The Happiness Jar Technique to Teach Positivity
Teaching children positivity is fundamental. The happiness jar technique, created by Elsa Punset, can help us with this. A child who thinks positively will seek solutions to problems.
Faced with a difficult situation, having a positive attitude can help kids see things from another point of view. According to Elsa Punset, the positive brain is the best gift we can give our children. What’s more, this isn’t just good for them, but also for us adults, who experience daily stress, too.
Do you want to know how you can help your child develop a positive brain? Use the happiness jar technique! If you want to know what it is, keep reading.
How to use Elsa Punset’s happiness jar
You need to develop this technique as a family. It can be very useful to all of us, and bring many benefits. Here’s how it works:
- First, you need to get a large transparent jar (glass or plastic). The idea is for you to be able to see inside. This will be the happiness jar. If you want, you can write the name on it and have it in a visible place at home.
- Every night before going to bed, everyone in the family will write on a piece of paper the good thing that happened to them during the day and will put it in the jar. Although you might not realize it, writing it down will help your brain remember it.
- Examples: “laughing with a friend“, “a relaxing bath”, “a kind of phrase from someone we know”, etc.
- Then, you can open the jar from time to time to read the positive notes, or wait until it’s full. This way, you can learn to see the world around you in a more positive way.
Purpose of the happiness jar
Believe it or not, a lot of good things happen to us throughout the day, but our brains are hardwired to remember the negative things. Therefore, with this activity, we make the brain aware of the good things that have happened to us.
In addition, doing it at night will help you go to sleep feeling good and not dwell on the negative things that happened during the day.
It’s important to educate children’s brains to think positively from an early age. This way, you’ll think positively and see things from another point of view.
Elsa Punset affirms that “within routines, each action and each thought leaves its mark on the brain, even if we aren’t fully aware of it.”
Benefits of this technique
As we know well, the brain learns through “trial, error or success.” Given this, we can have two different attitudes, one positive and one negative. It’s proven that a positive attitude can transform the negative into an opportunity for change.
- The child will learn to think about the good things that happened to them during the day.
- You’ll appreciate the little things that you ignored before. By writing down the good things and rereading them later, you’ll make them stick in your memory. Then, the positive feeling will stick with you, instead of worrying about the negative things.
- With this technique, you’ll teach your child to be grateful.
- It’s a way to develop family communication and have a good time together.
- Your child will also learn to distinguish small problems from the really important ones.
How you see the happiness jar technique can be very beneficial for the whole family. Children who work on it from a young age, when they’re older, will know how to deal with problems automatically.
As they acquire other habits that they develop every day, like brushing their teeth, they’ll also learn to think positively and do it in their day-to-day life automatically. They’ll achieve all of this by repeating it many times so that the brain learns it. In fact, this is necessary for a positive brain to develop.
“A positive attitude will trigger positive thoughts, events and results.”
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