May 12, 2022.
I was sitting on the beach one day when a little girl came into my field of vision. I noticed how carefree she was, and it was clear she thought everything was working for her good. She was screaming “the water is chasing me,” and would giggle every time a wave approached the shore. She would run towards it and then run away when the wave returned. It was beautiful to watch. I often think about this because I have become more aware of how children are in touch with their joy and happiness more than adults. A child will go from crying to laughing in one second and I wonder whether we can learn something from that.
What can we learn from children?
Children are more in touch with who they are than adults because less conditioning has occurred to them. Unless taught, children don’t have the sense of self-criticism that adults do. They believe everything revolves around them and is working for their good. I have found that a person’s belief has a bigger influence on their human experience than reality so can we take the beliefs from children that would serve us well in general? Or could we learn how to summon our joy and happiness effortlessly without needing objects, people, or experiences? Can we also do away with the self-criticism that was planted in us by other people? You can agree with me that most of the criticism can be traced back to someone else saying something to you. Here is an example, a teacher says to you, “you have got to be stupid writing this,” and twenty years later you are an adult, and you say in your head, “why am I so stupid” after making a mistake. I often wonder what my idea of self was when I was younger and what beliefs I had for myself. I’m sure you might want to know as well.
Question of the day:
- How can we connect to the sense of self we had as children before all the conditioning?
Comment your thoughts and share with a friend who might benefit from reading this!