Have you ever looked at the way children play?
Their heart and soul is exposed in all the fun soaking pure joy! Truly an incredible sight to inhale. But when you look deeper, you’ll see most of their games are invented through imagination and boredom. Wanting to seek something new and different.
Children get bored easily, we all do. But instead of occupying their time with sports or other activities, I challenge my children to think of ways to make your own fun and games. Trust me even a box is fun to play with.
We encourage them to never be competitive but simply to explore our backyard and in the process they discover their interests, gifts and talents which are their innate gifts. We all have them hidden within us. They help us grow to understand who we are in the big wide world.
And I love listening to their endless stories, to understand what goes on in their little minds. And often they are endlessly talking about a game on the iPad or Minecraft, a cartoon on TV, or just a song which they like to sing to. They live in a world of their own imagination and joy.
For children and even for us, this time with ourselves opens a field of limitless possibilities. Anything and everything is possible. We as parents must help nurture our children not only with discovering their full potential. But also making use of these abilities as life skills.
Sometimes, we dance or sing together or do anything silly just for fun to break routine and the monotony of school and chores. Giving me a break from work. There are days when we sit and watch the clouds and daydream. The juice of inspiration, clearing pathway to find creative ways for problem solving.
The Gift of Creativity
We are all born with innate gifts and talents?
I believe this to be true in my life and I can prove it. The power of intention through journal writing is what I use to design the life of my dreams so I can make them come true.
Children have this creative ability inside them. They use it often to have fun. They naturally invent games to play using this natural ability. The more they use it, they gain confidence and self-worth.
Until they reach school age, it disappears slowly as they grow. We don’t realise this but our society often kills our creativity with routines and office work. Children and even adults like you and I, when compacted into a room where routine and constant repetitions are developed, lose the essence of our souls to the monotony of life.
Children learn to read, write and coordinate through repetitive movement. Discipline to focus learned through sports. These tasks are all part of learning, and I totally agree with them to academically grow. But they limit the imagination into structured lessons where they are only taught to listen and pay attention. The world is changing and so must we or become extinct.
And … as parents, our responsibility is to guide them and nurture their seeds of creativity, to discover their gifts and talents. Everyone has them!
Boredom is a great time waster! Taught early in school. But boredom is a path into a creative mind. And daydream is an explorers’ playground of adventure.
Children can muck around and it helps them cope or break the stress of routine and monotony. But are we destroying the natural state of our identity as we nurture our children to be the best and compete at all cost?
Let’s look at the word create. From my own understanding, it simply means someone who imagines or is moved by an internal drive to make an idea come alive through their actions.
So is it an energy? An internal drive, giving life to our imagination. What ignites these two together? JOY! Like a discovery. So, isn’t creativity an expression of our soul?
Ah … so creativity can connect to emotion then? An internal drive that pushes us towards action.
As humans, we crave connection and communication to experience life. And when you find that joy, you awaken your spirit of adventure. You become trailblazers, fascinated by the unknown mysteries of life and the treasures they contain.
So, unless you move your ideas into action, nothing happens. Unused ideas means a lack of confidence to take action. What if I told you that you can achieve anything you want in life but you will have to work really hard to make it happen.
Would you take that risk?
Or let fear take over you and do nothing? Let’s face it, having children is not easy. But in order of our world to continue and survive, we must take part in the creation of life
Parents, nurture this gift of creativity in your children by reminding them how to have fun especially when they are stressed with thoughts of fear about the future or even from the monotony of doing homework and school. Encourage them to do nothing so they get bored. It helps them innovate.
Young children are natural explorers and innovators. They are always creating games to entertain their boredom. But if you push them just to work harder to get a good grades, you muck up their lives. How will they ever learn anything?
You have the ability to empower the next generation to make use of their full potential. Teach them to make their lives extraordinary.
This post was first published on Huffpost.
