Book Review | Raising Happiness
When I chose my topic for October's 31 Days series, I hadn't heard of Christine Carter or the Greater Good Institute or the book, Raising Happiness. All of these gems I discovered while doing Internet searches on topics I had outlined, like giving your child specific praise and teaching gratitude. I stumbled across Christine's videos and blog posts and then, her book.
And it couldn't have been more helpful, appropriate to my writing, and just plain interesting.
Today I'm telling you about her book. I've finally finished it, but I plan to go back and read from start to finish again, this time with my pen in hand. It's a book I'll be coming back to again and again and I want the really good stuff to stand out when I flip through it in a panic. ;p
Like this:
Christine is human. She's made plenty of mistakes raising her two kids. She talks about that too. There are sections of the book that I didn't feel applied to me. There are places where she rambles just a bit. But the book's quality and content over-all, from beginning to end, is above and beyond what most books offer. You will come away feeling like you have learned a hundred things and have new ideas and parenting techniques to implement.
Her book made me think. Her book made me optimistic. Her book made me happy. Really.
Now I just need to read it again. Cause forming happy habits can take time and some of my not-so-happy-habits go pretty deep. It's a life-long process. But I hope to help my kiddos get an early start.
And it couldn't have been more helpful, appropriate to my writing, and just plain interesting.
Like this:
"Practicing mindfulness, playing and savoring -- stopping to notice something that feels good--are all ways of practicing the growth mindset. They make life about the process and not the end result. Enjoying the present moment teaches kids not to postpone happiness." {emphasis mine} Raising Happiness pg. 145Good stuff. And you can times that by one hundred as you read through her almost two hundred pages of science-based, tried-it-at-home, makes-sense material. With chapter titles like "Expect Effort and Enjoyment, Not Perfection", "Raise Their Emotional Intelligence" and "Form Happiness Habits" you know you have good things coming.
Christine is human. She's made plenty of mistakes raising her two kids. She talks about that too. There are sections of the book that I didn't feel applied to me. There are places where she rambles just a bit. But the book's quality and content over-all, from beginning to end, is above and beyond what most books offer. You will come away feeling like you have learned a hundred things and have new ideas and parenting techniques to implement.
Her book made me think. Her book made me optimistic. Her book made me happy. Really.
Now I just need to read it again. Cause forming happy habits can take time and some of my not-so-happy-habits go pretty deep. It's a life-long process. But I hope to help my kiddos get an early start.