In theory, we know that it's wise to take care of ourselves, to always be patient as an attempt to make ourselves happy with who we are. The thing is that, the external condition can be so not in harmony and it makes it hard for us to pull this off. For the sake of our commitment to life, we often look after someone else rather than keeping the stillness and be generous to what's inwards.
I want to try exercising my presence to become something else: Being alongside of my normal duties, I want to picture myself being responsible of a small child, a distinctly sensitive five year-old, who's just like my younger version of my present self.
I would imagine on an average day, I'm not going to be to the only one who shows up and handle matters. I will be accompanied with a five year-old who's sleepier, more delicate, sweeter, very shy, and vulnerable. She comes to my work presentation. There will be this five year-old sitting in front of me at a nearby coffee shop, and I have to take her to lunch and having a small-talk with. She will have to face difficult clients and passerby's, then. This small person will need to feed other smaller beings who happen to be feline that are picky with what they eat. And then she'll also have to manage the income to make ends meet every now and then.
Looking through the perspective of an adult, our pilot selves would find it hard to be sympathetic as these plots are not so attractive to hear. This is because we're so used to them; we understand of what we're expected to do and how to do them completely enough. For the five year-old, though, we start to sense fairer amount to threat and draining on a typical day if seeing from the lens of a kid. When we think about how a five year-old would have to confront strangers, or to sit still at a meeting, it is becoming more vivid and accurate how we are so accustomed with what we used to perceive as dangerous. We are getting prone to make light of genuine difficulties and forgetting the brave mask that we're even wearing as we grow.
Everything matters because challenges we don't acknowledge will lead to having a habit of undermining pains - until the pains force us to pay attention to them. Things that are insignificant can take a toll on us, even if we look away and put on a show of strength. Late nights aches, those migraines, depressions - they can't go away with bunch of manifestations. Most of us lead the lives to the points that they are simply too arduous to bear, but we dismiss to interpret the mourning and yearning for comfort.
Luckily, we are generally, natively, far better to go one-on-one with a kid. Faced with a real five year-old, we know mostly what to do - we understand that there are tensions and threats underlying a situation. We know how to look out hunger, tiredness in children, so then we're aware how energy-consuming it is to meet someone in a public setting and organize or perform something. Not to mention, the time is very limited in a span of a day. Should they have to face the same task as we do, we might feel so poor of them to go through that and how this tiny being should have to deal with everyday. My heart goes out to them! ):
In conclusion, we should import this tenderness to raise a concern about how we usually treat ourselves. To be compassionate: we too are a five year-old of some sort. For their clinginess, confusion, and lack of apprehension at times. We suffer all the time for not trying to understand it sooner and clearly, for believing that once we are older we are stronger by taking a lot more to ourselves.
Moving forward, I want to take a moment to ask myself on an average day, some deliberate and naive questions that are oddly sweet and caring-natured:
-how would a five year-old you cope with the morning we had?
-what do they expect for the lunchtime?
-where might they want to stroll around during sunny afternoon, or spend time on rainy evening?
-how are they feeling towards the night?
This way, we are not patronizing ourselves. We prevent further harm in the most adult way, yet in an approach that our younger selves would be delighted to embrace as well. We're acknowledging the debt we owe to the fragile and historic part of ourselves. We'll pursue a far calmer and kinder adulthood once we accept gracefully the fact that we're always close to remain a soft and sensitive person we once were.