10 Ways To Raise A Happy Child : Art of Happiness

Being a parent we all want our children to be happy. It sounds very simple but raising a happy child demands the knowledge of happiness. An adult can stay happy at any situation if he/she have learnt the art of happiness in life. So it is a process of teaching children to understand the art of happiness. In this post there are 10 ways to raise a happy child and instill joyful nature among kids. Before knowing the ways we need to understand what does exactly a happy child mean.

What does a happy child mean?

Saying yes to all the demands of your child doesn’t make your child happy. It may seems like that but it is just a way of momentarily making them calm down and raising their expectations from life too high. A parent should never put effort to create a bubble for their kids to make them happy. Rather they should try to take steps to teach them how to be happy in life. A person cannot be happy always in life. Everyone has to live their own part of sorrows as well as joy in life. But teaching your child to be happy means teaching them the value of life and staying positive in every thick and thin situations of life. You can never feel happiness until you have experienced the dark days of your life.

Raising a happy child doesn’t mean to raise a child who will always keep smiling throughout their life. But it means they will strive to find the way of happiness through the dark tunnel of their life. And you can’t expect this attitude from a person in one day. This is a process that one should practice from beginning. Everyone search the ways to be successful, famous and many more. It is believed that if you get success, you will be happy. But it doesn’t go like that. Happiness is the base and if you are happy, your brain works best and that’s the key to success.

Let’s understand how happiness and success are related and which is more important.

Success Versus Happiness

Now its is a debate: which is more important success or happiness? Many times people believe that if you are successful, you will be happy. But this is a myth. After becoming successful, you may not feel happy. Happiness is a feeling of contentment. A lot of research has been done on happiness and success and study shows more focus is on happiness.

PositivePsychology has mention psychologist Daniel Gilbert’s view on this, who is a psychology professor at Harvard, that happiness is the ultimate goal of virtually all the decisions we make in life (Gilbert, 2010).

Study of Neuroscience says happiness is the driving force of success. When you are happy, you feel positive and the positivity gets the best out of you. It motivates you to achieve your goal and give your 100% effort. And the process of hard work makes you feel happy. So there is a strong relationship between happiness and success.

You may like to read : 5 Steps To Positive Parenting

10 Ways To Raise A Happy Child

Here are 10 simpler ways to nurture your child to raise them to be a happy human being and seeing the challenges of life in a positive way. So let’s raise a happy child!!

1) Make Yourself Happy First

A child’s upbringing majorly depends on the attitude of people around him. Though every individual have their own attitude but staying happy with our own reasons stays the same. So when children grow in a happy environment, they also learn to stay happy. Kids feel happy and cheerful when they see their parents happy. Therefore if you want to raise a happy child then you have to learn to stay happy first.

You may like to read : 21 Reasons To Be Happy Right Now

2) Teach Your Kids To Focus On Hard Work

When you work hard, you automatically feel good from the bottom your heart. We need to teach this lesson to our children. They should learn to work hard and without keeping any expectations for the result. This will give them ultimate happiness and pure form of joy.

3) Have A Meal Together

Everyone is so busy and occupied with so many stuffs that we overlook some little things that give huge happiness in our lives. And having atleast one meal together as a family is such one thing. Its not about eating food together, it is about spending quality time with our loved ones and sharing our day with them. This gives immense joy and pleasure to every member of a family. Sharing the entire day’s experiences makes us feel light heart. Kids too suffer from a lot of stress and anxiety in a day and they too need to release them. So having food together is great way to bond with your kids and make them feel good.

4) Teaching Realistic Optimism

Staying hopeful is good but we should be realistic too, i.e teaching realistic optimism. We should teach our kids to be optimistic and be aware of the negative things that may come on the way and be prepared to deal with them. We should teach them to have believe that they will achieve success and for that they need to work hard and stay positive in all negative situations.

5) Expressing Gratitude

According to psychology, gratitude is strongly connected with happiness. Happiness cannot be measured every-time by the pleasures of life. It is also associated with how appreciative you are towards your life. Being thankful have a lot of positive impacts on your life. Expressing gratitude on a regular basis makes you feel positive, less stressed and more content in life. So teach your child to express gratitude everyday so that it will become their habit in life. And later in life they will practice expressing gratitude on their own. And this will surely make your child more satisfied and happy in life.

6) Let Your Child To Feel Sad

This is one of the most important factors to know while raising a happy child. We all know well that life is not easy for anyone, so everyone will have to face their own part of darkness. And we can’t keep our kids in a bubble for the entire life to protect them from all the storms of life. So let them face and feel all the emotions of life. When you go through a dark tunnel, then only you can realize the power of light. So teach your kids that its okay to feel sad but we should learn how to overcome them and stay positive.

7) Teaching To Let Things Go

Trying to control things that are beyond your power can manifest stress and anxiety in your life. So to stay happy is essential to learn how to let things go. It becomes really overwhelming when things go out of control and this leads to an unhappy state of life. So teach your children that it is okay to let things go sometimes that are not meant for us.

8) Let Your Child Have Enough Free Play Time

Allowing children to play enough is not only good for their physical development but also good for their emotional well being. Children need much playtime to feel good. Playing with friends or own helps them to reduce their stress and anxiety. Playing helps in boosting joy and positivity among children.

9) Teaching Your Child To Be Self Disciplined

Teaching kids to be discipline is very important. Being self discipline means having control of your life. Self control can make your life more content and satisfied and these are the keys to happiness. Studies have proved self discipline people are more happier in life.

“Discipline mind leads to happiness.”

Dalai Lama

You may like to read : How To Discipline A Child In A Healthy Way

10) Learning To Have Less Expectations

It is true you can’t live without any expectations but one basic fact that you can’t deny is the higher the expectations, more chances of disappointments. And disappointments are caused due to unrealistic expectations and here comes the circle of being realistic optimism. Therefore teach your child to expect less and enjoy each moment of life and work hard.

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