Children are Timeless

The biggest lesson I learned from children is to allow the time to stand still. Children are living in the present, in the here and now. Children at play are the purest expression of the true human nature, which is joy, bliss, and flow.

“To play is the real work of childhood”, would say the most quoted philosophers of education, such as Pluto, Montessori, Rogers, Freinet, and so on. “To play is the highest form of research”, said Einstein. When children (and grown-ups) play, they reach that same state of pure joy, bliss, and flow, that we seek into the practice of yoga, meditation, and deep relaxation. To play is a form of meditation itself, and a fun one! It releases all the body hormones that create a lasting state of happiness.

Children couldn’t care less about the pressure of time, schedules, circumstances, and outer-world demands. This is why these circumstances are creating so much anxiety for many of them. This is why the pressure of the modern world demands and control are pushing children to do what we call “misbehaving”. This is why so many children and teens are struggling to thrive in the school system. Such scheduled, controlling, and demanding spaces are simply and truly against their nature. This is why alternative schooling, homeschooling, and unschooling movements are growing in popularity, finally getting in phase with the research about human development.

Misbehavior, according to conscious and positive parenting science, is a form of communication. Children are trying to communicate that something is wrong, that there is a fundamental need requiring you attention, that their natural, divine state of joy, bliss, and flow, was taken away from them. When they cry, scream, yell, or misbehave, they are only saying: "my power has been taken away, and I need it back."

In conscious parenting, when such situations arise, we drop the race after the clock, get on the child's level, take perspective on what they are trying to communicate. We become a feelings' detective, teaching emotional literacy and modeling emotionally intelligent responses, in order to address the unmet need behind the big feelings, and messy behavior. Conscious parenting isn’t a simple list of words, actions, and skills to repeat... it is a whole philosophy to embody through the practice of mindfulness, self-awareness, self-management, self-care, and so on. And it's so worth it!

Through play and everyday life, children carry us in this timeless space where growth happens. They teach us, with so much wisdom and simplicity, to reconnect with our authentic, timeless divine origin.

*This article was shared on Medium in December 2017. https://medium.com/@leelou.poppins/children-are-timeless-2a7133a49645