What is another simple secret to becoming a happy family?
Happy energy is powerful. Celebration is an act of the soul. Every family possesses the ability to find merriment. Consider short vacations (even a weekend), trips, special celebratory days, holiday gatherings, reunions and game playing—and don’t forget to pull the plug on the tech equipment.
Find an emotionally gifted star within your family and use this person to teach “heartwork.” It is simply that important for children, teens and adults to learn to express their feelings, speak from their hearts and master the lessons of emotional intelligence. Empathize or put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Compassionate words and actions make an enormous difference.
Encourage family members to express emotion. Teach them to leave a legacy of giving; make kindness a part of their lives; and use their personal gifts to do as much as they can for others. This is how families and schools and communities, and even the world, is transformed.
Dr. Susan Smith Kuczmarski has taught at 8 universities, now at Northwestern University and Loyola University in Chicago. She is an award-winning author of 6 books, 3 on families and 3 on leadership, including her newest, Becoming A Happy Family: Pathways to the Family Soul (2015), and her best-selling, The Sacred Flight of the Teenager: A Parent’s Guide to Stepping Back and Letting Go, which was released (2019) in Egypt in Arabic. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, she has researched extensively how children learn social skills and teens become leaders. A frequent radio and television guest, she has appeared on "The Today Show" and speaks regularly to parents and educators. Listed in Who's Who in the World for 12 years and an International Fellow of Columbia University, her 35 years of college teaching and research have made her an expert on issues devoted to the contemporary family.
