Do not prepare the road for the children, rather prepare the children for the road. The unfortunate incident of a talented actor like Sushant Singh drove me to think where are we as a society?
Have we created a society that has fostered mental illness?
I was sipping my tea millions of thoughts running in my head thinking about his suicide. I had read the quote below somewhere
In today’s world, we have all moved from the joint family system and adopted the western way of living. We have more space and bigger houses, but no one to talk to and share our joys and sorrows. Each one is absorbed in their own daily chores and work that we rarely have time to pay attention to if someone is unwell or feeling depressed or a bit low. To add to it we are all glued to our gadgets and hence sensitivity to one’s surroundings and people around has diminished.
While every system has pros and cons, it also depends on the impact the environment and upbringing have shaped up the adult of today’s world. Do you agree? So, parents and teachers have a great role to play in the lives of children.
I think the most important things when we grew up we whether we liked it, enjoyed or not we were part of the good and bad happenings in our homes. So we were able to handle adversities reasonably well.
But in the present scenario, we as elders or parents should expose children to other areas of life other than just academic pursuit. They should be encouraged to visit grandparents, relatives, spend some quality time that’s available with them, attend functions, weddings, play physical sports, develop some interest in art or read books, do a bit of gardening and see how nature is so beautiful, lend a helping hand in household chores. Children learn the good and bad being part of the tribe and watching adults behave on a daily basis.
According to the famous psychologist Daniel Coleman, there are four types of intelligence: Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Emotional Quotient (EQ), Social Quotient (SQ) and Adversity Quotient (AQ)
While most of us are familiar with the first three, some of us may have not heard about AQ- which is Adversity Quotient. Let’s delve into that a little deeper.
He says “Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth.”
The third and fourth quotient is equally important to nurture in children in their growing years. It will help us build a society of tolerance and compassion.
EQ measures the ability to maintain peace with others; keep to time; be responsible; be honest; respect boundaries; be humble, genuine, and considerate.
The Adversity Quotient is the one that helps inculcate acceptance to adverse situations that’s not in our hands. For e.g. the pandemic situation we face now. Due to which some of us have to change our old ways into new ways of thinking and working. It helps deal with such situations with a bit of ease.
Even well-read professionals, famous personalities in various fields, successful people go through such bouts of Depression. Nurturing AQ determines who will sail through and who will give up in face of troubles, end up being depressed, and not speak about it to their families fearing societal reactions and commit suicide. Before we realize we would have a whole new generation who need mental health counselling, all because they haven’t seen and were unable and unprepared and didn’t know how to handle “Adversity”
Most parents and schools capitalize on improving IQ level while EQ, SQ, and AQ are downplayed.
Let’s join hands co-create a wonderful world and future that belongs to our children.
So schools, teachers, parents, counselors lets all focus on nurturing and nourishing the New Paradigm of helping children with EQ, SQ along with AQ. They will grow up to become multifaceted human beings able to do things independently, react less, make well-informed decisions in life, and therefore be successful individuals in their spheres of life.