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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!

Thinking happy thoughts at will is a skill that we can learn and teach our children, and certainly one we should teach them, after all happiness is what every parent wishes for their child right?.  But how do we instill habits of happy thinking in ourselves and our kids?

First, it helps to understand what factors determine our happiness or satisfaction with life in general.

According to Sonja Lubromirski PhD. author of The How of Happiness, there are three main factors that influence our happiness:

• Genetics
• Environment
• Voluntary Choice

How happy our parents, and their parents were determines a big part of how happy WE are.  In fact research shows that genetics accounts for almost half of our current level of life satisfaction, around 40-50%.

If your grandparent was more prone to optimistic thinking, that trait becomes somewhat imprinted on your genetic code.  However, more recent groundbreaking research is finding that the programming of the sub-conscious mind plays a much larger role in our mental and physical development and this programming begins BEFORE conception.

Surprisingly, our environment plays a much smaller part than you might imagine.  Roughly only 10% of our happiness is influenced by what happens around us and those things that occur out of our control like other people, the economy, the weather etc.  Our happiness actually depends how we react to “what happens” rather than the actual event, and how we react is based very much on our sub-conscious beliefs and programming we picked up from observing our parents and how they reacted to events and interactions with others.

The best part is that the remaining 40-50% happens to be our own voluntary CHOICE to BE happy.  This determining factor in our level of happiness is one that we ultimately have complete and total control over.  This is the best, yet most challenging part for many people because many of us are not entirely aware of what REALLY makes us happy.  In addition to not knowing what truly makes us happy, we may also have to challenge previously held sub-conscious beliefs that can limit our ability to consciously choose happiness.  Beliefs and pre-programmed sub-conscious behaviors that we learned from our parents and teachers.

In fact, many of the beliefs we hold in our sub-conscious mind that dictate much of how our life unfolds were developed before we turned six years old, and most were instilled by our parents and teachers.  Some beliefs can be very limiting and hold us back from realizing our true potential for happiness and finding our purpose in life, however these beliefs can be identified and be replaced with more self-fulfilling and positive beliefs.

Then we can get down the process of truly creating the kind of happy life we want and deserve by using proven tools and techniques that WILL increase our level of satisfaction with life and open the doors of possibility.  We really can believe we deserve to lead a happy life.

Now, this is not to say that unhappiness will cease forever, because that is not only impossible, but also unhealthy to believe.  Humans are at the top of the food chain, or at least very near the top, because of our incredible conscious and sub-conscious mind and our ability to feel and react to the wide range of emotions we feel.

However, scientific research has shown some remarkable benefits to being happier:

• longer life
• Less Illness
• Longer and happier relationships
• Greater academic achievement
• Greater career and financial success

If you could choose to be happier, which by the way YOU CAN, and you had the tools to make it happen and the belief you could use these tools to live an abundantly happy life, would you?

If you knew that by using techniques proven to increase your own happiness, you are at the same time providing these tools to your children and that you are instilling the beliefs they can be anything, do anything and have the life they want and deserve, would you use them?

In October, 2010, a first ever, FREE  On-line Expo is taking place that will change the lives of millions of parents, teachers and children around the world.  This event will provide tools and life changing information to parents and teachers to help teach their children how to live the outstanding life they deserve.

HAPPIER KIDS NOW!

Featuring live interviews with 21 of the worlds leading experts in childhood development, parenting and education Happier Kids Now is an event that every parent and teacher will not want to miss.

Visit Happier Kids Now to receive  V.I.P Sign-Up  Notification, important dates/times and call in details, and for an up to date list of guest expert speakers.

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.

Pressure on students and teachers continues to intensify, while resources are drying up and traditional educational methods are failing. Our kids are paying a terrible price, not only in academic achievement but in emotional health. Stress related health problems, youth violence, drug abuse and depression are rising at alarming rates and will continue rise unless serious action is taken, NOW!

The urgency to help our children has reached a critical level. Though children represent only a part of the population, they represent 100% of our future and to see they are given tools to navigate through life with optimism and self-confidence is our job, their parents and teachers, and certainly one we must take seriously.

As a parent of two young people I see first hand the stress they and their peers are under at school and being very involved at their school and I can see, and feel the pressure their teachers are under as well.

