BENDIGO students will be practising a simple art in the hope it improves their experience of COVID-19 restrictions.
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Girton Grammar students will take part in a three week long gratitude project, which the school believes will improve their mental health.
Activities will range from creating whole school virtual word clouds of what students are grateful for, to drawing themselves with friends.
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Ultimately the students contributions will be collated into a video to give a boost to the whole school community.
Acting head Emma O'Rielly said the idea behind the project was to intentionally adopt an attitude of gratitude, as a way to cope with the sense of loss felt during the restrictions.
Dr O'Rielly said students focusing on the things they had - rather than the things they didn't - would boost their mental health and wellbeing.
She said students had found the loss of connection with their friends particularly difficult during stage three restrictions. Many were missing activities such as team sports, which were great for mental health, she said.
We hope ... even if the community can see this and perhaps adopt the practice themselves, it'll benefit our whole community.
- Emma O'Rielly
Ultimately Dr O'Rielly said motivation levels were down, and everybody was low.
She said the project aimed to combat the sense of loss that had been difficult for students.
The science was strong behind gratitude as well, Dr O'Rielly said. She said studies showed adopting an attitude of gratefulness, stimulated neurotransmitters in the brain, making people feel good, and creating a positive feedback look.
Dr O'Rielly said she hoped students would adopt the practice of gratitude into the future.
"I hope that this raises an awareness of being grateful," she said.
"Rather than going to an automatic place [of], 'I feel bad because these are all the things I don't have', there's a change in mindset [to], 'these are all the things that I have'.
"We hope ... even if the community can see this and perhaps adopt the practice themselves, it'll benefit our whole community."
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