Swati Basotra
A seven yearZ old girl came to my institute and observed our activities of music and drawing happening all around. All kids like her were enjoying music, some enjoying colours on drawing sheets. I knew this girl had something to say. I just took a step forward to enquire and she told me beautiful lines which I did not expect from such a small girl. She said, “khuda ne kitni khoobsurat cheezen banayi hain hame khush rakhne ke liye (God made so many beautiful things to keep us happy)”. Suddenly I got into an analysis mode and realized that we have a lot of positive things in life to thank God. There is always a beauty and a beast which completes our life. Beauty is positive and good experience given by God to us and beast is the negative and bad experience which we tend to remember more frequently and intensely. The whole life we keep fighting the beast and neglect beauty and make our life difficult.
There is an old story about God giving talent/beauty to two men. One man got one and the other got five and then God went away. When God returned after some time, he asked the one with five talents as to what did he do with them. He replied that he put them to work and now he had ten talents. God replied, “well done because you have been sincere in utilizing what you had and hence I will grant you some more talents”. Then God went to the other man who had one talent and enquired similarly. This man replied, “God you gave me only one talent so I took the one talent and buried it”. So God took the one talent (buried) and gave it to the one who had ten. Since that time the cry babies of the world have been saying the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The message is clear, “take beauty of life and what you have and use it to increase which brings more happiness, health and reward in your life”.
The beast of assuming ourselves as lesser endowed is always around us and this beast compels us to forget beauty/potential/talent in us. How we handle this beast in our life is always a deciding factor of our success or failure in our life. The story of life repeatedly assures us if we conquer this beast and use what we have, we will be given more to use and if you don’t use it you are sure to lose it.
We need to pay attention towards our beast and push ourselves to make this beast into our best beauty by striking a fine balance between over estimating our beauties and under estimating our beast inside. This helps us to make the most of our time, energy, capabilities and potential in replacing every weak thought with a powerful one and play your life game in being true to yourself.
To work on our potential and image should be the first lesson a parent and teacher can give to a child. Start teaching kids self love to avoid depression, anxiety and frustration in later life. Nobody can make us feel inferior other than we ourselves. The first step to success is to work on self image, feel the beauty of ourselves and multiply it by using it more often. To know the potential of a person is the best thing a parent, teacher or an employer can do for a child, student or an employee. Right appreciation at the right time always plays a good role to have a good self image.
Symptoms like crying for attention or watching TV alone are some of the first signsof someone struggling with a poor self image. We can play a significant role by appreciating anybody and making such people more socially active. Second step is to make such kids to attempt to visualize how one’s life would be without whatever they have at this moment. This makes them value things and relationships and aspects of life that are often taken for granted. After you have found the good, be sure by doing the good by spreading the word around. Many times people see the good and keep it a secret. We should start recognition programmes for students who deserve praise and acknowledgement but generally go unnoticed even though they display positive and responsible behaviour/attitude. Don’t wait for big achievements to appreciate because the way you see them is the way you treat them and the way you treat them is the way they often become. Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am”.
(The author is a Counsellor & Life Coach Co-founder AMIGO)
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