The Best Way To Help Your Child Succeed In Life.

In recent years we have heard about the Finnish school systems unconventional approach to teaching by giving children more time to play and enjoy and less time to study. They also have very little homework, the lowest amongst children from all around the world. And yet their results compared to the rest of the world are among one of the highest. Why is that?

One thing that is important to understand is how the brain actually works. I’m sure many of you have heard of brainwave states. For those of you who don’t know what they are I will give you a brief explanation.

So your brain is made up of billions of brain cells called neurons, which use electricity to communicate with each other. The combination of millions of neurons sending signals at once produces a significant amount of electrical activity in the brain, which can be detected using sensitive medical equipment such as an electroencephalogram (EEG). This electrical activity of the brain is commonly known as a brainwave pattern and the different speeds at which it produces electrical activity is known as different brainwave states such as delta (deep sleep) theta (rem sleep) alpha (relaxed state) beta (the usual day to day stressed state) and gamma (the fastest brainwave state).

Beta brainwaves dominate our normal waking state of consciousness when attention is directed towards cognitive tasks and the outside world. Beta is a ‘fast’ activity, present when we are alert, attentive, engaged in problem solving, judgment, decision making, and engaged in focused mental activity. Now by lowering our brainwave state slightly from Beta to Alpha we can shift our brain’s learning ability because research has proven that Alpha brainwave state is the ideal state for super learning, focus and awareness. It is when the mind is relaxed and unstressed.

For children, this is an easy state of mind to achieve. When children play, they tend to forget about the world around them and focus on what they are doing whether building something, doing arts and crafts, playing music or whatever the case. This is a state of being in the present. And by being in the present moment they are able to calm their minds. A calm mindset offers an optimal learning environment but more so they learn to become more aware.

Many of us push our children to achieve and do more because we want them to be well-rounded and better equipped for the future because the world has become so much more competitive than before. They are also inundated with homework that is on top of all of their activities. And for some children it becomes too much to handle but they may not tell you for fear of displeasing you. Children need down time for their brains to rest and relax. They need to learn how to be present and aware of themselves and their feelings to know if they are content with where they are going or not. If they are constantly being pushed to do and succeed they may perform now, but you are not doing them any great favors into adulthood. They may become super successful but the question is will they be happy or will they even know what happiness feels like?

If you want your children to succeed in school and in life here are some simple things you can do with them to help them.

1. Carve out some downtime during their week where they have at least an hour to relax and listen to music, play, or do something that they enjoy aside from the tv or video games. This is also great to do before they begin their homework so their minds are rested to focus better.

2. Encourage your children to learn yoga, meditation, qi gong, tai chi or other mind relaxing exercises as part of their daily routine

3. Teach your children to breath. I will post a blog about breathing in the upcoming weeks so sign up on the website if you want to receive it.

4. Help your children to deal with their stress and anger moments by building their confidence. Also another upcoming blog series.

5. Spend time with your children connecting whenever you can because your children really look up to you. You are like their gurus and more than anything they want you to see them, appreciate them, love them, believe in them and spend time with them. There is nothing more precious than that.

Rather than spending time teaching your children how to do things, teach them how to be: Be in the moment, be confident, be happy, be thankful, be forgiving, be aware of who they are and what they want in life and be-lieve in themselves. I promise you, they will thank you for it.