Thinking Happy - A Skill to Teach Our Kids

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

According to Sonja Lyubomirsky 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. It turns out that the emotional environment we provide for our child from conception forward plays an even stronger role in the emotional and physical development of our kids than previously believed. We get to choose the emotional environment to which we subject our children, not our genetics.

Surprisingly though, Dr. Lyubomirsky's research found that our physical environment plays a much smaller part than you might imagine in our day to day level of happiness. 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, or THINK ABOUT "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. How we CHOOSE to react to events in our lives gives our children the belief that this is also how they should react to a similar event in their lives.

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 and voluntarily choose happiness. Beliefs and 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 never occur again, 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. But we absolutely can choose to experience more happiness than unhappiness, and we can choose our reactions to events.

Scientific research has shown some remarkable benefits to being happier:

* Longer life
* Less illness
* Longer lasting meaningful relationships (far less divorce)
* 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 choosing to use techniques proven to increase your own happiness, you are at the same time providing these tools to your children, and that you are instilling in them the beliefs they can be anything, do anything and have the life they want and deserve, would you use them?

Acquiring the knowledge to change your life, and providing that knowledge to your children can change the direction of their life too, but only if a conscious choice to take ACTION is made.

In October, 2010 HAPPIER KIDS NOW, a first ever On-Line Expo for Parents and Teachers will be taking place featuring live interviews with some of the worlds leading experts and researchers in child/teen development, education and Positive Psychology. With world renowned expert speakers like Dr. Bruce Lipton, PhD. author of the Best Selling Award Winning The Biology of Belief and The Three Foot Giant, Sean Stephenson, among so many others, this event will prove to be an incredible tool for parents and teachers to help raise generations of happy thriving kids.

Find out more about this incredible FREE event at http://www.HappierKidsNow.com

Patrick McMillan is the founder of Kids Can Do Anything and author of An Exercise in Happiness, an Emotional Fitness Program for kids and parents based on the ancient philosophy and the science of happiness. In addition Patrick is also a single parent of two boys, 12 and 9 yrs. old. Visit http://www.kidscandoanything.com for more information about An Exercise in Happiness for at home or the classroom.

Patrick has been a guest on many parenting radio shows and written articles for parenting magazines like LA Family Magazine (30 Days to Happier Kids)

Patrick recently teamed up with parent/author Rhonda Ryder to co-produce Happier Kids Now, an On-Line Expo for Parents and Teachers scheduled for October 2010.