Suicide is presently the tenth leading cause of death worldwide. Suicides are generally higher among men than women. Suicide has become the most common among certain countries, and those aged between 15 and 30 are at the highest risk.
We are faced with a lot of issues involving depression [1], anxiety, and Suicide during our current times. In an ancient culture like India, Japan deals with mental problems that were not prominent before. Even to this day, the Japanese have several centennials living happily. What went wrong fundamentally in our generation?
We, as humans, have come far away from our natural ways of living. Now, we are a nuclear family with just one parent. Days of having grandparents, uncles, and aunts around are over. We’re not sure we should have to pride ourselves on living independently or be disappointed that we have let our own culture down because of selfishness.
Our own parents brainwashed us in an elite way of mirroring the west. No other country feeds their own kids with dreams of working for another country, in the name of luxury. Or to run behind professions and success, which creates an expectation beyond our imagination.
We have not yet explored the uniqueness of the Vedas and extraordinary insight it gives our ancestors knew the significance of spiritual values.
These morals, ethical values, and relationships in the name of drama, and karma have restored civilization for so many centuries. While worshipping the west, we are depriving our true heritage. We talked about NASA and going to Mars, but not about the stories that stood as a foundation for years before.
India has amazing spiritual knowledge, philosophers, saints, warriors, and idols that have inspired the world in the past. We now realize that there is a flaw in the equation to gain success.
[Also Read: Hidden Signs of Depression]
Kids need morals and values. Not Xboxes.
There are people who pride in having drivers to drive their kids to multiple activities and cooks to cook meals.
Little children at the age of 3, start their day at the crack of dawn, ride on buses far away from their home to study at a high profile school, and spending their time listening to syllabuses and teachers who are mastered in knowledge only from books; thus depriving themselves of parents, love, family, and friends.
Early on, we are being trained to be good slaves to developed countries by isolating emotions and rejecting cultural values and morals. Some kids don’t see their parents till the evening, then they eat and sleep, if they are lucky, with parents.
If their parents are absent, they have a cook and technology to entertain them. In contrast, parents are busy working long hours so that their kids can enjoy modern luxuries. Kids end up suffering silently with low self-esteem, not knowing who to talk to, and being loveless.
They are left with a big hole that is empty and unable to fill forever. We’ve heard of mothers who leave their tiny little ones for projects in different countries. That stage of deprivation from any parent in the early development stages leaves unrepairable scars in the kid’s life and upbringing.
Please make sure to have one parent spend quality time with their kids for a minimum of 6 hours a day. Let them see that they provide, help, and enjoy time with them instead of having a feeling of rejection, such as: “What’s the next class we can push our kids into so we can have some personal time?”
You are rejecting them at every moment. Our kids’ childhood is another chance for us to live our childhood all over again. We lose it by being attached to material pleasures and the seriousness of being an adult. Introduce spirituality into their lives early on, including reading stories with morals.
Kids under the age of 6 can gain tremendous confidence if they are well-guided with stories that empower them. Our culture has many young saints as examples; stories of bravery and courage provide emotional strength to growing minds.
[Also Read: COVID-19 Impact on Suicide]
Results of Careless Upbringing
Soon we see our teenagers making us feel like we are not wanted. This is due to the results of our actions. You were never there for them. We have cultivated excuses like, “we need to work to fulfill our needs, needs, etc. ” Which somehow justifies your lack of being a parent. We make it seem like we have no choice, just to cover up our greed.
Parents soon become obligations to kids. Kids now want to move out and have their own space. They get used to being alone, and when they need support, they look outward to their friends, friends who come from different backgrounds.
Current friends are not people that live next door or two blocks away like they used to; now, they connect virtually.
Peer pressure and other influences become bigger challenges in developing minds. Teenagers have social media and television that have programmed them into expecting things that are not reality. They live their lives in their minds, believing what they see on TV shows and movies.
Cyberbullying and talking to strangers on social media wouldn’t exist if parents took the time to involve themselves in their children’s lives. Their developing mind gets disconnected from real life. Kids these days feel left out, alone, depressed, and struggle internally so much that they decide to take their own lives.
If we went a few generations back, we had so many things around us that the world was never seen as boring. Supportive relationships overcame any hurdle. There was no greed and negligence in relationships. There was no business of giving and taking.
