Nature is full of balanced relationships between different living things that help each other. Of course, trees don’t make apples to benefit others, in the same way that animals don’t eat fruit for the trees’ benefit: they do it because helping others, helps them.

 

Nature is also full of more one-sided relationships, where one gains at the expense of the other… parasitic wasps and cuckoos manage to get fed and housed at the expense of their hosts: they can only survive when they take more than they give.

 

Similar can be true of people. For some, experience has taught them how good kindness and generosity feels. But others feel they have very little to give, and experience has taught them that the only way to survive is to take what you can.

 

Unlike parasitic wasps and cuckoos, humans are not destined to have one-sided relationships; we’re social creatures and things are normally better when we are able to work together. So, at Growing Me, we arm children and their grown-ups with the tools to build healthy relationships.

 

It can help to think of all of us being made of different parts. Each part is triggered by different experiences; certain songs might bring out silly or sad parts, certain situations might bring out anxious, not good enough parts or defensive and angry parts. These parts are not intrinsic, unchangeable parts of our personality; if we can help each other have positive experiences, we can trigger all the best parts of personalities to shine.