Millions of adults across America, and across the globe for that matter are feeling more stress than ever before in our lifetimes and the reasons for these increasing stress levels are obvious.

You can turn on the local or national news and be inundated with pessimism, uncertainty and sadness which can’t help but make matters even worse.

According to Harvard Medical School, the rate of clinical diagnosis of depression in children has been increasing by 23% per year, and that onset ages continue to decrease.

It seems every day we are reminded of how bad things are and this is clearly effecting our children.  However, at the same time ground breaking studies are confirming that we can empower our kids to weather this storm and grow from these experiences, and that we can actually instill emotional habits in our kids that will buffer them against anxiety and depression.

The Time is NOW!

Our kids are in the midst of developing beliefs about themselves, their ability to succeed, other people, money, relationships and of course their future.  We did the same thing, in fact most of the self-limiting beliefs that hold back so many adults from living the life they really want were developed before six years old.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were somewhere a parent or teacher can go to get information on the latest research and learn powerful techniques to empower themselves and their kids to live a full and happy life?

Well, Now There Is… and its happening in October 2010

Happier Kids NOW!

Happier Kids Now will provide you with tools to help your children and teens:

• Reduce stress and anxiety
• Improve concentration and academic performance
• Understand the brain science linking emotions, thoughts and behaviors
• Manage emotions and behavior more effectively
• Develop greater empathy for others and the world
• Be more optimistic and happy

Visit HappierKidsNow.com and register to receive V.I.P notification of dates, times, access information and up to date additions of Expert Guest Speakers, in addition to special FREE gifts and offers:)

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.

Learning how to apologize is a vital skill for healthy emotional development and for successful relationships.  There will inevitably be hurts, wrongdoings, and misunderstandings in any relationship involving two people.  The hurts are to be expected because humans by nature are imperfect. The hurts in and of themselves don’t necessarily determine whether or not a relationship is harmed in a significant way, but how those hurts are dealt with (or not) and repaired (or not) influences the success of the relationship.

Most of us want our children to learn how to apologize effectively.  But when and how we should expect our children to apologize isn’t always clear.  For a better understanding of this, I first turn to what constitutes a proper apology.  Last year my book club read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.  My favorite part of that book was where Pausch described the three parts of a good apology.  In fact, I liked this part so much that I made sure everyone in my family read those two pages of the book!

Read full article

In this enlightening article Dr. Kathleen Cuneo, PhD. talks about the importance of learning to apologize and how modeling the ability to apologize with meaning to our child will enable them to do the same giving them social and emotional tools that will provide many benefits that will last a lifetime.

As a father of two young boys it is important to me that when I mess up, I recognize it, I apologize with heartfelt feeling and make up for my mistake in some way.  By showing my children that I take responsibility for my behavior, they learn to do the same.

The same holds true for the ability to forgive and be grateful.  When one of my boys apologizes for their behavior, I am always willing to forgive them.  I also let them know that if I seem upset or disappointed, it is their behavior, not themselves that got me upset. Having the ability to forgive allows us to maintain meaningful relationships and releases emotional stress, which we all know has huge physical benefits.

I am truly grateful when my kids bring there dishes to the kitchen after meals or when they straighten up their room when I ask them, and I always let them know how grateful I am.

An Exercise in Happiness is a tool I have used at home with my kids for a long time and it has helped both myself and my kids devlop the ability to apologize with meaning, forgive with empathy and to be grateful for everything and everyone we have in our life.

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 reading

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 reading

While looking up statistics from the website of The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) I came across some very interesting articles, and this one captured my attention.  Follow this link to read the full article Continue reading

“Emotional literacy is one of the most important keys to mental health and well-being” says Christine Carter PhD. of The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and a critical window of opportunity exists for character development and instilling emotional literacy.   Dr. David Hamburg, psychiatrist and President of the Carnegie Corporation says from ages 6 to 11 “school is a crucible and a defining experience that will heavily influence children’s adolescence and beyond” Dr. Hamburg also notes that in children entering middle school “there is something different about those who have had emotional literacy classes” He has found they are less troubled than their peers by the new pressures they are facing like increased academic demands, peer politics and temptations to use drugs and alcohol.  They seem to have mastered abilities to read and understand their emotions and those of others.  Emotional literacy represents a body of skills that can be defined with the word character, and character is all about self-discipline and self-control, delayed gratification and self motivation. Continue reading