Maximizing benefits and self actualization

Sapandeep Singh

Do you remember many a time, you have had complaints like- we are unable to spend time with our children, our child is not getting the right inputs which is far from what’s there in the books and what not?

Nature has confined us in our HOUSES and if you have keen eye to observe, you may see the resilience of nature. This is the time to recreate our HOUSES into HAPPY HOMES. No matter if you are occupied with WORK FROM HOME, yet you have plenty of opportunities only if you can harness them well. There are a few suggestions which you may like to do:

1. Early rising: Delay in starting our days is something which we all loved during the very rare holidays we used to get. But now is the time to bring all back to discipline including you. Go to bed on time and rise early with your children. Take them to balcony or your lawn and do some yoga (STAY INSIDE your house/ flat.) Tell them to look around the sky clearer than before, appreciate the rising of Sun, the Mother Nature and feel the fresh breeze which normally was unavailable and never so fresh before. Spend an hour or so, develop the habits as drinking water in the morning. Share your childhood memories – give them some thoughts to ponder over and learn from.
2. Bring children into the habit of meditating for few minutes after they get ready in the morning. It is good if you all can find time together for this time to express gratitude for a new and wonderful day. Our children will slowly grow as individuals with lots of positivity and strong spiritual quotient. Remember that saying- people who pray together stay together. (Pray inside your house please.) Teach them that the supreme energy which governs the universe, the same power that moves the universe exists within ourselves.
3. Have a nice nutritious breakfast and start your office and e-learning for children. Now here again appoint worth mentioning. If the school does not have facility for e-learning, plan the work for your children. Give them motivation to revise previous class curriculums. Let them do some mental math exercises. Plan activities which are creative but safe. Like drawing, coloring, Handwriting improvement exercises. In case of e-learning from school, make sure they do it religiously as guided by the school.
4. Take out time to have lunch together and use your tact to let your children love the dishes they never liked before. Tell them about the needy and those in despair but being helped by Government, NGOs and organization for the meals these days. This is the time to teach them to fill as much plate as they could eat. To keep a small share for the birds, cows, dogs like stray animals so hungry out on the roads due to closure of restaurants and lockdown. Let them feel that happiness and nurture this as habit but without going out of the premises. They will learn to be responsible; they will learn to be caring and compassionate.
5. Evenings are the best time again to be together. When the sun sets and the dusk has just fallen let your children append some quiet moments in prayer and may be some music. We all have had certain hobbies which we lost in our quest for profession and our busy lives did not often spared us time for them. Go back, reflect on those good old things which were a reason for you to smile and feel joy within. Guide your children to develop good hobbies (indoor only) like, drawing, painting, listening to songs or singing themselves, reading or writing stories ; all those innumerable things which can be done indoor safely. Let your children experience the kind of self appreciation, happiness and contentment these activities bring along in the mind and soul of the doer.
6. Dinners should be dinners not suppers. Let your children learn and / or revise basic etiquettes at the table.
7. Make plans for the other day and retire for rest. Do not forget to appreciate good things your children undertake to do or accomplished. Positive reinforcement of good ideas go a long way in building good habits.
8. Do not forget to make them get into the habit of reflecting upon the day when they go to bed. Make them develop the habit of offering gratitude and thanksgiving for all that they did the whole day. Let them know that their Best Friends are they themselves, their parents and The Almighty or the Universe Energy whatever your family believes.

I came to you with a beautiful

hope to implore you to break the old routines and go ahead an extra mile NOT

outside your house but within you to build your house into a beautiful home

with lots of lots of physical, mental and spiritual health. Do not forget one

old saying that any good practice continued for over a fortnight is more likely

to develop into wonderful habit. Stay Happy, Stay Inside, Stay Alert and Stay

Beautiful from inside. The world needs a better version of what we were before

this lockdown.

Sapandeep Singh