Do you want your child to be happy$%: Who doesn't$%: Indeed, many parenting books promise that if you just follow their instructions, you will have a happy youngster on your hands. Oh, that it were so!
In fact, wouldn't it be great if we parents could be happy too$%: Happy parents, happy children, one big happy family! But where does this actually exist apart from photos in your album and pictures in magazines$%: This is not to say that we are never happy. We certainly do experience this state from time to time. "Happy" is one of five main feeling categories that human beings regularly experience. Within the "happy" category we find emotions like proud, pleased, content, satisfied, joyous, thrilled, peaceful, elated, excited and so on. But there are four other feeling categories: "sad," "angry," "scared," and "confused." Within these categories we find many emotions such as drained, defeated, dejected, rejected, ashamed, deflated and regretful under "sad;" furious, annoyed, abused, provoked, and perturbed under "angry;" panicky, shocked, overwhelmed, desperate, nervous and defensive in the "scared" category and puzzled, doubtful, unsettled, bewildered and troubled in the "confused" category. And these are only a small selection of the possible emotions for each major feeling. In our moment-by-moment lives, we spend time in each of the five feeling groups. How many minutes a day does any one of us actually spend in the "happy" category$%: