3 Secrets To Raising A Happy Child

 

3 Secrets To Raising A Happy Child

By Vikas Malkani

Founder of SoulKids®

Raising happy children is the goal of every parent. Children are naturally drawn towards happiness, and as parents, we must understand what it takes to nurture and raise a happy child.

Here are my top 3 secrets to raising a happy child.

1.    Feed their self-confidence

As parents, it is our responsibility to raise our child’s sense of self-esteem so high that nothing or no one can break it.

Boost their confidence by always encouraging them to try new things. Appreciate their efforts not just the results. Support their interests, desires and strengths. Encourage them to do more of the things they are naturally good at. This provides a positive reinforcement and helps them grow in confidence; it also strengthens them to produce positive results in their endeavors.

Make sure that you do not compare them with others. Comparisons with peers devalues their self-confidence and also affects their inner beliefs.

2.    Make your home a positive one

Children learn more by imitation than by instruction. Be aware of your words, actions and behavior and keep them positive, as your children are watching you constantly.

Engage in fun activities together. Develop a positive and happy mindset yourself so they learn by watching you.

Let them see you making mistakes, learning from it and moving forward. Encourage open communication so they know they can always come to you for guidance and not be judged.

3.    Inspire, don’t perspire your children

Motivate children, don’t dictate to them. Acknowledge and reinforce good work and behavior. Notice them doing things right, don’t just catch them doing things wrong.

Encourage them to make small efforts and support them. It is always the small victories that lead to greater ones.

Children learn best through positive and constructive feedback. Remember failure has a purpose too – it shows you what you need to work on. Help them develop this growth mindset.

The award winning SoulKids® programs are designed to give children the life-skills they need to create their own happiness and success.

At SoulKids, children learn skills such as resilience, emotional intelligence, teamwork, personal leadership, creative problem solving and more in a fun and engaging environment. They always leave happy, excited, positive and wanting more.

We offer group programs for different age groups and also offer one-on-one coaching to provide specific help and guidance for your child.

Click here to see SoulKids program dates and register http://www.soulkids.org/events

Vikas Malkani is an authority on personal development, happiness and success. He has coached CEO’s, Hollywood Stars, Royalty, Sports Champions and more…

SoulKids is an award winning life skills program that makes children future-ready by teaching them leadership, resilience, emotional intelligence, teamwork and more.

Find out more about SoulKids programs and one-on-one coaching here www.soulkids.org or email us at info@soulcentre.org

Self-Confidence In Children – 5 Ways To Create It

By Vikas Malkani

Founder of SoulKids®

31st October 2016

Contrary to what some believe, self-confidence doesn’t develop simply by telling kids they're wonderful, special, and unique. Simple words will not do it, nor will giving every child a trophy at the end of every contest.

The reality is that your child will face competition in life and must learn how to manage it. Regardless of the result, when children compete, they can see that their own preparation and hard work makes a difference. Getting a prize contributes to self-confidence only when the child knows they have earned it.

A positive self-confidence is one of the greatest gifts you can give your child. The self-confidence a child develops is the result of numerous experiences that help a child feel accepted, loved, respected, capable and effective. And it is always built over time.

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SoulKids® teaches that children with high self-esteem feel loved and competent and develop into happy, productive people. They tend to feel valued and accepted, feel proud of a job well done, think good things about themselves and feel prepared for everyday challenges.

Conversely, children with low self-esteem often feel self-critical and are hard on themselves, feel insecure, or not as good as other kids, focus on the times they fail rather than the times they succeed, lack confidence to step out of their comfort zone, and constantly doubt their ability to do well at things.

At SoulKids® we believe that self-confidence is important because when children feel good about themselves, it sets them up for success — in everything from school to friendships. Positive self-confidence helps children try new challenges, cope with mistakes, and try again. In contrast, children with low self-confidence feel unsure of themselves, think others won't accept them, and may allow themselves to be treated poorly and have a hard time standing up for themselves.

Here are 5 SoulKids® tips to help your child develop self-confidence :

1) Help your child learn to do things - At every age, there are new things for kids to learn. When a child does something new, it gets them out of their zone of comfort and into their zone of discovery and growth; it makes them grow. Doing new things is absolutely essential for the constant development of a child and also great for building their self-confidence.

When teaching kids how to do things, show and help them at first. Then let them do what they can, even if they make mistakes. Be sure your child has lots of opportunities to learn, try, and feel proud. Don't make new challenges too easy — or too hard.

