Practical Tips to Build Your Mental Muscles
How to Have Happy Relationships with your Kids (and Other People, too)
Recently, Inc. Magazine published an article by Jessica Stillman entitled “A Review of 174 Studies Concluded This Is the Most Important Quality for Happy Relationships.”
Spoiler alert: it’s psychological flexibility.
I had my own experience with psychological flexibility in a recent family photoshoot. We spent hours getting ready: organizing matching outfits, getting the backdrop ready, curling my daughter’s waist-long hair, doing my own hair and makeup…only to have the shots turn out disastrously. No one would sit still. The toddler had her own ideas of where she wanted to be and play (and it did not align with my plans). She cried if we tried to stop her. The four-year-old crawled around like a tiger. I had no control.
But throughout the whole thing, I couldn’t stop laughing. Upon looking at the photos, my father accurately noted: there seems to be an abundance of independent thought. He was absolutely right. Secretly, I’m proud of my willful, stubborn daughters, and their true personality shines through in the pictures. To be honest, we aren’t a sitting, smiling, perfect family. The photos may not have gone as planned, but they capture who we are, and I love them.
