Gratitude for Everyday Leaders
Gain confidence. Boost your resiliency. Re-engage with vitality.
The Gratitude Trifecta
Write. Appreciate. Recalibrate.
Build more confidence and 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.
Did you know? Side effects of a good gratitude practice may include:
- Improved social relationships
- a boost in energy
- Increased self-confidence and self-acceptance A decrease in levels of stress and overwhelm
- Insights into a stronger, more vibrant and resilient you!
With guidance and empathy, gratitude mentor and master journal writer, Lorraine Widmer-Carson, will introduce you to the powerful connections that come from exploring the links between words, thoughts, emotions, strengths by cultivating a personal writing practice that is relevant to you in your world.
“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. Thank you, Lorraine, for this incredible opportunity to build my own capacity as a leader centred in gratitude.“
— Michelle Schira Hagerman, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa
Write Here. Write Now.
Ready for a reset?
This 2 hour workshop asserts that leadership skills are enhanced when people pause to write reflectively, ponder their reasons to be grateful and plan their actions accordingly. Using time-tested tools that are old school, creatively retooled this workshop encourages a mental shift that happens when we unplug and write about our MIT’s, (aka our Most Important Things).
Invite author, gratitude mentor and master journal writer, Lorraine Widmer-Carson, to introduce your group to the power of writing and gratitude, increasing your levels of personal self-awareness, character strengths, group dynamics, and a couple of resets in order to get stuff done.
“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.
“A good journal habit that incorporates gratitude can get me ready for whatever the world is about to deliver. Some days, it can get crazy trying to balance family, projects, and personal time with the needs of my team. Writing longhand and remembering the positives helps me rebound and recalibrate with greater clarity, even when facing significant challenges.”
— Steve Ashton, Founder and President, Ashton Construction Services
Are you ready to flex your gratitude muscles?
Of Our Community, For Our Community
We envision a world in which our resilient, kind, creative, and confident leaders serve with grace and gratitude.
About Grassroots Gratitude
Grassroots Gratitude is a social purpose venture that took root as its founder was writing her book, An Ecology of Gratitude: Writing your way to what matters. It is the brainchild of community advocate, author and professional journal writer Lorraine Widmer-Carson.
Lorraine’s mission is to encourage others to be curious about and cultivate their self-awareness related to their personal strengths, resiliency, and leadership. Lorraine advocates for the benefits of writing longhand while getting down to basics.
In her experience, the journal has assisted her understanding of the swirl of life and its variables. It has sharpened her focus and improved her ability to listen, alert to the things that really matter in the short term, while keeping the bigger goals in mind. For Lorraine, the most important things are fundamental relationships: to family, to each other, and to place.
Grassroots Gratitude’s BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal): Everyone will shift their relationships to themselves, to each other and to the planet by building habits that support our collective efforts to connect and to care.
Mission
To write slowly, with profound appreciation for our things that really matter
Our Values
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.
Integrity
“Lorraine—the thing you have is street cred.” So said John Allard, then Chair of the Board to me. I would never want to risk losing that distinction. I have built my reputation on being credible in a small town that recognizes kindness, understands the meaning of community and values trust and relationships like gold.
Community
For Grassroots Gratitude, community starts, in practical terms, at the coffee circle or the kitchen table and radiates outward into a community of communities. Grassroots Gratitude understands that a community is more than a municipality. It is more than infrastructure, buildings and streets—communities are infused with a spirit of relatedness where people are willing to walk the walk, where you are welcomed when you return and where your gifts and talents are accepted and appreciated. It is more than a place – it is an ever-evolving conversation that builds belonging.
Relationships
Grassroots Gratitude sees relatedness as the glue that keeps each of us hitched to everything else in a unique, one-of-a-kind mosaic of connections. An Ecology of Gratitude: Writing your way to what matters ultimately invites the reader to realize that no matter what the system, context, or conversation, “it is never about just one thing.” John Muir (a founding father of national parks systems) is quoted on page 173 of the book: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”
Meet Lorraine Widmer-Carson
Lorraine Widmer-Carson has been honing her writing practice for 30 years and is ready to inspire your journey with her practical knowledge. A master journal writer and community advocate, Lorraine believes in the transformative power of gratitude, and is convinced that people who take time to reflect on the good things in life are more resilient, creative, and confident in every area of life—including their self-awareness that nurtures humility and grace. With gratitude, leaders are poised to deepen relationships, strengthen the social, emotional, spiritual points of attachment and act with quiet confidence.
“Gratitude is like a bonding agent—it’s a glue and adhesive that can patch cracks, create new connections helping us to become stronger and more flexible.”
- Lorraine Widmer-Carson
A Bow Valley resident for over 40 years, Lorraine has built her life around appreciation of nature. Supportive of and supported by her wide circles of family and friends, she draws inspiration from the place that she calls home. She acknowledges that she resides on lands that are part of Treaty 7 of southern Alberta that also hold responsibilities as townsite inside Canada’s oldest national park. She has spent her career working with nonprofits and organizations that serve the community, supportive of social and environmental causes, while revelling in the majesty of wild landscapes that surround her.
When they’re not skiing, hiking, or exploring the inspirational places they love, Lorraine and her Swiss-Canadian husband, Erwin, have been grounded in the work of owning and operating Ticino Swiss Italian Restaurant, a bastion of Banff’s culinary scene, 1979 – 2023. And now? Rewirement!
