Why kids are life’s greatest teachers!

Whenever we think of children, the word which comes to our mind is ‘mischief’ and ‘naughtiness’. But have you ever stopped and thought for a while, how much we can learn from these little kids around us? These little bundles of joy can actually give you an insight into your life. Every day just watching them perform those small actions can teach us lessons of life which are unparalleled and can’t be taken from any other source.

It has truly been a life changing journey for me since the moment my daughter was born. Fatherhood has been a truly transformative experience.

Thought it would be fun to share some of the personal growth lessons I have learned in my journey of last three years.

1.    Always keep smiling: When kids find themselves in a difficult situation they usually smile and work around the issue. There are some things in life we just can’t predict.  Even with a great deal of planning, it’s possible that life will throw at us knotty moments. We need to greet those moments with a sense of good humor and proactive fascination. You will always find that smile on a child’s face whatever the situation be. It’s said a child smiles 1700 times in a day, a young adult smiles 17 times and a matured adult hardly smiles. We should just be like a kid and face every moment of our life with a smile.

2.    Physical activity keeps you healthy: Kids are into some physical activity all the time, not because it’s healthy, but because it’s fun. They participate in sports, climb trees, run etc. It’s also said in the Puranas and I closely watched it in my six-month-old daughter that for the first six months a child is always found in any of the yogic postures and mudras. That’s also precisely the reason why in the first six months the mental growth of a child is maximum. Just watching them in the initial months can comfortably teach you all the postures of padma sadhana which is the best practice of a healthy living.

3.    Love without expectation: Any form of love that a child shows is the purest form of expression. When a child hugs you, kisses you, looks at you with love, it’s 100% natural and it’s done with complete genuineness and without any expectation. Thus a kid teaches us everyday life’s greatest lesson ‘LOVE’ and how to express it.

4.    Living the present moment: Kids live by their instincts openly and without hesitation. They are enthusiastic about life, eager to learn, and curious about everything. They are not worried about the past or anxious about the future. They live every moment with awareness, enthusiasm and complete consciousness. Watching them teaches you one of the biggest lessons of success, give 100% to the present moment.

5.    Dance for yourself: It’s about enjoying life’s simple pleasures. Put a kid in a puddle and watch him cheerfully splash around. Or just tickle a kid until he is beet red from laughter. All of these are simple pleasures that children love to partake in. I think the biggest sign of a life well lived is to be able to dance at anytime, anywhere as if no one’s watching. Children do it all the time.

I’m looking forward to many more years together of learning with my two teachers of life my angels Pia and Dia. I’ll also suggest each one of you to watch kids closely, learn from them for they are life’s greatest teachers.

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Kaushik is a Business Training and Development professional working with a well known MNC bank in India. His interests are reading, travelling, trekking, spirituality, photography, cultural and social activism. He has travelled extensively and seen all states of India and most of the Himalayas.