“All children, except one, grow up.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
I think that when we were kids, we had everything we needed to be happy. And when we started to grow up, we tried to forget about all of these activities and habits that used to lead to hapiness. Because we were "too old" for that stuff. However we grew up just to restore all of our old habits through complicated methods. Isn't it crazy? I'm reading books Mindfulness for Busy People and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and I feel like all those techniques which are described in these books (techniques for calming your mind and improving your life) ... are the things we used to do automatically when we were younger.
Little kids express their emotions just the way they feel it. When they're happy, they laugh. They shout when they're angry, they cry when they're unhappy or disappointed. Okay, it's partly because of the fact that small kids do not have fully developed nervous system .. but I think it would be good if we followed their pattern. Let the emotions flow. After all, retention of emotions is often the cause of developing mental illness, depression and people learn to express their emotions by meditations and therapies!
As children we refused to keep eating when we were full, when we felt that internal "valve" - the feeling that we had just enough. Gradually we learned to ignore the signals of our body, we eat everything we have on our plate, we blindly follow diets and lifestyles which are labeled "healthy" even though we do not benefits from them at all ...
We used to play with the food on our plate, we used to create labyrinths in the porridge with a spoon, we swallowed every single bite .. And then we learned that we shouldn't act like this at the table. Now we're trying to learn to perceive the temperature and weight of a cup of tea, the taste of every bite - by mindfulness techniques. It's hard for us to concentrate. No matter we used to do it naturally.
Children believe in their own dreams. They don't think it's unrealistic to go for a holiday to the Moon, that they're gonna ecome artics, millionaires and so on. They believe it's realistic - because it is! Sure, kids have also some crazy dreams like to learn to fly or do magic - but their dreams are often absolutely realistic (maybe demanding but realistic). It's the fault of the pressure and the lost of self-confidence, that destroys their dreams.
A lot of people have low self conbfidence when in their teenage years and adulthood too. Even though we are the same people who used to be able to sing on the street, ask whenever we didn't understand anything and make friends with anyone, regardless of age, gendre or race. We didn't care if we have freckles, too big nose or too round face. We didn't mind if people around us are a bit overweight. We loved ourselves and the other people just the way they are. We loved unconditionally.
As children we refused to keep eating when we were full, when we felt that internal "valve" - the feeling that we had just enough. Gradually we learned to ignore the signals of our body, we eat everything we have on our plate, we blindly follow diets and lifestyles which are labeled "healthy" even though we do not benefits from them at all ...
We used to play with the food on our plate, we used to create labyrinths in the porridge with a spoon, we swallowed every single bite .. And then we learned that we shouldn't act like this at the table. Now we're trying to learn to perceive the temperature and weight of a cup of tea, the taste of every bite - by mindfulness techniques. It's hard for us to concentrate. No matter we used to do it naturally.
Children believe in their own dreams. They don't think it's unrealistic to go for a holiday to the Moon, that they're gonna ecome artics, millionaires and so on. They believe it's realistic - because it is! Sure, kids have also some crazy dreams like to learn to fly or do magic - but their dreams are often absolutely realistic (maybe demanding but realistic). It's the fault of the pressure and the lost of self-confidence, that destroys their dreams.
A lot of people have low self conbfidence when in their teenage years and adulthood too. Even though we are the same people who used to be able to sing on the street, ask whenever we didn't understand anything and make friends with anyone, regardless of age, gendre or race. We didn't care if we have freckles, too big nose or too round face. We didn't mind if people around us are a bit overweight. We loved ourselves and the other people just the way they are. We loved unconditionally.
Kids say what they mean. With no filter. Sometimes we don't have to comment everything when we know it could hurt someone. But we often filter our thought so much that we never express our opinion, we lie, conceal and we are not able to speak the truth.
We want to live in present, so we meditate and we read motivational posts to start embracing the sunlight, the taste of fresh fruit - because we forgot how to do it. Kids are happy about everyday little things - like when the butterfly flies around them, when they play with a pet, when they're mommmy hugs them, when they draw a picture, when they dance, sing.
They don't think about past or future. They take everything the way it is. They don't know stress, they're confident and spontaneous. They're present, right now and right here and they enjoy every single moment of their life.
Hello
ReplyDeletenot all the childs are so happy...and also they receive from their parents the signs negative when the father screaming to wife and not all the family are happy. More society has the problems which the children and finally has the contact...A child is happy when his mother is happy too, when she is comfortable in the family. Also when one from the parents goes to other state for working or unfortunately disappear the child is suffering too. Is not a recipe for a happiness children. Whatever the couple is responsible about the childhood's sons, their education and emotions. The society is responsible too in my opinion.
Yeah, sure I agree with you. But this post was basically just about the things which most of us were able to do as children and we're not able to do them anymore .. I'm not talking about happiness, I just think we used to be more natural :)
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