I was talking to my neighbour about why my work focuses on positivity and human values. She made me realize it is important to explain more in detail why I do what I do.
If you follow my work, you know I’ve been drawing daily positive values and affirmations since 2012. As well as and sharing inspiring content, because I believe positivity can change the world.
It has worked for many of the adults that follow me. But I want to find creative ways to help children learn about complex concepts such as values.
I know families have their own values in life and parents always find ways to inspire their kids to learn them.
That is why I create daily drawings, to inspire parents to keep at it and empower their kids.
It is also why I wrote my first children’s book that inspires both parents and children to find their true values in life.
You see, the values we have are determined by our beliefs.
Sometimes when parents teach about values they transmit limiting beliefs to their children.
I want children to be able to question their beliefs and change them if they want to.
Why do I think it’s important to free children of limiting beliefs?
Well, I have been limited in life due to contradictions between my values and my beliefs.
So I think it’s important to start early and teach kids a better way to understand the relationship between these concepts.
Beliefs are opinions that we think are true. Without any evidence, that proves their truth. Usually, they are linked to our parent’s upbringing. They are assumptions we make about the world and our values stem from them.
Values are things we determine to be important. They can include things like “Self-improvement, happiness, respect, compassion, empathy, humility, love, mindfulness…”
What happens as we grow up is that if we do not feel empowered. We let our beliefs guide us even though we have evolved and changed since our childhood.
This is when the conflict comes in and we feel confused and insecure.
What the purpose of both my book and all my work is to make children question the beliefs they have. Allowing them to create their own values at any moment.
Values that match to their current beliefs and not those that are imposed by parents or society.
I think it’s essential to make children feel important and empowered. So everything I create has the purpose of evoking self-love and strength.
Instead of downloading our own self-limiting beliefs into our children. We should search for positive methods that let them figure it out their own. Methods that focus on making children feel confident enough to make mistakes and learn from them.
As parents we can be guides and mentors in their journey, letting them decide what is best for their lives.
If you would like to expand your knowledge on the topic, here is a great talk from Shelly Lefkoe about this exact concept: