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Every parent I have ever asked, what do you want most for your child? Responds with an answer that includes the word Happiness. However I have found that most parents are unsure of what real happiness is, let alone how to provide it to their children, or themselves for that matter. This article will give you a glimpse into how to discover what happiness means to you and your child, and five helpful tips to start your discovery today.

How to live an extraordinary, fulfilling and happy life has been studied for thousands of years by familiar names like Aristotle and Socrates to current day personal growth gurus like Dr. Deepak Chopra, Tony Robins and Dr. Wayne Dyer. Every Religion on the planet gives their followers a message of how to lead a life of meaning and enlightenment. The message is that you can use this knowledge to better your life, and by mindfully implementing the tools and techniques they teach into your daily routine, you will find you are fully capable of creating the life you really want.

Bookstore self-help sections are overflowing with information about how to find “the good life” and almost every home in America has some form of personal growth material on a bookshelf, however almost 80% of this material remains unread.

Written for the adult reader, these tools to “change your life” prove to be difficult for many to take action on because of limiting beliefs and self-doubts that have sabotaged their efforts to achieve true happiness, and many of these beliefs and self-doubts originated in childhood, in fact many prior to the age of six. These beliefs become deeply engrained in our sub-conscious mind and affect our decision making and over-all way of being.

According to researchers a critical window of opportunity is open prior to late adolescence to instill “emotional intelligence”, after which it becomes increasingly difficult to replace disempowering beliefs with empowering beliefs about ourselves, our future and the world around us. This crucial stage of character development is fertile soil to plant the seeds that will allow your child to believe they can be, do and have anything.

Character development is a key to building beliefs about one’s self and character building activities help a child recognize the moral strengths they already have and how using them provides a wonderful feeling. By understanding what actions they can take to provide that feeling they tend to want to repeat those actions.

An Exercise in Happiness© is an emotion based character education program designed to help a child build more of what is right rather than fix what might be wrong, and to recognize their strengths rather than over-coming weakness.

Below are 5 activities you can start with your child today that will help you both create the life you want and deserve.

My Amazing Me! Journal

This activity involves making a list of words to describe moral strengths like compassion, helpful, sharing, loving, caring, funny etc. Help your child recall when they displayed these strengths and how doing so made them feel, and how their actions affected others in a positive way, then create an Amazing Me Journal and list those memories. Whenever they find themselves not feeling good about themselves, review this journal with them.

Thank You! Thank You!

This is a very powerful exercise and one that will create lasting positive emotion. With your child, write and deliver a personal Thank You Letter to someone in your life to whom you feel grateful for being in your life. I encourage you to take part in this exercise with your child. When you lead by example they will follow your lead. Yes, your child can be the recipient of your thank you letter.

How Can I Help?

Make a commitment with your child to reach out and help someone each week. There are so many ways to help others, whether it’s helping a friend or someone you don’t know personally, and it does not have to cost you a penny. Most local morning news shows (and their websites) will list volunteer opportunities and fund-raisers that you and your kids can get involved in. You can also brainstorm with your children and come up with your own ways to help others in your community. This is a wonderful character development activity that provides great meaning and purpose to life.

Create Your Day During Breakfast

At breakfast time, each family member describes the day they WANT to have today. It is easy to talk about things we Don’t Want and this exercise will start to build a habit of thinking and asking for what you WANT! No “I don’t want to’s” or “I hope not’s” allowed.

Make a family THINK BIG BOARD!

This has also been called a Wish Board or Vision Board. I like to call it a Think Big Board because it encourages us to really believe anything is possible and that it is more than just a wish. We use a big cork board and push pins to put up pictures of things we want to do, places we want to go and things we want to have.

These are fun family activities that build optimism, develop character, and instill the belief that we really can do anything which will result in a greater appreciation for life and the world we live in.