7 Tips to Teach Happiness
Perhaps the deepest wish of any mother is for her child to find happiness above all else, and that they know how to overcome the obstacles that life throws in their way. That whatever the circumstances, they always manage to see the positive side of situations; take advantage of them and work them to their favor instead of swimming against the tide.
All mothers want their children to be happy. But beyond these desires, it’s important that we make ourselves aware of what we can do to help them learn to see the good in all things. This perspective can be achieved through the implementation of positive psychological techniques.
You can contribute to training your child’s brain, body and heart so that their attention will be focused on their own strengths and of those around them. This is one of the objectives of a school of thought called positive psychology.
Positive psychology can help us teach our children to feel they are valuable and strong, and can go forward securely and easily to keep on learning. In addition, the learning process becomes an enjoyable activity that they’ll want to continue.
Apply these tips to teach happiness
Teaching happiness means putting some simple exercises into practice to focus on our positive emotions, which will in turn have a positive impact on our children. The premise of positive psychology is that it focuses on us being optimists to help us raise happy children.
Promote positive emotions
Our brains, our bodies and our consciousness also feed our emotions. However, negative experiences and emotions seem to have a stronger impact than positive ones.
Sometimes it seems easier for us to just go with bad thoughts and negative feelings, so it is important to balance negative emotions with a really strong dose of positive emotions.
Every time your child experiences some negative feeling, try to balance it out with another dose of positive feelings.
It may seem like a game, but the truth is that positive psychology has shown many benefits. Especially for children, positive psychology practices can help them learn to become aware of their emotions; to control them, to accept them, to enjoy them, to live with them in the present moment, and to remember them to strengthen positive neural pathways.
Such is the effect of positive emotions on the human body that scientists are studying the influence of positive emotions such as joy, sense of humor, love and enthusiasm on physical and psychological health, even on the cognitive level.
This is why it’s so important to help your child learn to see the good in all situations.
Live in the present moment and teach it in the process
“Live in the present” and “be here and now” are pretty frequently repeated phrases these days, as Eastern philosophies have become so widespread.
We need to make sure not to trivialize them, but rather apply them and to experience everything positive by truly focusing on the here and now. Your child will thank you for it because when you are listening to them, focused on the present moment, then you are really hearing them. The same goes for if you are bathing them, feeding them, etc.
To practice being in the moment, you should ask yourself: “Where is my mind right now? What I am reading? What music am I listening to? What Facebook chat am I in?”
Your child will learn the benefits of focusing their attention on doing one thing at a time from your example, as you will complete each task you take on successfully.
Listen without blaming
Try to actively listen to your child, without negating or minimizing what they feel or blaming them for it. Instead, try to make this experience help them see problems from another perspective and find solutions.
Surely by now you’ll have realized that the process of raising a child involves a process of reeducation for us as their parents and adopting respectful child-raising models.
Several tips can be derived from this model that can help you to teach happiness to your child:
Help your child develop and achieve their goals
Introducing your child from an early age to the what it means to set a goal and achieve it will be an experience that will bring much satisfaction. This activity also helps them to cope with frustration, re-thinkning goals so that they learn to overcome their failures on their own.
Encourage your child to play freely
Try not to interrupt your child when they are very focused on an activity because when they’re doing this, they are playing freely. That feeling of doing what they feel like in that moment helps them to feel fulfilled, to develop their talents, to learn to focus, to let their imagination run wild and be happy.
Cultivating a sense of belonging is vital
Sharing as a family helps your child to feel and understand that they are part of something bigger than themselves, like the family group. And from that experience, they will also gradually begin to understand that they are part of a community, part of a city, part of this world… Their sense of belonging is based on this, realizing that they aren’t alone, that there are many people both similar and different from them.
Sharing as a family
Sharing as a family can teach them many, many things. In addition to the sense of belonging explained in the paragraph above, it also teaches them to relate with many different people and contributes to their emotional development.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Bermeo Córdova, F. M. (2004). Autoestima, factor esencial de éxito en el área escolar en niños de 10 a 11 años (Bachelor’s thesis). https://dspace.ups.edu.ec/handle/123456789/2758
- Campbell, K. (2018). Niños Seguros de Sí Mismos. Babelcube Inc.
- Taylor, J. (2004). Motiva y estimula a tus hijos: cómo educar a tu hijo para que tenga éxito y sea feliz (Vol. 20). Edaf.
- Hogg, T. (2005). El secreto de educar niños felices y seguros. Editorial Norma.
- Piñeiro, B. (2016). Educando niños felices. XinXii.
- Greenspan, S. I. (2009). Great kids. Niños felices: cómo enseñar a tu hijo las diez cualidades esenciales para alcanzar una vida feliz (No. Sirsi) i9788449321931).
- Taylor, J. (2004). Motiva y estimula a tus hijos: cómo educar a tu hijo para que tenga éxito y sea feliz (Vol. 20). Edaf.
