Over the past several days I've had the privilege of sharing time with my daughter, grand daughter, niece and nephew. It's made me realize there is nothing in this world I feel more grateful for and more passionate about then children and their success.
Teaching children about empathy and emotional literacy and giving them the tools to succeed will help support early childhood development and to create mindful well adjusted youth, who can then transition into adulthood leading successfully fulfilling lives.
One of the exercises I was instructed to do in my training as a life coach was to create a collage and do a presentation about the first 20 years of my life. The purpose of the collage was to have students come to an understanding of the way we came to be, and the things that took place in our lives that affected our emotions, actions and thoughts and ultimately our behaviours for life to come. In that 20 minute presentation, I learned allot about myself and how the influence of my parents and other adults behaviour affected the choices I made, the way I felt about myself and how I came to be in this world 24 years later.
I recently began reading the Roots of Empathy, Changing the World Child by Child by Mary Gordon, in it she writes, "There is an unexpected magnificence in our children and an underestimated power in their ability to change our world for the better. It is in our children that we go beyond the frontiers of science and technology to explore the recess of the heart." I can't agree more, somewhere along the way we have forgotten how to appreciate the power of our children to affect social change. The power of parenting is to positively affect childrens success, to teach them to be empathic towards others to empower them, validate them and to lead by example.
Please don't misunderstand, I had very a loving warm home, and parents who taught me to be empathic towards others, to work hard and appreciate what was given to me, who demonstrated and taught good values. The tough part was they weren't always there for me on an emotional level, therefore as a child and as an adult I wasn't able to express my feelings, or understand them and overtime I began to lack a sense of self worth. I took everything I did upon myself to figure out, good or bad, it was me that I needed to rely on. I didn't feel I was good enough or when I needed help I was too afraid to ask out of fear of looking weak. As a child, young teen and women I didn't always have the positive nurturing and attention I was craving and as a result I began making poor choices trying to get it.
The challenge you see is to prevent our children from following our footsteps; the challenge is to find a way out of repeating the cycle of addiction, violence, poor literacy, low self esteem and poor parenting that is being passed on from one generation to the next. The way we treat and care for our children has a profound impact on our schools, our economy and our future. We can't afford to underestimate the power and the importance of the early years and the family in building the kind of world where children lead the way.
I love my family dearly and feel a responsibility to be the best possible mother, aunt and grandmother I can be by being empathic to my daughter, my nieces and nephews and grand daughter. It's my responsibility as it is yours to break the cycle and give our children every opportunity for greatness, the greatness they should have and so deserve.
Jayne
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