I am amazed every day how much children absorb and learn from the environment they are in. There is nothing they miss, every event, every emotion, every thought, every TV program or a cartoon, every person has an impact on our children and their development. Yes, children pick up and learn a lot from us and from the environment but they also have their own information and experience as spiritual beings. I had an opportunity to play with a 4 year old recently who shared a profound wisdom and understanding. She said “I am going to be 5 years old and then 6, 7, 8, my mom’s age, my grandma’s age and then I am going to die to be a spirit and then I will be a baby again”
As adults, we ask the questions such as “who am I?” “Where am I heading?” “What’s my truth?” Answers to these questions require from us to go within, to explore our inner landscape, to get to know ourselves. As we teach our children about the wonders of outer world, we also can gently invite them to look within their inner world and learn how to find their own answers. The most important question is how we help children to go within and to know themselves.
Children start learning about the world around through play, interaction, exploration and they notice everything about their environment. They participate, they fight for a toy, they hug each other, they play in the water, in the dirt or sand and they also experience the world through touch, smell, and taste as young children. As they grow, they start asking very important questions such as “where did I come from?”, “who am I?” and “where am I going?” I was talking to a mom who wanted me to meet her child because he was asking questions about spirituality and where came from. Children just like us, want to know themselves and their truth. We help them to go within, explore their inner world by creating a safe environment full of permission to explore, to play, to imagine and to experiment, to express. We also need to find the capacity within to accept our children just the way they are, to accept them for who they are and not try to change anything. The purpose of being a mindful parent is to show your child how to define himself authentically within the world we live in, to help create a relationship with the outside world as well as to know his place within the world. Parenting is not to impose prefabricated definition of the world but to allow your child to create his own definition of the world around him.
To help our children to explore their inner world, we can start posing the right questions and give them space to find their answers. Questions such as "Why do you think this girl is crying?" "Where in your body do you feel discomfort?","What does you body tell you right now?", "What do you think about this event?","Can you be in 2 places the same time?","What would you like to do in this situation?"," Would you like to help?" etc
Through asking questions, we can invite them to pay attention to what's happening to their bodies, invite them to pay attention to their feelings, emotions, we can invite them to reflect and find their own answers.