Raise their Emotional Intelligence. It’s a skill, not an inborn trait. Parents can help by empathizing with children facing diffi cult emotions and helping them identify and label what they are feeling. Let them know that all feelings are okay, even though bad behavior isn’t.
Form Happiness Habits. Turn these happiness skills, plus the positive skills parents already have, into habits.
FAMILY HAPPINESS 10 STEPS TO by Christine Carter H
appier kids are more likely to become successful, accomplished adults. Look- ing at the science can show what works in raising naturally healthy, happy kids.
Put on Your Own Oxygen Mask First.How happy parents are dramatically affects how happy and successful their kids are.
Build a Village. The breadth and depth of our positive relationships with other people is the strongest predictor of human happiness.
Expect Effort and Enjoyment, Not Perfection. Parents that overemphasize achievement are more likely to have kids with higher levels of depression, anxiety and substance abuse compared to others. Praise effort, not natural ability.
Choose Gratitude, Forgiveness and Optimism. Optimism is so closely related to happiness that the two are practically interchangeable. Teach pre- teens to look on the bright side.
Teach Self-Discipline. Self-discipline in kids is more predictive of future success than intelligence or most anything else good. Start teaching it by helping kids learn ways to distract themselves from temptation.
Enjoy the Present Moment.We can be super-busy and deeply happy at the same time by deeply experiencing the present moment.
Rig their Environment for Happiness. Monitor a child’s surroundings so that the family’s deliberate happiness efforts have maximum effect.
Eat Dinner Together. This simple tradition helps mold better kids and makes them happier, too.
Christine Carter, Ph.D., is the author of Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents and The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Home and Work. She is a senior fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Learn more at
ChristineCarter.com.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) can help a wide variety of conditions involving compromised blood fl ow and oxygen deprivation. This valuable treatment uses 100% oxygen to speed and enhance the body’s natural ability to heal. HBOT is accepted by the AMA and FDA for specifi c indications.
407.671.5055 5423 Lake Howell Rd. Winter Park, FL 32792
CentralFloridaHyperbarics.com August 2015 23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44