A for Happiness
How can I make my child happy? Or 'appy?
How can I make my child happy? That’s what parents ask me. Others wonder is my child happy? Some say my child is never happy and ask me what they can do about it. Or go looking for answers in a how to raise a happy child book Because their child’s unhappiness is, of course, making them very unhappy.
So, happiness. What is happiness? Happiness is a feeling. But where does happiness come from? Well, it comes from where all our feelings come from. Our feelings come from within us. So as one of my mentors says – the wonderful Richard Wilkins – our chests contain our hearts and we have a treasure chest. And inside the treasure chest - in our heart - is every feeling that we've ever wanted in our life, waiting for us as adults to have an excuse for letting the happiness out. And that kind of makes a lot of sense to me because us adults are waiting for an excuse or waiting for a reason to be happy?
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I was thinking about a football metaphor: waiting for our football team to win a game. But the only people playing football at the moment today, the Germans, aren't they playing the football behind closed doors in the stadiums in Germany? We're waiting for an excuse. So the excuse could be waiting for lockdown to be ended to be happy. We're waiting for an excuse. What could it be? What other excuses could we be waiting for? So yes I could be waiting for the swimming pool to open again so that I can go swimming and then I can be happy.
But it makes absolutely no sense at all, does it, to wait for an excuse to let something out of us that's already within us. And this is where kids have it actually better than us. They don't need an excuse at all. Do they wait to let their happiness out so they can laugh? For absolutely no reason whatsoever. What if we could do the same? What if you could laugh right now for absolutely no reason? Can I do this live on a live stream on Facebook? Could I laugh for absolutely no reason whatsoever? Yes. How can I do it? Can I do it? Yes, I can. I'm laughing. I can't believe that I've been waiting for the swimming pool to be open to be happy again. That is absolutely nuts. I'm just going to laugh. Can I laugh? Can I keep on laughing? No, you're just going to think I'm nuts. But I can't. Something's stopping me laughing and I'm running out of time.
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I'm supposed to be on a call at 10 o'clock with a good friend of mine. So let's just laugh. We did it. It's infectious, isn't it? It's a lot easier when there are two of us. So just laugh along with me for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I'll see you tomorrow. Have fun. Have a fantastic day. And remember, every feeling that you ever wanted, every feeling that your child ever wanted, is right there inside them right at this moment. So let them out. Have a happy day.
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My mission is all about happy children – helping parents make their children happy. I hope this has helped you. If we don’t know where our children’s happiness comes from then how can make sure they’re happy? We need to be looking in the right place for happiness. That’s how we make our children happy. If you’d like to help others help their kids be happy, then please share this post.
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