2) Praise your child, but do it wisely - It's good to praise children and your praise is a way to show that you love them and are proud of them too. But research shows that some ways of praising kids can actually backfire so avoid over-praising. Praise that doesn't feel earned is not beneficial and in fact can have the reverse effect. Kids are masters at detecting insincere praise or baseless compliments.

Praise your child often, but be specific in your compliments so your words sound and feel true. Telling a child he played a great game when he knows he didn't feels hollow and fake. So it's better to say, "I know that wasn't your best performance, but we all have off days. I'm proud of you for not giving up. Tomorrow, you'll be back on your top game."

At SoulKids® we believe that it’s better to praise the efforts they make rather than just the results they achieve. This kind of praise encourages children to put effort into things, work toward goals, and try. When kids do that, they are more likely to succeed.

3) Ban negative criticism - The messages kids hear about themselves from others easily translate into how they feel about themselves. Harsh words such as ‘You're so lazy’ are harmful, and not motivating at all. When children absorb negative messages about themselves, especially from the parents or family, they feel bad about themselves, and act accordingly.

Never belittle your child's feelings. If you get angry take a short break so you don't say anything you'll regret later. And remember, you can dislike a child's actions without disliking the child.

Words have power, so be conscious of what you speak to and around your child.

4) Focus on strengths - Pay attention to what your child does well and enjoys. Make sure your child has opportunities to develop these strengths. Developing their innate strengths will feel natural and joyful for your child.

For developing positive self-confidence, nurturing strengths is better than focusing on weaknesses if you want to help kids feel good about themselves and succeed in life.

5) Be a good role model - When you put effort into everyday tasks like making a meal, cleaning up the dishes, or washing the car, you're setting a good example for your children. Your child learns to put effort into doing homework, cleaning up toys, or making the bed because they see you so the same.

Modelling the right mind set and attitude counts, too. When you do tasks cheerfully, or when you avoid rushing through chores and take pride in a job well done, you teach your child to do the same.

The SoulKids® creed is simple and effective – ‘Be what you want your child to become!’

It works, every time!

SoulKids is an award-winning training program of essential life-skills for children.

To have your child benefit from our next class, click http://www.soulkids.org/events

Self-Confidence – The Greatest Gift For Your Child

By Vikas Malkani, Founder of SoulKids

10 October 2106

What’s the best gift one can give to a child? I asked myself this question one day, many years ago…

Is it happiness, comforts of life, a good education, a supporting family, or fulfilling every desire the child has?

After much contemplation, I decided that the best gift one can give a child is the self-confidence, and the capability to raise their own self-belief when they need to.

In other words, if we are able to create a positive and self-confident child, we have done a large part of our work as parents.

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Let me give you my reasoning for this. There are 2 subjects I have studied deeply – happiness and success. Every human needs to experience these 2 outcomes in their life, for their life to feel fulfilled and worthy.

I have even written 2 best-selling books on these subjects – The Little Manual of Happiness and The Little Manual of Success. They are available here http://www.soulcentre.org/shop.html

One of my great realizations during my research was that for both success and happiness to manifest, one needs to develop a strong and positive self-esteem and build the capability to raise this self-confidence by choice when needed.

Life presents many challenges, and these storms come when we least expect them; if we don’t have a strong self-belief, we will be emotionally shaken and depressed and thus not able to tackle life with the optimal actions we must. Since actions bring results, without a strong self-confidence we are unable to create or enjoy an optimal life.

All successful children develop high self-esteem, and this is what sees them through difficult times when things and results are not what they expect.

Self-confidence builds resilience.

All happy children also demonstrate high and positive self-confidence. This allows them to protect their own happiness when the world around them does not offer the approval we seek.

Self-confidence builds an inner strength that can easily sail through the external storms of life.

For a happy and successful life, a high self-confidence is essential. The best gift you can give your child is training which empowers them to become a positive and confident child, able to handle whatever life throws at them.

You can start by sending your child to a SoulKids class, and see the positive difference it makes in them.

Check out the latest SoulKids courses here http://www.soulkids.org/events

Or you can gift your child the ‘SoulKids Book of Happiness for Teens’ – by Vikas Malkani, another of my best-selling books written specially for teenagers.

You can purchase it here http://www.soulkids.org/shop.html

Build a self-confident child and you would have given them the best gift you possibly can as a parent.

SoulKids is an award winning training program that provides the complete menu of life-skills that your child will require to create a life of happiness and success. SoulKids life-skills supplement the academic education that a child receives.