and improve your self-awareness for better decision making.
- A Culture of Kindness: Working through emotions, relationships, what makes us human, and the values that drive us to make choices, manage our time, and act accordingly.
- Happiness? Habits and habits of mind: Beliefs, emotions, attitudes, and thoughts.
- Community Leadership: Being inclusive, reflective, resilient, and authentic through journal practice as a skill.
- Social Fitness. Social Capital: What is it? How does it work?
- Spending Time in Nature: Cultivating a sense of wonder and awe.
- Gratitude, Resentment, Culture of Place: Workplace, home, team environment, community—knowing what you value. Now what?
When you invest in yourself as a leader, you invest in your team.
Grassroots Gratitude has experience helping community-minded leaders make personal investments in themselves that:
- Build internal resilience when facing transition, change and chaos
- Dedicate time and energy to more meaningful relationships – to self and others
- Align leaders with emotional intelligence skills that become aware of any values misalignment
- Identify personal priorities and tactics in pursuit of true work/life balance
- Introduce employees to tools and ideas that build a greater sense of meaning and purpose
- Improve workplace culture, health, and employee retention
“Leadership excellence is a priority at Rocky Mountain Soap Co., and we believe strong leaders are first able to lead themselves. Journaling is a way to build clear, growth-oriented thinking and a path forward. I’m excited to work with Lorraine, master journal writer and gratitude thought leader, as we grow our leadership capacity. Her skills and experience enable us to unlock the secret strength of personal leadership, and simultaneously develop a caring and growth-minded workplace culture.”
Karina Birch, CEO and Co-Owner, Rocky Mountain Soap Co.
This is Your Journey
Gratitude is personal—and so too is your path. Take these simple steps to get started.
Step 1
Inquire
Reach out and determine if working with Lorraine is right for you or your group.
Step 2
Customize
Receive customized plans and approaches from Lorraine for you and your leadership teams.
Step 3
Deliver
Experience your program in person or online; as a one time or a series of sessions designed to meet your goals, timelines, resources, and practical realities.
“I participated in Lorraine’s first Gratitude Trifecta workshops for leaders looking to lean into journaling and the practice of giving thanks as strategies for focusing on what truly matters in my work, and in my life. I loved it. I had no way to anticipate the power of listening to other leaders from across Canada share their own reflections on their journaling practice or on gratitude as a lens through which they make decisions—but it was profound. Thank you, Lorraine, for this incredible opportunity to build my own capacity as a leader centred in gratitude, and for helping me to build a network with colleagues across Canada doing the same.“
Gratitude Trifecta Participant, Fall 2022. Michelle Schira Hagerman, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa.
Meet Your Mentor
It’s taken over 25 years of honing my own writing practice and a lifetime of personal experiences to reach this moment. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I continued to deepen my pursuits with the study of gratitude. The result: a book, An Ecology of Gratitude: writing your way to what matters, and now my new social enterprise, Grassroots Gratitude.
My post-COVID newly re-imagined self now has a mission to empower everyday leaders to cultivate higher levels of self-awareness, initiated in the quiet spaces tucked into the day, with a pen and a paper. Through a lens of gratitude, we more fully understand our relationships and interconnectedness. By taking time for quiet reflection, we can savour life’s joys with more gratitude, soften our regrets, face our resentments with honesty, and learn to reframe negativity, fear and anger through the lens of possibilities and looking for the good.
My life goal is to cultivate kind, optimistic, and positive habits of mind that are grounded in gratitude. The starting point? A blank page, a pen, and a quiet desk. By supporting others who are willing to open their hearts to new possibilities with simple longhand practices, we are both committing to life-long learning, and seeking to gain greater self-awareness and resilience.
If you are curious about honing your decision-making skills with more positivity, kindness, and integrity, let’s chat. With success, Grassroots Gratitude will positively influence you as you support your circles of influence – your space in the bagel, so to speak – and increase your quotients of trust, relatedness, and appreciation—even in the face of extreme disappointment, change, and challenge. Together, we can co-create a more hopeful script for tomorrow. Let’s do this!
With gratitude,
Lorraine Widmer-Carson
Kind Words
Our values guide everything that happens here at Grassroots Gratitude, which means always being true to one’s core self. Leading from a place of integrity and authenticity is like following a North Star—you can never lose your way, because you are standing on your solid ground.
“Gratitude consistently pulls me back from wherever my mind has wandered to remind me of all the amazing things I have in my life.”
Gratitude Goes Life participant, February 2021
“Join Lorraine for her next gratitude series! You will be surprised and amazed about what the practice of gratitude can bring to your life.”
Gratitude Goes Life participant, February 2021