Life skills, personality and childhood

As a student counsellor, I work with students of different ages, classes, and backgrounds. I have discovered some pivotal findings amongst young kids which I presume can reasonably affect the quality of their life in future. Children who are encouraged by their parents to engage into different body and mind activities develop external and internal set of living skills in early stages of life.

1)   

Movement or physical based activities - karate, swimming, basketball, and dancing etc.

2)    Intellectual activities - reading and writing clubs, sci-fi and STEM activities etc.

External skills are namely confidence, social skills (interaction & communication), presentation (self-carrying skills) whereas Internal skills include self-awareness, self-esteem, resilience, and self-image. Range of activities in children opens the door of adulthood life skills which is crucial in this complex world. Most of the individual today fail to develop either external or internal set of skills due to various constraints:

a)      Controlled parenting

b)    Limited avenues of joy

c)     Prolonged periods of inactivity or pressured activity which kids do not enjoy.

It is important for a child not only to keep going with pleasurable routine but also a breadth of options to help him or her to manifest self-preferences and priorities.

Here, I have mentioned various life skills. But I would only highlight self-awareness. As, I have observed numerous benefits of this personal trait.

The significance of self-knowledge can never be undermined in any way. Most of the people in their teenage or adulthood consult mental health consultants because they are not able to understand their own emotions while dealing with difficult people in life. Early onset of self-awareness offers more insightful orientation to a person about explicit and implicit emotions in relation to any event, people, and experience. It also restores one with introspective trait to deal with constellation of multifaceted emotion without external assistance.

The emotional mindfulness is significant and extremely effective in saving a person from further complicating the matter.

 

We are already conscious that this is a world of emotional intelligence. One who is emotionally mindful cannot only control his or her behavior but can also anticipate behavior of others around and therefore in a better position to influence it. On the other hand, most of the life troubles arise when one is not emotionally informed and hence, is prone to confusion, stress, and vulnerability. The childhood phase is the most important part of one’s life to build and nourish this capacity.

 

It should be emphasized in schools and early learning centers to reform educational curriculum and well-being framework to provide robust opportunities of love, care, and space of actions to a child.  It can prove to be a best way for children to thrive and grow with dynamic set of life skills which would ultimately help them to live a purposeful life where they can positively influence their community and contribute to a society at large.