We enjoyed and celebrated life genuinely, cared for others, and the love and happiness that we shared brought contentment.
[Also Read: How to Cope with the Stress During Pandemic]
Parents, Learn your Role Well
We handle a lot of parents who want their children fixed. They are unaware of consciously being a parent, but they expect their kid to be a robot and do what is asked. They want to live their fancy lives without interference.
One mother’s way of showing love was: “Putting food on the table and in return, expecting her son to get 100 marks in mathematics.” She felt love when numbers matched her expectations. Our generation is the only generation that is willingly and knowingly killing the next generation.
Parents stress and expect a lot more from kids, which leaves them in stress without support. So many kids are torn inside out, in pleasing their parents
and the world around. To overcome this western influence of isolation and constant stress, please become a conscious parent. Get informed before you plan your pregnancy. In ancient cultures, the sages placed a lot of importance on pregnant women to be surrounded by positivity.
Today, pregnant women watch horror movies and sad news, feeding their unborn child with negativity about the world. Our scriptures already mentioned guidelines for a mother to be, which science has proved it a few years back. Babies listen to what mothers surround themselves with.
Re-learn the art of dedication to relationships. When babies are born, they trust their parents for everything. When parents neglect them, they are left rejected in life. Our children go through several friends and distractions that can be lethal to their development and their confidence.
Vaping with synthetic chemicals and excess nicotine is a more significant issue in the United States than ever. Kids don’t care for health as their parents were unable to be an excellent example for them. When there are academic issues, the kids are then sent to so-called “professionals.”
[Also Read: How Anxiety Affects Health and Longevity]
Professional Help is a Disaster
We love to mimic the west. It has become fancy to go to a psychiatrist or psychologist. We toss our kids to repeat their stories of deprivation and emotional challenges from one therapist to another. When kids come to us, as healers, we have to undo the damage therapists have done to them.
Rewind, repeat, and play solves no problems in their life. Instead, it scars them for life.
Doctors, on the other hand, are so-called “maintainers of society,” in several ways, are causing a lot more harm to our kids in pushing therapy and medications. We are brainwashed to reach out for help from psychologists and psychiatrists without trying other holistic choices.
Kids are put on such severe neurotoxins. Kids are conned into starting on a pill for a few weeks; then, they repeatedly experiment with them. This permits them to try other drugs easily. Never-ending pill rides ruin their brain development.
Kids are unable to function and cope with the pressure that they encounter in the fast-paced world. They are left with hallucinations, and the mind then thinks that they failed in life. Some kids explain to us that they take drugs to function normally.
Several synthetic pills induce high energy into kids, which makes them incapable of addressing the reality as it is; to cope with that, they need another form of drugs that makes them stable. Pills after pills, they are caught in a negative loop, without any existence. Then, they end up killing themselves.
[Also Read: Destress During Stressful Times]
Parents, Educate Yourself in Child Development
Read parenting books; there are such amazing authors. Spirituality teaches that we have a mind and a body. If we don’t control the mind, it controls us. We need to learn that the external world has been the same, will exist to be the same forever.
How we perceive it gives us control over our minds. Sensitivity towards how the world is killing thousands of kids, they are not able to fit in.
Please daily dedicate 5-6 hours in your kid’s life, every day till they are ready to do activities on their own. In their teenage years, make sure to ask them questions about their day. Instead of watching television, spend time with them.
Assure them that they are successful and include compliments and praises. Allow them to bloom with freedom and discipline. Become a conscious parent. Take an interest in their friends and whom they interact with. Discuss what is right and wrong, appropriate, and inappropriate.
Kids expect parents to guide them, not their school counselors. Teach them the techniques of yoga, mediation, breathing; explain to them the pros and cons of the world, your experiences, your mistakes. They look up to YOU!
If all teenagers just spent some time learning the Bhagavad Gita ( book of living life), they would never have any depression and suicidal thoughts. For that, as parents, you have to learn it first. The next generation is in our hands.
About The Author:
Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher ERYT-500 and ERYT-200 Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher RPYT Reiki Master Karuna Reiki Master SSR Integrated Energy Therapy (IET) Specialty Studies: Ayurveda Obstetrics, Dermatology, and Gynecology.
