When you look in the mirror, whose voices do you hear?

 

When you look in the mirror, whose voices do you hear?

When we look at ourselves in the mirror, we hear different voices in our head. “you are not pretty”, “ You have a weird nose”, “Your eyes are too small or big”, “you need to lose weight”, “You are not intelligent enough”

Where are these voices coming from? Are these words you tell yourself or are these the words from the past that are always on “play” in your head?

As we are growing up, our subconscious mind records and stores the words and the emotions attached to those words about ourselves and we begin to believe those to be true about ourselves. We may have gone on to become adults but the inner child within us still feels the pain from hearing those harsh words and is still walking around wounded from those unhealed emotions. These emotions and beliefs about ourselves, when triggered, come up to the surface.

We can start to put on a mask of feeling good about ourselves but until and unless the wounds on the inner child are not acknowledged and healed, time and again, the wounds will surface up and stop us from moving forward in our lives, in the form of unhealthy relationships with ourselves and the people around us.

There are various healing modalities that can be used to work with the inner child to become more conscious about ourselves so that we can be more conscious about our parenting.

Are we teaching our children how to stress?

“Come on hurry up and have your breakfast!” , “ How long will it take for you to finish your milk?” , “You better eat fast or else you are going to miss your bus today!”

What happens when a child hears this? He rushes through the eating process with the fear that either he will miss the bus or his parent will get upset. So at an early age the child learns to gulp his meals, which means he is not chewing the food well which in turn is going to affect his digestion. This not only ensures that the child is not digesting his food well, but also the fact that the child learns to “fast forward” his life as opposed to “slowing down”. He begins to apply the “fast forward” method not only during his meals, but also life in general.

With parents who are stressed out themselves due to the pressure of time, work, family obligations etc. it is hard sometimes to slow down even if we want to , but is it impossible?

What are some of the ways we can help our children practice “slowing down” and being mindful not only in their eating but eventually in all areas of their life?

1. If we as parents could spend 15 minutes every night going over and doing some preparation with the following days breakfast, it will save time in the morning and we can be a little more relaxed ourselves
2. If we could ensure that the child has his school bag and his clothes for the next day laid out the night before, it will save us the screaming next morning
4. If we could teach our children to write down at the end of the day, just one thing that they are grateful for, they will learn to appreciate all things in life and thus make gratitude a way of living.
3. If we could wake up even 15 minutes early in the morning and practice meditating, even if just for 5 minutes…. we are starting our day so much more relaxed and that in turn will mean we can be more “present” in our lives
4. When the child is taught to be “mindful” about his eating, he will gradually learn to be “mindful” in life

In this fast paced world, it is important to help our children understand the value of “slowing down” in a way where they are not just breezing through life without even actually enjoying life. If we can role model for them the importance of mindfulness, gratitude, love, we can help make this planet a beautiful place with beautiful people!