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I wanted to share the idea of how the Suzuki philosophy can be applied to not only our musical education, but our lifestyle choices. The more I teach and read and study and re-read, the more I see how Suzuki's ideas are everywhere. They not only influence my work and how I teach, but also how I live my life.
Every decision I make, every challenge I work through, I find solutions through the simplicity of Suzuki's philosophy. To summarize:
"Start small, make it daily and remember that our potential is limitless"
This is what the Suzuki method develops and what we are giving children when they come to lesson and group classes and commit to daily practice. However, the concept of daily practice is just the start of what the Suzuki method can do to develop healthy lifestyle habits.
Consider the other areas of your life where it is the EVERYDAY that makes a difference. Starting with the obvious:
Eating, sleeping, brushing teeth, personal hygiene, etc.
These are necessary habits that we tell ourselves we can't survive without.
But what about other healthy lifestyle choices we want for ourselves and our family:
Exercise, healthy eating, financial health, quality time spent with friends and family, play, hobbies, music, etc.
These are the things we know we should do and even want to do, but we don't always prioritize for various reasons.
One of the greatest strengths we can possess as human beings is being able to do good things for ourselves even when we don't feel like it. This is where greatness is born. This is where joy and fulfillment are formed.
The fact that we or our kids don't want to practice is completely normal. It is human nature.
The things that are good for us usually feel bad in the beginning but good in the end, and the things that are bad for us feel good in the beginning but bad in the end.
When we push ourselves to get started, face the uncomfortable and take it one step at a time, we almost never regret taking that small step. But we do regret never taking it at all.
My daughter does kindergarten online and will frequently get frustrated and resist when asked to get supplies to do a craft or assignment or to move onto something new. It's not that she doesn't want to participate because after missing out a few times, she would be even more upset. It's that the thought of starting something or pivoting to a new activity was so overwhelming, she just didn't know where to start. I have found that when she feels overwhelmed like this, all I have to do is help her take that first step to get started. Once she gets started, she becomes unstoppable.
It is far too easy to get lost in the whole of everything that needs to be accomplished. We forget we can't go anywhere if we don't take that first small step in the direction we are trying to go.
How can we help ourselves and our children get started by focusing on the first small step they can take?
I think having the awareness and the perspective that we all feel overwhelmed is so important and that breaking things down into small steps is a skill to be learned. We can all learn it, but we need to be open to it and believe in our limitless potential.
With Spring at our doorstep, let's embrace this time and decide what small changes we might make in our individual and family lifestyles to provide the best environment for children to learn, explore, develop healthy habits, make mistakes and grow into the kind of adults Suzuki envisioned:
"The greatest duty and joy given to us adults is the privilege of developing our children's potentialities and of educating desirable human beings with beautiful harmonious minds and high sensitivity. I believe sensitivity and love toward music and art are very important things to all people whether they are politicians, scientists, businessmen or labourers. They are the things that make our lives rich" - Shinichi Suzuki (Starr, William. To Learn With Love. Pg. 106)
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