“Emotional intelligence begins to develop in the earliest years. All the small exchanges children have with their parents, teachers, and with each other carry emotional messages.” ~Daniel Goleman

Your child knows when you're distracted by work when you're with them, and it affects them.

The difference between physical presence and psychological presence is much greater than the difference between time and attention. Although you can be spending time with your children, if you aren't psychologically present, you don't serve anyone.

To put it simply, time is important.

But the quality time that is focused and undistracted is even more valuable.

For many parents, raising emotionally healthy children is the holy grail of parenting success. But too often, we think raising emotionally healthy children is about those fleeting moments of getting what you want. Lasting happiness is actually much more complicated, but much more rewarding. And yes, you can dramatically increase your child's chances of being happy, just by the way you raise him or her.

How does a happy child become a happy adult? We believe that happiness grows out of emotional health, so this piece is all about helping you raise a happy child, from meeting your infant's need to be soothed to helping your child develop optimism. However, let's take a closer look at what makes humans happy specifically.

There are two kinds of habits that are closely linked to happiness:

the way we think and feel about the world and how we perceive our experiences as a result.

We can develop such habits as exercising regularly, eating healthily, meditating, connecting with others, savoring the "good" and even smiling and laughing regularly.

 As Grandma told us, we should live the way we told our children to live: work hard, value our relationships with other people, keep our bodies healthy, manage our money responsibly, contribute to our community.

The traits that lead to being emotionally healthy are the habits your child can develop -- as well as yourself.

How can you help them? Consider these 5 suggestions.

1) Teach your child how to create happiness through constructive mental habits.

We are happier when we manage our moods, speak positive self-talk, cultivate optimism, practice gratitude, and appreciate our connection to one another and the entire universe. You should practice with your other half regularly and talk about how to use them. Eventually, your child will follow your lead.

2) Educate your child on self-management

The correlation between exercise, good nutrition, and meditation is strong. For example, music works immediately to lift a person's mood, while for others a walk in nature always does.

3) Teach Them To Build Relationships

Nobody denies learning regarding relationships is very important — however, what number of parents truly take the time to show youngsters the way to relate to others? It doesn’t take heaps. It will begin with encouraging youngsters to perform tiny acts of kindness to make sympathy. This not solely builds essential skills and makes your youngsters level up, analysis shows over the long run it makes them happier.

4) Give Them More Playtime

We read a lot about mindfulness and meditation these days, and both are very powerful. Getting children to practice regularly, however, can be quite a challenge. What works almost as well? More playing time. Children today invest less energy playing both inside and out… On the whole, in the course of the most recent 10 years, kids have lost eight hours of the seven-day stretch of free, unstructured, and unconstrained playtime.

5) Preach Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is a learned ability, not a genetic attribute. It's unrealistic to expect children to "naturally" develop to comprehend their own emotions (much alone those of others). When they're battling with anger or irritation, a simple first step is to "Empathize, Label, and Validate."

Commitment and consistency are required when it comes to developing your child's mental strength. However, you will be instilling mental strength by regular communication, practicing when difficult situations come, and striving to increase their confidence and self-esteem on a regular basis.

Look for ways to begin small and expand from there. Also, assist them in maturing and learning from their mistakes. Your children will quickly understand the importance of maintaining an emotionally healthy state of mind that will last a lifetime.