Nowadays, ultra-positive phrases are very fashionable in any context and situation , as well as messages and books focused on the fact that positive thoughts make people succeed and live much happier than the rest of the world. mortals. This idea has a lot of truth, but it is fundamental, if what we want is to educate children in optimism , that we move away from that very untrue concept that is that they will be much happier, just because, yes, the one who achieves see life through the eyes of a unicorn.
However, although it is very important to live with our feet on the ground , it is good for children to develop and grow in optimism and positivity, and that they can work on it with different tools and in order to way of thinking does not disappear with time, when the problems become more frequent and loaded with seriousness with the passage of time.
In this sense, the philosopher and writer Elsa Punset (daughter of the renowned scientist Eduardo Punset), developed and published her book called “The book of small revolutions”, focused on the importance of educating children “positively”. The book informs us about an existing anomaly in the human brain, which leads us to remember more frequently and for a much longer time, those things that have made us sad, have gone wrong, or have led us to depressive or depressed states. disappointment. They are things that are part of life and it is not about denying them or pretending that they have not happened, because you also learn a lot from them; it is actually about training our brain to also give relevance to the good things that happen to us, those that our brain tends to forget more easily.
The bottle of happiness, keeper of good memories
We tend to associate happiness with great occasions and situations of great importance , such as holidays, prizes or money. However, happiness can also be found in small moments , in everyday scenes that are almost imperceptible to our brain, but which are there and much more often than those great moments of happiness that we long for and that lead us, without to realize, to frustration, discouragement and unhappiness.
Being observers with our environment is crucial to be able to appreciate all those details that allow our day to day to be better or worse, such as saying good morning in the morning, giving us a smile when holding a door for someone to pass, that our family is well, go out to enjoy the outdoors with our parents or grandparents, taste a delicious meal, watch a good movie in a movie theater … and that they are the ones that cost the least and the ones that truly make us happy almost every day Without us realizing.
The bottle of happiness that Elsa Punset presents to us is as simple as a bottle that we have at home and that we no longer use, or a box. In short, a container that will serve us to store for a year the good moments that happen to us , those that brighten our day for a moment or make us smile: a shared coffee, a special breakfast, a hug, a few nice words, an approved exam, a sunny walk, getting wet in the rain … All these situations can be written down on a piece of paper and stored in the happiness jar so that, when we are going through low moments, or we want to count all those at the end of the year things that have happened to us, we can remember and realize that good things also happened to us and not just bad things (let’s remember the tendency of our brain to stay only with the negative and with the pain).
What can the bottle of happiness bring to children?
When we are older it costs much more to change our way of being and thinking, but children are moldable when they are at the beginning of their development and their personality , and Punset’s technique of the jar of happiness can serve them, in this sense, to train your brain and train it in optimism and positivity. It is not about, as we said, that they live in a cloud or abstract them from reality, because no matter how positive attitude they have in life there will be problems and bad times, but rather that they can learn to channel those bad moments better, and to feel lucky in valuing every positive moment that surrounds them.
The bottle of happiness can bring them serenity, good feelings, hope … and, in addition, it will be useful to enhance skills such as analysis and personal reflection, as well as values such as gratitude or calm and tranquility.
When the jar is full of pieces of paper and messages , it will be time to open it and enjoy reading each of those moments and bits of happiness that enveloped and shaped the days of the past. Doing it in the company of the family can be an excellent therapy to reflect together on what, truly, are the moments that make up happiness, and to what extent they accompany us.
In short, it is a simple and excellent routine to improve mood and health , capable of putting ourselves in front of a mirror to see if we are too harsh or not on our own skin. A therapy that children will find like a fun game and that, in the long run, will get out of them the best possible attitudes in the face of the inescapable vicissitudes of life.
And you, have you already prepared your vial of happiness to fill it with great moments?
