The Parent And The Child
May 31, 2020
There is a toddler who has just turned two years old and has recently started asserting itself. The baby is very excited about anything and everything it sees. When it sees its elder sibling of five years eating something, it wants a share. As the nap time approaches, the toddler becomes irritable and cranky. It starts howling for no reason. The Parent is observing all this and keeping a constant watch over all that the baby is doing. When toddler becomes a little too boisterous, its Mother or Father notices this and immediately distracts the baby or puts it to sleep.
The scene I describe here is an analogy I gave to one of my mentees this morning when we were discussing “Awareness.”
The toddler is like our thoughts and emotions.
Our thoughts and emotions are constantly shifting based on external stimuli. One moment my thoughts are calm and peaceful; another moment, they are in a frenzy and out of control, just like the toddler.
Our consciousness is like the Parent.
The Parent may not be able to control the toddler all the time, but she is certainly keeping an eye and observing everything that the child is doing. When the baby is becoming cranky, the Parent knows that it is time to intervene and put it to sleep. The Parent is in a state of “awareness.”
So must our conscious mind be.
Just like one would expect a good mother to keep an eye on what the baby is doing and be in control, our consciousness should be present and aware of what is happening inside our head in terms of our thoughts.
So think of your awareness to be like any Parent. Just like it is distasteful to imagine a Parent not being aware of what the baby is doing, it is equally unpleasant for anyone to express helplessness and unwillingness to develop awareness. Being in a state of “awareness” is a responsibility we need to take upon ourselves.
Developing the capacity for self-awareness of our thoughts and feelings is an essential first step towards personal transformation. Through awareness, we learn to control and manage our mindset, and we take the right actions that create our destiny.
