Thanks for visiting my site again! You may want to subscribe to my RSS feed since I'm always putting out good stuff like this.

If you take a moment to think about the successful people you know, they are generally self-aware, know how to manage themselves and how to understand and work well with others. Social skills are required to succeed in friendships, school life, community life and eventually working life, so it follows that to be successful in life personally and professionally requires social skills. continue to read »

I can’t wait till January 28^th, 2010 because that is the date Rhonda Ryder, founder of KidsAwakening.com airs her radio show Inspired Parenting where she interviews me about An Exercise in Happiness.  Follow this link to the radio show.

Rhonda’s questions delve deep into what motivated me to create an Exercise in Happiness and of course how and why the program actually works. continue to read »

Our desires, our intentions to achieve them and the beliefs we hold about our ability to achieve them are what fuel success at any age…

…and of course the lack of desire, having no intentions to succeed along with self-limiting beliefs is the recipe for an unwanted life.

Activities 5, 6 and 7 all tie in together to help kids understand this. continue to read »

Activity #4 in The Ultimate Kid’s Guide to Happiness© discusses one of the most difficult abilities a person can develop, however doing so has been proven in scientific research to provide a dramatic increase one’s level of emotional wellbeing.

The ability to FORGIVE others and ourselves comes with extraordinary benefits both physiologically and psychologically. We can model this way of being for our children by showing them we have the capacity to forgive others. continue to read »

The best way to bring out the deepest feelings of true and lasting happiness in ourselves is to choose words and actions that bring out happiness in others.

Anything, like happily giving a whole day to help a friend move, giving someone a smile or helping a child feel better when you see they are having a tough day, are just a few things you can do that provide benefits far greater than you might imagine. continue to read »

To hear that “we learn and grow” through our mistakes and failures is one thing, but to react to a mistake or a failure in a positive way when perhaps someone around you isn’t so quick to let you “live it down”, especially for a kid can be a challenge and quite a blow to their self-esteem and self-confidence. continue to read »

Research by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough among others has found that keeping a “gratitude journal,” provides people with mental and physical health benefits.

But would a child reap these benefits?

A study by Jeffrey Froh, Psy.D, and an assistant professor at Hofstra University revealed the answer.

Psychologist Jeffrey Froh infused middle–school classes with a small dose of gratitude—and found that it made students feel more connected to their friends, family, and their school. continue to read »

We hear a lot these days about giving children social skills, cultivating critical thinking, resilience, emotional intelligence and the like, but it all boils down to character — a concept neglected for much of the 20th century.

So Family Edge reader Blanca Reilly was excited to stumble upon a great academic article on this subject recently in the US journal Reclaiming Children and Youth (interesting title). In “Building Strengths of Character” Nansook Park, associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, reviews the literature in this field and describes a project he is involved in called Values In Action (VIA). continue to read »

Think humans are born selfish? Think again. Dacher Keltner reveals the compassionate side to human nature.

Humans are selfish. It’s so easy to say. The same goes for so many assertions that follow. Greed is good. Altruism is an illusion. Cooperation is for suckers. Competition is natural, war inevitable. The bad in human nature is stronger than the good. continue to read »

There is no such thing as a “perfect” parent though most of us try to be the best mom or dad we can be.  Just as we tend to model the parenting habits of our parents, our children too will model themselves based on who they see in us.  If we want our children to BE HAPPY we need to be Super-Models of Happiness and our kids will follow our lead. continue to read »