Guest Writer for Wake Up World
Are we educated by our parents or by our children? Well, I am educated by my two year old son (sorry mom 😉 ). His name is Liam.
Here are the life lessons you (like me) can learn from a two year old child.
Unconditional love
My first child was born when I was still a trader in the trading pit (stock market), back when my primary concern was earning more money. When I held my baby for the first time I felt Love. I felt unconditional love for my baby, and for the first time in my life I felt an unconditional love that is so much more than just words can describe. I started sharing this unconditional love with my friends, neighbours, and people I just met. Now I get to relive this feeling with Liam, my youngest child who is now two years old. He reminds me that we are, and can share, unconditional love… always.
Let the emotions flow
Liam is pure love, light, and happiness. He is really a ray of light in the house and the neighbourhood. I learn from him every day to be more like a child and to express myself clearly.
A child of two years old shows his emotions without shame. When he is sad or hurt he cries, a minute later he’s laughing again. Why? Because he lets his feelings flow. He is not conditioned yet; he is a like a blank page.
By learning to let your emotions run their course, you will allow yourself to release any negative emotions inside without building up pent-up anger, allowing the free flow of unconditional love through you.
It is never as dramatic as it seems
Liam get’s a lot of attention because my other 3 children are like parents to him, too. Liam has five pairs of hands to tickle him – lucky little boy. All five of us are “yes parents”. We try to say “no” as little as possible and compliment him when he does something right, instead of telling him he shouldn’t do this or that.
But Liam has his dramatic moments too. Whenever we say no, like a few month ago when he smashed the screen of a laptop with a hockey ball, we say no, or NO! He becomes sad, he feels guilty, and has a fit. We leave him do his thing for a moment. Sometimes it is just better to leave someone with his or her emotions for a while. Within no time he forgets what is going on. We are not angry because he really didn’t mean to be a bad boy. And Liam embodies unconditional love again. Things are never as dramatic as they seem to be.
Joy heals everything
This goes both ways. If Liam is hurt and I can make him laugh, he is okay again almost instantly. On the other hand when I am hurt, which is mostly because my ego is getting in the way of my natural flow, and he looks at me with his naughty (and at the same time sweet) eyes, I am okay again. And if he shows me his laugh, I forget everything that was obstructing me, and I smile a loving smile back at him. His laugh heals every pent up emotion in me.
Enlighten your world by enjoying yourself
If you love what you do, you’re enlightening your surroundings. When Liam plays, often the adults around him are just staring at him, in complete bliss. I call this the “baby meditation”. If you are looking at someone who is genuinely enjoying what he or she is doing, there is a blissful ripple effect. I learn from this, and I repeat this is often to myself as possible, that if I just do that what I enjoy, I am enlightening my surroundings and, by extension, eventually the whole world.
Thank you for showing me the way, Liam!
Previous article by Tim:
Updated September 2014
About the author:
Tim is a Hay House author of Spiritual Awakening (the easy way), a 20-minute read, both a textual as well as a visual treat that is infinitely re-readable. Tim spent years trading stocks, futures and options in the financial markets, but bid goodbye to that world to write about the things that really matter to him… and his words are surprisingly different from what we might expect! His story is about how a forever traveller, a former financial trader, a husband and father of four, walks the spiritual path on a daily basis.
Tim lives in Amsterdam where he cultivated his light view on spirituality that he calls “Zen from Amsterdam”.
Connect with Tim at timvandervliet.com, or follow Tim on social media: Twitter – Facebook – Instagram
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