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Crack a smile, go ahead, no one is looking… And if your kids are looking, they will likely smile too!

Our smile is our body’s natural expression of our happiness to the world around us.  A smile is an indicator of our level of satisfaction with life at this exact moment.

The more we smile, the more satisfying life really is.

Have you ever experienced something truly wonderful like falling in love or holding a sleeping baby?  Have you ever watched a child experience something new and exciting for the first time and watched their eyes light up and their unstoppable smile?  Have YOU ever experienced something new and exciting for the first time and felt YOUR eyes light up and YOUR unstoppable smile?

But, have you ever just smiled for NO REASON?

The SMILE Experiment

Where you are right now, just start smiling.  As you read this, crack a smile.  Yes, it is seemingly for no reason at all, and right now the reason to smile is simply to smile.  I know it sounds almost silly, but if you will work with me on this you will see how you can use a smile to shift the course of your day.  In fact, you can use a smile to shift the course of someone else’s day too, and yes, even your kids.

At first it will feel like an unauthentic smile, but stick with it and keep smiling at you.

Pretend you are having a photograph taken and it’s the one you want others to see.

Now, Add Some Thoughts

As you are smiling at your reflection, start to think about the reasons you have to be grateful in your life right now.

Direct your thoughts toward people in your life with whom you have a relationship you cherish deeply.

Direct your thoughts toward all you have in your life for which to be grateful and how happy you are to have the opportunity to experience life and how happy you are for this moment in time.

Okay, experiment is over.  How do you FEEL?

You may be feeling energized and generally happier inside, or you may even be gushing with joy and filled with inspiration to change the world.

Either way you are likely feeling happier, and that is the point.

Our own smile can have a very powerful effect on us, and the effect it has on others is truly amazing, especially our children.

Our Happiness Brings True Joy to Our Children.

One of the greatest keys to raising happy children is to be a model of happiness.

The next time you look at your child, without words, give them a true smile.

You will instantly see an authentic smile on their face.

Watch how your day and theirs unfolds when you can start your day with a smile.

Share with your kids your reasons to smile and have them share their reasons to smile with you.

Yes it is true there are bountiful reasons to be unhappy and many reasons to frown, and we certainly don’t have to look hard to find them.  In fact for many people unhappiness is just a way of life and for so many kids unhappiness is the norm and happiness occurs on rare occasions.

However, the happiness of our children is worth the small effort it takes to shift the focus of our thoughts to those that make us smile, and doing so models for our children that they too can find the reasons inside to smile too.

Everyone deserves to smile more often and the reasons to smile take only some directed thought.

Smile for NO REASON then add some thoughts of reasons to smile…

Our world will benefit when we all can feel more often…

The POWER OF A SMILE

Just a reminder – The Happier Kids Now On-Line Expo for Parents and Teachers is really heating up with an incredible line-up of expert guest speakers to interview.

This will be the most comprehensive and content rich interview series to help parents and teachers raise happy, confident and resilient kids and teens of 2010.

Sign up for this amazing FREE event here, and share this with every parent and teacher you know.

They WILL thank you for it!

Sunday, April 18th at 8:30 am (EST), ya, so thats 6:30 am my time here in Denver, I will be a guest on the morning drive show on CKLW AM 800 Detroit/Windsor to talk about Kids Can Do Anything, An Exercise in Happiness and the upcoming Happier Kids Now! event slated for October 2010.

So, if you are in the Detroit/Windsor Ontario area on Sunday April 18th, please tune into AM 800 CKLW (the 5000 watt Monster) at 8:30 am.

Being in alignment with your desires and goals from the inside out will help you to achieve whatever it is you want in life. But, the problem is that most people do the opposite. They have a conscious desire to either find a relationship, get out of debt, lose weight, heal from heartache or whatever the case may be. But their inner beliefs are what stop them from getting what they desire.

Read this entire post

I just love getting Susan Russo’s blog postings in my email inbox because she knows exactly what she is talking about.  Susan’s message is so powerfully important for every parent and teacher to understand because you will be a model of inspiration to your children.

Having your thoughts, emotions and beliefs in alignment with what it is you desire is precisely how to use the incredible power of thought and emotional energy to live into your deepest desires.

Teaching your children about this powerful information will change the direction of their life.

Using An Exercise in Happiness is a hands on way to teach these lessons to your kids and for them to actually put the lessons into action developing habits of happiness that will keep them in alignment with their deepest dreams and desires.  They will learn  to set and achieve their goals without fear or self-doubt.

Character education and social/emotional learning involves understanding how to better our control our own emotions and to read and react positively to the emotions of others.  Learning how and why something works the way it does gives us greater control over it and how our mind and thought energy works uses the same logic. Giving our kids tools to learn about the power they already have, and to put it to use their life will not only effect the rest of their lives, but impact the world in such a positive way.

I tend to save the best until last and the 8th Activity in The Ultimate Kid’s Guide to Happiness is no exception.

Science has proven the psychological and physiological benefits to laughter and playfulness.  It is with this exercise I simply encourage you to take part in goofy play and laughter with your child as much as possible, and encourage them to do the same with their friends and siblings.

Sit back and reach into your memories of childhood for a moment.

Can you recall in your mind’s eye when you were engaged in joyful play?

This was serious stuff!

You were determined to play your heart out, and you did. You laughed really hard at super silly things, rolled around on the grass, chased your friends around the playground and you made up imaginary stories and acted them out with the seriousness of a Broadway actor.

Play is the WORK of a child and the more they get the opportunity to be fully engaged in uninterrupted play, the happier and successful they will be throughout the rest of their lives.

It is in play that children learn

• to play fairly and productively work with others,
• to be creative thinkers
• about leadership and coaching
• how to be coachable (conflict resolution)
• to build and maintain relationships that can enhance their lives forever.

Laughter is a full body work-out and it is so much fun!

Can you remember laughing so hard it made your stomach muscles ache?

Can you think of things that are so funny that you can’t help but start laughing?

Have you ever experienced laughing so much you actually forget what made you start laughing in the first place?

Laughter is such a joyful activity and the physical and emotional benefits are enormous. In fact laughter has been shown in studies to strengthen our immune system.

Sometimes as grown ups it does us a world of good to just let go of being a grown up and giggle, be silly and involve ourselves in imaginary play, and doing so with our kids strengthens the attachment and our relationship with them.

It also teaches our kids that it is okay to be a kid, even when you’re an adult.

Take the time every day to find something to laugh about with your children and you will see and feel the benefits, without any doubt!

After a tough day, to laugh and play makes all our grown up problems disappear.

Patrick

Activity 7 in The Ultimate Kid’s Guide to Happiness:

Our imagination is so much more powerful than we can possibly imagine and we can use it as a tool to help us live the extraordinary life we truly want to live.

The 7th Activity in The Ultimate Kid’s Guide to Happiness introduces kids to Creative Visualization, or in clinical terms, Mental Imagery which has been used by some of the most successful people throughout history. Continue reading

Activity 6 in The Ultimate Kid’s Guide to Happiness is all about getting your kids to start thinking about things they would like to accomplish and writing those goals down.

Research shows that only a very small percentage of the population actually write down their goals, and studies also prove we are 50% more likely to achieve our goals by writing them down and we are 200% more likely to accomplish our goals if we review them on a regular basis. Continue reading

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 reading

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 reading

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 reading

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 reading