Are we teaching our children to live a busy life or a full life?
- Written by Monica Amores
- Published on May 21, 2023
Our society pushes us to be in a hurry at all times, without allowing us to live every experience at a natural pace, or worst, without giving ourselves the permission to just doing nothing. It is so deeply normalised that even though we feel depleted by having our over-scheduled lives, most people feel guilty when they take a break to pause down and enjoy a time with no “duties” or “responsibilities” involved (I know, I have been there too!).
And we are sadly contaminating our children with this fast living. The new generations are growing in a rushed daily routine, in which they are being pushed to learn too much, too soon–an example of this is a subject that really crisps my nerves: the unreliable kindergarten entrance exams, where parents push their babies and toddlers to be “successful” at vocabulary, numbers, letters and grammar, well before their minds are ready to appreciate and integrate this knowledge, just because they want their children to get a place at a certain school.
We adults are the ones who are hurrying them, putting so much pressure on them, teaching them that life is a competition place and what matters is to get to the next place, sometimes without caring too much about the how they got to that next place.
A busy approach is superficial, where both children and parents are living from their minds and not engaging deeply with whatever they are doing. And no one can enjoy life in that way! Yes, there are “successful” people who learn to cope with the busyness, but their physical and mental health gets affected in the process.
Is this really what makes us happy? Or we are just living in speed motion because “that’s the way it is” and we think we cannot do anything to change it?
But, hey! As difficult as it might be, we can train ourselves to slow down, to reduce the speed, to pause, to breathe, to allow some space for just ‘being’, instead of ‘doing’. I have seen the amazing results of living slow myself, in my health. I was anxious, over-worried, having sleeping problems, and always tired! Of course, my daughter was picking up on those energies, and that was not good for her.
Then, I started to enjoy my me-time! I put aside at least 15 minutes a day for me to consciously being with myself and my thoughts, my emotions, my feelings, my wants, my needs… no more living on auto-pilot mode! From that moment, if I am going to have a walk, then I look around me and try to spot any nature wonder. If I want to read, then I focus those 15 minutes to read maybe two pages of my current favourite book. I can dance to any song that inspires me at the moment. Or just have a nice warm cup of herbal tea!
Yes! You get my point, right?
