Maureen Healy - Growing Happy Kids: How to Foster Inner Confidence, Success, and Happiness

Drawing on her own extensive research and experience, Maureen Healy wisely leads parents and caregivers into the heart of awakening and activating the innate confidence with which every child is born. This is a book that parents will read over and over again.

Michael Bernard Beckwith , author of
Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Souls Potential

Growing Happy Kids gives parents what we all long for: a simple five-step plan to help nurture their childrens self-confidence so they can handle whatever comes up smoothly.

Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. , author of
The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness

Drawing on a wealth of experience and good-heartedness, Maureen Healy offers wise and practical strategies for adults who hope to guide children toward a lifetime of confidence and true happiness.

Sharon Salzberg , author of Real Happiness

Empowering children with the confidence and inner resilience to both endure mistakes and setbacks, as well as to skillfully master things, is what successfully raising happy and fulfilled kids is all about. Maureen Healy does just that in this perceptive and wise integration of Eastern wisdom with Western psychological science, including her Five Building Blocks of Confidence and Inner Strength, which is just what we need today in order for our children to be a happier, healthier, and for the world to be a more harmonious and beautiful place to grow up and flourish in. I recommend
Growing Happy Kids to everyone interested in passing insightful wisdom on to future generations.

Lama Surya Das , author of Awakening the Buddha Within

Maureen Healys Growing Happy Kids is a wise handbook on how parents can, and must, instill confidence in their children. Culled from years of experience, this guide is both deeply intelligent and practical to the core.

Mark Banschick, M.D. , author of The Intelligent Divorce

Maureen Healys Growing Happy Kids is filled with keen insights and easy-to-apply ideas that will help every parent reveal the best in their child.

John B. Waterhouse, Ph.D. , president of
Centers for Spiritual Living

In Growing Happy Kids , Maureen Healy has given us rich and valuable tools to assist us in honoring and supporting our children in building their self-confidence and helping them become happier. It is a MUST read for all parents, educators, and people who care.

Edwene Gaines , author of
The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity

Maureen Healys vibrant can do spirit imbues every page with a sense of joy and possibility, offering parents and other adults a clear roadmap to help them nurture positive, purposeful kids who can successfully navigate just about any challenge they ever face.

Kathy Eldon , founder of Creative Visions Foundation and editor of The Journey Is the Destination

Growing Happy Kids and the information contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for the advice and/or medical care of the readers physician. The author of this book does not provide medical advice or prescribe the use of any form of treatment without the advice of a medical professional. The intent of this author is solely to provide information of a general nature to help you or your child in your quest for emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical well-being.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

2012 Maureen Dawn Healy

Healy, Maureen, 1972

Growing happy kids : how to foster inner confidence, success, and happiness / Maureen Healy.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-7573-1612-8 (pbk.)

ISBN 0-7573-1612-3 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7573-1613-5 (e-book)

ISBN 0-7573-1613-1 (e-book)

1. Success in children. 2. Confidence in children. 3. Happiness in children. 4. Child rearing. I. Title.

BF723.S77H43 2012

649.6--dc23

2011053344

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

HCI, its logos, and marks are trademarks of Health Communications, Inc.

Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.
3201 S.W. 15th Street
Deerfield Beach, FL 334428190

Cover design by Justin Rotkowitz

Interior design by Lawna Patterson Oldfield

Interior fornatting by Dawn Von Strolley Grove

Contents

part one Confidence: Here to Stay!

... Really?

, Real Stories

part two The Confidence Connection

of Confidence

to Life

Between Confidence and Happiness

part three Inner Confidence for Every Kid

: Stepping-Stone to Success

Stronger Seeds

for Life

During the winter of 2007, I buried myself under blankets and multiple layers of clothing every night, feeling invigorated even though it was so cold that I could still see my breath as I drifted off to sleep. I was living at the base of the Himalayan Mountains in northern India, and while this winter was particularly coldand there was no heatI felt stronger than I had in my entire life.

Sometimes in life we make a wish, and then boomit comes true. This trip was the answer to my prayers: What is inner strength? I had wondered. Why do Tibetansthe primary ethnic group in that part of Indiaseem so strong, despite being exiled from their country? What do they know that I dont? Are their children the same way? Is it genetic? Can I develop this deeper level of power? Can it be created? Or am I stuck with the Healy gene of unhappiness?

My quest was both personal and professional. I was working in a clinic, counseling children to overcome obstaclesDads in prison, school stinks, Moms an alcoholic, youve got a distraction problemthose sorts of obstacles. My clients werent happy kids; they definitely werent showing the deeper level of inner strength I saw so vividly in my Tibetan Buddhist friends children. One day, I wondered aloud to a friend, I would love to see how Tibetan kids are raised and compare their upbringing with Western children. Without skipping a beat, he said, Why dont you do it?

So I called Delta Airlines to inquire about my frequent flyer miles, and as fate would have it, I had just enough miles to go round-trip to South Asia for free! There was nothing stopping me. I booked a flight, took a hiatus from the clinic gig, asked my mother to watch my pug for three months, and allowed the universe to unfold the rest.

Amazing things happened on the way: I got invited to teach at a Tibetan kindergarten as a visiting teacher (just needed to brush up on my Tibetan); a Buddhist friend just happened to be going at the same time; I could attend a two-week program His Holiness the Dalai Lama was teaching on strength and happiness in his temple; and I found a place to stay for three U.S. dollars a night. My way was made magically clear, and it felt as if I was being set up to learn about the Tibetans particular type of inner strengthwhat I came to call inner confidence .

One Monk and Many Monkeys

One day late that winter, I started up a mountain in Dharamsalaa mountain that often called my name for a hike after a morning full of Tibetan tots pulling my hair, playing puzzles, and mimicking my every move. On this particular day, I decided to climb it later than normal; the sun was shining, and it felt like it would shine forever.

Hiking alone gave me time to contemplate what I could learn from these Tibetan children and where I could glean more information about the root causes of confidenceand ultimately happiness. Up the mountain, I saw beautiful hills blanketed with rhododendrons and prayer flags streaming from every house. On my way toward a mountain overlook, I passed a yak, monks reciting mantras, and Tibetans practicing traditional dance for an upcoming performance. The hills were alive with ancient sounds.