What does a family need to be happy?

Mr Grolimund, what is your personal definition of happiness?

For me, happiness has a lot to do with feeling connected to others and at the same time being able to go my own way. I feel happiest when I can do something that I find meaningful or interesting together with people who are important to me - family and friends.

Can happiness be learnt - or is it simply a matter of luck?

Both. How happy we are and how easy it is for us to feel good depends to a not insignificant extent on our genetic make-up. Some people simply have a sunny disposition. However, there are also many habits and decisions that influence our happiness. The better we know which of these have a particularly strong impact on our well-being, the more we can control our own happiness.

What does it take for a family to be happy?

For happiness in the sense of long-term well-being, it doesn't take much: for example, time to cultivate relationships, beautiful moments to share, valuable goals to commit to, the feeling that what you are doing is meaningful. But it's not so easy to keep an eye on these elementary things: We often sacrifice the important for the seemingly urgent or lose ourselves in unnecessary consumption.

To what extent are parents responsible for their children's happiness?

Many factors contribute to how happy a person feels. Of course, our own sense of happiness in the here and now is also influenced by what we experienced as children. Parents are an important part of this childhood. If we felt loved and accepted, if our parents understood us and granted us our autonomy, allowed us to get to know ourselves and go our own way, then it is easier for us to be happy as adults. If we have experienced the opposite, we have to fight much harder for our happiness.

Together with Stefanie Rietzler, you wrote «Jaron auf den Spuren des Glücks», a children's book about the search for happiness. How does happiness find us?

Often in inconspicuous, everyday moments, for example when a stranger smiles at us, a group of migratory birds flies overhead or we can enjoy a sunny autumn day on a walk in the woods. When we take time to consciously enjoy something. When we find something that interests us and lose ourselves in an activity. But also in difficult phases, when we realise: there are people who stand by me, listen to me and have my back - I am not alone.