Understanding your Child and the Child within us
Today I am going to speak about children; each and every one of us has a special child within too. Let us understand this concept better in order to know ourselves better. The reason I have chosen this topic is that recently I have had a lot of young patients, innocent and adorable children with Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, some various phobias that children face now a days and which includes loss of self-confidence. I felt the subtle pain behind the innocent yet confused smiles they have and I think I should do something and so here I am ready to pen down what I think is best suited to help them.
Once upon a time, although it seems a vague memory down the lane to us now, we were all children. We cried, we laughed, we explored, we fell down, we stood up back again and we had very little idea about the journey on which we had just embarked.
Child psychiatry and counselling in schools were not as popular a few decades ago, but now parents are rushing to psychiatrists and counsellors seeking some help for the irrational behaviour of their children. This is why one needs to know and learn about Developmental Psychology. Developmental Psychology is now a well know scientific approach which aims to explain how children and adults change over time.
Self-esteem is a major key to success in life for all of us. The development of a positive or healthy self-esteem is extremely important to the happiness and success of children and teenagers and which eventually can lead to a stable minded, strong intellectual adult. Criticism and negative reaction makes a child weak and vulnerable, which is why they stop trusting parents at some point of time in life. Research studies have shown that young people with pre-existing relationship difficulties were found to be more likely to develop anxiety and depression, this being particularly the case when entering adulthood from their teens.
Children crave time with parents. It makes them feel special. There is a need to reach out to the parents to find time playing with their children on a regular basis. This should include one to one with each child and group time with all of the adults and children in the home. If you are a single parent or have an only child, occasionally invite family or friends over to play.
Varied forms of Media, Gadgets and some television programmes are slowly taking over the golden era of each child. Majority of the dramas shown on various channels focus around manipulations, jealousy, fear, insecurity, panic episodes which gradually became a part of our lives.
If we let the external influences affect us, it will surely affect our children as well, and there is no doubt about that. We need to remember that our children are not entirely different from us and when you are walking this journey they are also doing the same, perhaps both are on their unique pathways but still co-existing and trying to seek happiness while co-existing mutually. After all, the ultimate goal of each human being is to co-exist in harmony and a peaceful healthy state of mind and body.
If we practice this and if our child can see this harmony even in the real world, they can grow into a strong and stable minded adult, capable to take the decisions in life about what are the virtues and vices in the society as well as within each one of us. And then there is no looking back. We cannot preach until we practice……….!
Nobel Laureate Albert Schweitzer once jested that “happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.â€
Namaste and I will connect again soon with my next blog
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