If you can't do it at 4 years old, when can you do it?
My mother was a nightmare quite honestly, when it came to our sofa. She took cushion fluffing and sofa puffing to a whole new pedantic level. My brother and I consequently avoided the sofa like the plague and were deprived of the fun it could bring, as our mother ranted on, while constantly re-arranging the items on the sofa, to a specific patterned set up.
So I swore to myself, that if ever I have children, they could jump on the sofa as much as they wanted and whenever they wanted :0).
The games I witnessed in the past couple of years were nothing short of amazing, from jumping monkeys and creating ships to piling cushions high to make pyramids. I subsequently reliably conclude that sofas can become a great source of imagination, when children are left to play to their own devices without any parental pressure.
I recently experienced a dejavu moment on a play date at an “Ultra Glam” apartment and as soon as the front door opened, I spotted a rather special sofa. This was no ordinary sofa; it was huge, extremely scrunchy and deliciously velvety. In other words, perfect for jumping on from the eyes of a child! You guessed it, the first thing the mother of the house said was “don't Jump on the sofa”. It’s truly the worst thing she could have said for me and of course the kids flew towards the sofa at ground breaking speed and started to dismantle the show piece of the residence.
This torturous dejavu moment actually disclosed a greater truth, which is commonly known as the “Law of Attraction”. In other words, whatever you focus your children on, they will be attracted to it, especially if you tell them not to do it, as this increases the interest factor.
In essence, the best way to describe the law of attraction in motion is “where the attention goes, the energy flows”. The critical element to understand here is, that our children’s subconscious and unconditioned mind does not necessarily distinguish between do and don’t, because the laws of the universe state that life just is. Our perception of do, don’t and context of where something is appropriate or not, is learned, conditioned or even mind controlled over time. Our children instinctively follow the laws of the universe, however as they develop we train them towards being accepted within the so called values of society, rightly or wrongly.
The same is true for the thoughts in our minds. For example, if we focus on the problem, criticize the problem, complain about the problem, discuss the problem and share the problem, we become part of the problem! Our thoughts and energy flow should therefore only be focussed on the solution to attract a solution to come about.
So, if you would rather keep your children away from a precious china plate, the very last thing you should say is “don’t touch the china plate”. This statement actually focuses your child’s energy flow directly on the china plate, sofa or whatever the point of attention is. Instead, focus your kids on something you do want them to play with and make it interesting or tempting, without forcing to avoid getting caught up in the “Law of Inversion” (we will keep that for another day).
Whatever your age, give it a go, it's really fun :0) and you just might feel the energy of a child again!
Sharon Holmes
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