A Letter to Kids-4

My dear kids,

Today, I think we should have a discussion on different “life skills”, those you should know and practice in your life. Human life passes through different stages like infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. During infancy and childhood you are cared and guided by your parents and care takers. Under their direct supervision you grow and enter into adolescents. Adolescence is that stage which includes individuals from 10 years of age to 19 years of age. During this stage of life you become a very interesting human being to yourself and others. This is a stage of transformation. At this stage you no more behave as a child, even if you behave as a child, others perceive it inappropriate. At this stage, you acquire new adult behaviours. When you behave as an adult, some might perceive it premature. It seems funny and strange as well to many of you. Adolescence is a phase of rapid physical growth and psychological maturation. In adolescence, you start abstract thinking and developing new ideas. You love and dare to experiment with a lot of good things and bad things as well. Sometimes you can’t recognize and distinguish between good and bad. Adolescence is a stage of creativity, adventures, risk taking. At this stage you may find your peers and friends more appropriate and correct than parents. You may even avoid and neglect to company and command of your parents. It is real and it happens to all of you, teenagers. Never forget my dear that adolescence period is a turning point in your life. This stage may make you more capable and potential, if you learn to live and pass through it successfully. Also, this phase may make you vulnerable to negative environment and spoil you.

            Then, a big query arises in your mind. How to deal with this stranger called adolescence! Only certain life skills will guide you in right direction. We can talk about 10 core life skills here proposed by World Health Organization for adolescents. They are Self Awareness, Empathy, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Decision Taking, Problem Solving, Effective Communication, Interpersonal Relationship, Coping with stress and Coping with emotions.

            To inculcate self awareness, ask yourself these questions: “who am I” “what am I for”. You are giving time to friends, books and games. Do give some time to yourself every day. Recognise your strength and weakness. Recognise the opportunities and likings that you are enjoying. Recognise the threats, pressures, dislikes you are facing.

            Empathy means “feeling about others”. How much you are thinking about persons, you come across every day? How do you feel about a poor boy who doesn’t have enough money to have a bicycle like you? What do you feel when you see the poor girl is limping with a leg paralysed from polio? This feeling should be positive and it should help us to accept others. 

            We experience a lot of things every day. How many of us do analyze it with some objectives? Take an example of this instance. I saw a school boy of standard five throwing a stone at a street dog. The dog vanished from there with a lot of pain and limping. The boy and his friends laughed a lot. But his mother took note of it and told him to be kind to animals. She asked him what would be if that dog bites on your leg. Is it expected from a disciplined student like you? Now the boy started about thinking of his mistakes.

            How many of us think creatively? Creative thinking leads us to explore new opportunities, to discover new places, to invent new machines and to bring about new philosophy. Many individuals like Abraham Lincoln, Einstein and Shakespeare have become great leaders, great scientists and great writers only through creative thinking skills.

            Knowledge brings wisdom into our mind. Experience in life with addition of wisdom helps us to take constructive and calculated decisions about our action and course of life. Many times your parents take decision about your study and career. These decisions might favour your choices and sometimes they do not. No one’s life is free from problems and crisis. If we become knowledgeable and wise, we can either contribute to parents or help ourselves in solving problems in our life. Read a lot from magazines, news papers and journals to acquire knowledge. Reading is not all about reading text books only.

            Unless we express ourselves, we can’t know about what others feel about us and our plans. You should talk and share about your opinions, needs, fears and desires before others. You should not hesitate to ask for others’ advice and help in a time of need. It also helps you to utilise others’ knowledge, wisdom and experience in solving your own issues and crisis. Effective communication helps you to establish interpersonal relationship with your parents, relatives, friends and members in your society.

            Emotion is expression of our mind towards happenings around us. Intense emotions like anger and sadness have negative effects on your health. You should be able to recognize your and others’ emotion. We should have ability to recognize the sources of stress in our life. You should not let stress ruin the quality of your life. You should control the stress in your life. You should learn to relax every day and follow healthy life styles.

            “Life skills are the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.” It is today’s “take home message” for all of us. Next time we’ll talk about healthy life styles.

Yours lovingly,

Uncle Prabir.

 1 January,2013