Welcome FlowerChild

My 6-year old daughter decided to spend her savings on a Bratz Hair Magic Set. She must have seen the wonderful things you can do with this doll and her hair in a TV commercial.  But her disappointment was enormous. The colors of the hairpaint are terribly ugly and extremely sticky, the accessories to make the hair curl and waffle do not work at all and break after the second usage, same for the clips. The 36 euro doll disappeared in the bin after one hour and left me with a very frustrated daughter who wished she had bought rollerskates instead. Toys should be manufactured to empower children. The only empowerment my little girl got, was to never like anything related to Bratz again. 

I studied the Enneagram years ago already and I decided to read the book again. The Enneagram symbol is thousands of years old, but the first written proof is from Pythagoras who lived 600 years before Christ. According to his theory (developed by many other psychologists afterwards) there are nine types of characters and this essence of your being is developed between the age of 6 months and 1 year. After that our upbringing, our parents, our school, our friends and everything else that can influence us, drives us more or less away from our essence. The enneagram can bring us back to this essence and makes that we understand yourselves and others a lot better. When you discover your true self at a young age, it will have of course a great effect on your self esteem.

Elizabeth Wagele wrote an Enneagram book for children with very nice drawings explaining the different character types.

An important group of young people born between 1980 and 1990, the so called Millennials, have a bright outlook on the future, despite the crisis, increasing unemployment, risks for the environment and other worldwide problems. This was the result of a research done by the Pepsi Optimism Project. 2000 Americans were interviewed and practically all surveyed (95%) agree that it is important for them to maintain a positive outlook on life.

According to the POP survey, Millennials spend more time enjoying life than worrying about it and this group is most optimistic about their overall well-being and relationships with friends and family. Other findings include:

•  With the season of good will upon us, 74% find that supporting causes make them feel more optimistic.

•  Despite recent job forecasts, 77% of Millennials report having a strong sense of optimism about their careers.

•  Nearly all Millennials (95%) make positive associations when they think of the word “change,” associating it with “progress” (78%), “hope” (77%) and “excitement” (72%).

•  Two-thirds of Millennials (67%) say that the election of Barack Obama is making them feel optimistic about the future of the country.

This shows the real American Spirit in this next generation. Hopefully this positiveness will blow over to Europe as well.

Flowerchild wishes everybody a New Year full of LOVE.

Of all the principal emotions – Sadness, Anger, Jealousy, Hate and Love – the last one is the only emotion that can lead to an improvement of everything. With love, positive thinking and being the right example we help ourselves and the next generation.