Teach Your Children To Feel Inspiration Instead Of Envy
Envy is a harmful emotion that hurts us and alienates us from others. Children may begin to experience this feeling early in life by observing the realities of others. However, as parents, we have the ability to guide them and help them transform that unproductive jealousy into inspiration.
First of all, we have to understand that it is normal to feel envy on certain occasions. However, the frequency and intensity of this emotion depend on the personality of each one, as well as the way in which we decide to manage it. Therefore, in this article we explain how to teach your little ones to process and take advantage of these circumstances.
Turn envy into inspiration
Envy is harmful and painful. It generates hatred and resentment within us, and clouds relationships with others. To avoid the great unhappiness that envy brings, we must teach the little ones to look from another perspective. Specifically, we have to instill in them the habit of focusing on themselves and not on others. But what does this mean?
Avoid comparisons
Many times, we are the adults themselves who foster envy in children without realizing it. Acts like being overly demanding of them or tending to compare them to their siblings, cousins, or friends can make them insecure and perfectionistic infants.
To avoid this, try to remind your child that the only person to compare himself to is himself. That he should not surpass other children, but he must surpass himself every day, advance and seek his best version.
You don’t need to be better than your friend in math, you just need to push yourself to beat your own past grades. Similarly, if you want to improve a skill, the starting point should not be your teammates; it is your own performance that you must exceed every day.
Show him gratitude
Envy arises when we feel victims of life, when we perceive it as unfair and ourselves as lacking and lacking in what we want. The best remedy against this feeling is gratitude. Instill in your child the habit of recognizing all the good that surrounds him and feeling grateful for it. Teach him to value his home, his family, his friends, his toys, his own qualities …
As long as you keep your focus on everything positive in your life, you will feel truly lucky and there will be no room in your mind to envy others or feel that something is missing.
Boosts their self-esteem
A strong self-esteem will allow your child to be sure of how valuable he is and of the many qualities and virtues that he possesses. Self-assurance will keep you from comparing yourself to others, feeling inferior, or seeking outside approval. A child with strong self-esteem will not feel threatened by the successes of his peers, as he will be sure of his own worth.
From envy to inspiration
There will always be someone more handsome, smarter, more creative or more likeable than yourself. And this is inevitable. However, we are not obligated to feel guilty or faulty about it. We do not have to criticize the other or wish their failure. This attitude will only harm your little one.
Instead, invite him to always rejoice in the accomplishments of others. It is very important that you realize that someone else’s success takes nothing away from him. If you buy your friend a toy, he loses nothing. Getting an A from your partner does not lower your grade. The accomplished goals of others and their happiness do not affect our own possibilities, so why be angry?
On the contrary, encourage your child to feel happy for the other person when they achieve something important. And, if he wants to do it too, teach him to take the other as inspiration. If he wants to get an A too, he can ask his partner what study techniques he uses and try them out as well.
If your brother gets an award for good behavior, you can follow his example, be inspired by him to achieve the same results. We can all be successful and we all have something to learn and something to teach others. Envy has no place.
