Positive Thinking For Kids – 14 Ways To Raise Optimistic Children
Not sure how to instil positive thinking for kids? Here are 14 smart strategies to raise optimistic children simply and easily.
Let’s chat about positive thinking for kids.
As a parent, we all want the best for our kids.
We would love for them to be blessed with happiness, health, and success (and whatever else they need in life to be content).
But wanting the best for someone and knowing how to give it to them are two very different things.
Even if you don’t have a magic wand you can wave, you DO have the power to bring these things about by influencing the way your children think.
Oh yes you do! And the best place to start is by encouraging optimism.
Why is this so important?
Because a positive outlook boosts your immune system and helps you to live longer.
When you look on the bright side, you build up your resilience and achieve more.
If that’s the kind of legacy you want to pass on to your children, consider these strategies to help you to raise optimistic sons and daughters.
Steps for You to Take Yourself:
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 1 – Be a role model.
Children are great imitators so you need to give them something great to imitate.
Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you. Robert Fulghum
Here’s the thing: whether you like it or not your children follow your example.
The more you demonstrate the power of optimism, the more likely they are to pick up on your sunny outlook.
So ask yourself now: are you setting a good example for your kids?
Are you walking the walk or just talking the talk?
If you can’t find a good model, BE ONE!
Parents are the ultimate role models for children. Every word, movement and action has an effect. No other person or outside force has a great influence on a child than the parent. Bob Keeshan
But a role model in the flesh provides more than inspiration; his or her very existence is confirmation of possibilities one may have every reason to doubt, saying: “yes, someone like me can do this.” Sonya Sotomayor
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 2 – Accentuate the positive.
Here’s why being positive is so important:
If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges. Pat Riley
An attitude of positive expectation is the mark of the superior personality. Brian Tracy
Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success. Shiv Khera
As a parent it is important to make it a habit to focus on the upside of any situation.
You can either look at the glass as half full or as half empty.
If a camping trip gets rained out, show your children how to be flexible.
Pitch your tent in your living room instead of wallowing and being miserable about the unexpected change of plans.
Transform disappointments and irritations by turning them into lessons.
There is something important to be gained from every mistake or trouble or failure you experience in life.
You just need to find the gem in the rough.
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 3 – Show gratitude.
Another way to encourage optimism in children is to teach them how to be grateful.
Gratitude turns what we have into enough. Aesop
Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for. Zig Ziglar
When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out, and the tide of love rushes in. Kirsten Armstrong
Counting your blessings as a parent helps you to see the world as a friendly place.
The same can be said for your kids.
Help them list down all the things you have to be thankful for in life.
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 4 – Choose empowering words.
How often do you catch yourself complaining?
Do you come home and vent about all the things that went wrong with your day?
Aim to replace defeatist, negative statements with positive affirmations instead.
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 5 – Be realistic.
Optimism needs to be grounded in facts.
Yes there will be hurdles in life.
Yes there will be challenges.
Simply acknowledge the reality of life’s challenges while you focus on solutions.
In life you are always, always either part of the problem or part of the solution.
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 6 – Take action.
Optimism also needs to be backed up by action in order to succeed.
You absolutely need to seize control of your life and remember that you can handle anything that comes your way.
You need to take action in order to move toward your goals.
When your actions contradict your words, your words don’t mean anything.
Therefore the path to success is to take massive, determined actions.
Ideas without action are useless. Helen Keller
The universe doesn’t give you what you ask for with your thoughts; it gives you what you demand with your actions. Dr. Steve Maraboli
You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do. Carl Gustav Jung
Steps to Take with Your Children:
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 7 – Set high expectations.
Children build confidence by living up to the responsibilities you give them.
Teach them to believe in their abilities to excel at school, play sports, and make friends.
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 8 – Encourage independence.
It’s natural to want to intervene when your child is hurting.
On the other hand, they grow more when you step back and let them fix their own challenges.
Independence is happiness.
The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence. Denis Waitley
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 9 – Take risks.
Reward your child for taking sensible risks.
Give them credit for speaking up in class or trying to ski for the first time.
Good risk taking should be encouraged in your kids.
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. T.S. Eliot
If it’s still in your mind, it is worth taking the risk. Paulo Coelho
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 10 – Leverage strengths.
Notice what your child likes to do and what they’re good at.
When they succeed at a task, help them to analyze what they did well, and how they can build on their achievements.
What makes you different or weird, that’s your strength. Meryl Streep
Focus on your strengths instead of your weaknesses, on your powers instead of your problems. Paul Meyers
Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength. Henry Ward Beecher.
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 11 – Learn from experience.
When your child has a setback, talk about what they can do differently next time.
Help them see that their sadness or frustration is temporary.
Experience is the teacher of all things. Julius Caesar
Every experience, good or bad, is a priceless collector’s item. Isaac Marion
The only source of knowledge is experience. Albert Einstein
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 12 – Engage in creative play.
It is so, so important for our kids to engage in creative play.
Feed your child’s imagination with activities that help them to express themselves and develop their skills.
You can build a theatre out of a cardboard box so your kids can put on puppet shows.
Paint pictures and do crafts. Creative thinking stirs up hopes and dreams.
Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play. Henri Matisse
Pretend play combines two wondrous and uniquely human characteristics – the capacity for fantasy and the capacity for, and need to, make meaning of our experience. Susan Linn
Play is the highest form of research. Albert Einstein
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 13 – Share affection.
Studies show that children who receive plenty of love and affection feel more secure about their future.
Listen closely to what your child has to say so they’ll know that they’re important to you.
Hug them when they leave for school in the morning and come home in the afternoon.
Show them that you care!
Positive Thinking For Kids
Tip # 14 – Give praise.
Positive reinforcement will help your children to value themselves and develop constructive habits.
Tell them that you’re proud of them for studying hard and being kind to their neighbors.
Praise is like sunlight to the human spirit; we cannot flower and grow without it. Jess Lair
A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success. Anonymous
Praise your children more than you correct them. Praise them for even their smallest achievement. Ezra Taft Benson
All in all you need to know and understand that optimists are made, not born.
Positive thinking will help your children to make sound decisions and deal effectively with life’s challenges.
So please do your best to incorporate these strategies that will help you raise optimistic children more easily in life.
They will thank you dearly for it in the future, I promise xxx
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I’m Frances Vidakovic – a mindset & action coach for quietly ambitious women who want to stop overthinking and finally take aligned action. I help women achieve their goals and follow through on what matters, without sacrificing their sanity or soul.