Parenting is hard work! Just when you think you understand your children and finding your ‘parenting flow’ your children develop a little more, creating all sorts of different challenges. On Tuesday afternoon over 40 parents attended a workshop focused on how to increase positivity and happiness within their families over the Christmas break. Together we learned about how human beings are hardwired for negativity – that’s why it’s always so easy to see what’s not going well. We notice the problems easier than noticing the strengths within our children and families.
As parents our challenge is to ‘re-wire’ our brains to notice the positives, highlight what is good within our families and learn to amplify these. One way to amplify the positives is through establishing strong family rituals, traditions and celebrations (click here to access the slides from the workshop).
If you want some great ideas that you can do with your family to build strong connections, identity and positive emotions, have a look at this wordle for ideas. At the workshop everyone shared some of their family rituals – the larger the text the more people had the same family ritual. Wishing you and your family a Christmas filled with positivity and happiness.