When we watch children, whether they are playing or doing everyday things, it can really warm our hearts. For example the way children laugh so heartily and carefree, delight in the smallest things like a butterfly or how they discover new things with curiosity and wonder. It seems as if us adults are increasingly losing this light-heartedness in our stressful everyday (working) lives, when it would do us so much good to go through life with more lightness and joy of life. In this article, you can find out how we can achieve this and what we can learn from children.
Mindfulness & curiosity
Children are often very interested in new things and always discover something that fascinates them. However, we lose this positive curiosity over time because we know most things at some point. However, this also makes us less attentive. While children stop to admire flowers, animals or other people during a walk in the park, we often rush from A to B. We can take a good example from the kids here and should also try to consciously take breaks and notice the things around us without distraction in order to focus on the “little things”. Instead of constantly looking at our cell phones on the train, we can use these quiet minutes to simply observe what is happening around us like a child. But it’s also worth leaving the headphones at home from time to time on a walk and instead of distractions such as music, podcasts or a phone call on the side, just consciously listen, look and smell what’s happening around us. It’s also worth trying something new every now and then, whether it’s a new sport, activity or an unusual recipe – that’s how we revive our curiosity.
Living in the “here & now” for more joy and light-heartedness
When children are busy with something, they often seem completely absorbed and immersed in the moment without thinking or worrying too much. To achieve this, we should also try to mindfully carry out just one activity and not always try to multitask as many to-dos as possible at once. When meeting up with friends or family, we can also practice really being in the “here & now”, which means not constantly picking up our cell phone in between, but simply following the conversation with interest. This allows us to relax more because we are focused on the quality time with our loved ones and it is easier to laugh heartily and enjoy the time without a care in the world.
Unprejudiced & honest
We can also learn a lot from children when it comes to dealing with other people. When children meet people they don’t know, they behave in a completely unbiased way and approach people in the same way. They often show great interest and do not judge people by their appearance, origin or similar, whereas we tend to form a judgment about someone more quickly as soon as we see a person we don’t know or have heard or read something about them in advance. This can lead to interesting encounters or even friendships if we try to approach other people openly and without prejudice. Children are also very honest and say directly what they think. Of course, depending on the context, we should not simply express our opinions or thoughts to everyone without being asked and without reflection. Instead, we should try to be more honest about our opinions and stand up for ourselves and our needs. For example, if you say “yes” to everything and accept extra tasks from colleagues despite your own heavy workload, you will be totally overloaded yourself in the long run. This means that in some situations it is important to be able to honestly say that your own capacities are already exhausted. It is also perfectly okay to communicate openly and honestly if someone’s behavior or words were hurtful or inappropriate, as this is the only way we can be happy ourselves in the long term. And as we all know, “the tone makes the music” and perhaps the other person is also happy to receive honest and polite feedback.
As you can see, children are ahead of us in some things that we may have forgotten or acquired differently over time. So be brave and try out being a bit more of a child again.