Choose Happiness

From Kate Wilde: Here at the Autism treatment Center of America we believe that being happy and deeply comfortable when working with a child on the Autism spectrum is the most important ingredient in helping them to grow.

When we are happy we are more likely to be warm and loving, we smile, laugh and enjoy our children more. Thus we are more inviting for our children to reach out and want to play with us.

When we are happy we are more likely to be present, thus more responsive to our children, the more responsive we are to our children's cues the more they will want to come to us for help, the more opportunities we have to help them socially interact.

In short happier people are more attractive to be around. Our autistic children are more sensitive to our attitudes so this applies more to them than to the average person.

I know that so many of you lovely parents and professionals out there are really taking action with your children and prioritizing their growth and creating amazing learning opportunities. The question is are your prioritizing your own happiness? Take a few minutes right now and write down a list of your priorities starting with the most important and go from there. Where did your put your own happiness? Was it number one or number 10, did it even feature on your list?

One thing you can you do right now to help you re-prioritize your happiness is simply just decide to be happy.

• Take one 30 minute segment a day, where you decide that no matter what happens you are going to choose to be happy.
• Pick a 30 minute period that is usually challenging for you, whether it is putting your children to bed, or when you are juggling more that one thing.
• Once you can do this for one 30 minute period, then add another 30 minute period in.

So much power can come from having a clear intention and time period to choose happiness.

with love to you

Kate