The benefits of sports activities for children have been proven for a long time! But it turns out that the habit of leading a healthy lifestyle and being in good physical shape is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, they get much more! About this "Oh!" said Doctor of Psychology and leading Russian expert in the field of development of emotional intelligence of children, author of books on the development of emotional intelligence Victoria Shimanskaya.
When you properly engage in the harmonious physical development of a child, you solve four important tasks at once. And this is truly the most invaluable investment for many years to come. Let's take a closer look at all the bonuses of healthy sports.
Strengthening your health
First of all, this is health, a healthy base for life! Up to the age of seven, you can take part in building a solid foundation for your child’s full and active future.
Developing the emotional sphere
By creating harmonious physical development, we lay the foundation for the development of the child, which determines his entire future destiny. And this is not only the physical component, it is also, and in general, the interaction of emotions, movement and speech. How it works? Research from the Institute of Physiology, the experience of teachers and parents prove again and again that with equal development of the emotional sphere, physical activity and speech, we create the necessary basis for the harmonious development of a child for the rest of his life.
Emotions, as something abstract but quite tangible, are just as important as the real sensations of our body. This inextricable connection is manifested in our mental reactions, movements and, as a result, in speech. When we talk about emotions and, in general, about the development of a child’s emotional sphere, the key task that faces every parent and teacher is to teach him to recognize his emotions, to realize and believe that it is normal to experience emotions. Any emotions, even negative, sad, depressive - they all make us alive. Of course, emotions can interfere with us, and then it is difficult to accept them, but this step, this acceptance is simply necessary. Only by accepting can we learn to manage them. Do not suppress emotions, but manage them, make them a resource and your assistants.
And the path to this lies through accepting your body and the ability to manage it. By teaching a child to trust his body, we help him learn to trust himself and be in touch with himself. This is the only way he can find true source insecurities, resentments, or anger and begin to work with them.
Managing emotions is about managing your reactions, decisions and motives. This is one of the most important links on which success and personal happiness are built. And not separately from each other, but simultaneously. By teaching a child to control himself at the level of feelings, movements and speech, we give him much more than just a good education: we give him the ability to live in harmony with himself, and therefore the ability to be happy.
Learning to work in a team
It is with awareness of your body and your emotions, with understanding yourself that understanding others begins. Physical development and team games are an important step in the development of communication skills. Working as a team at the level of yard activities and sports sections teaches mutual understanding with other group members, helps to build effective communications and achieve common goals. All of these games will become an invaluable skill that will help you achieve success in any team.
Getting the resource
And finally, harmonious physical development is the basis for your child’s intellectual growth. By working with coordination, developing the activity of both hemispheres, we teach children perseverance. We develop learning ability and the ability to work with information, which subsequently provides an incredible resource for studying school subjects.
How to combine sports, emotions and fantasy?
To make sport not just useful, but fun and emotional, you can add a little fantasy and imagination to every movement. By turning sport into a game, into a kind of story, we can keep the child’s attention not only at the level of the body, but also at the level of thoughts and feelings. Any movement will be easier to remember and performed with greater pleasure and zeal.
For example, you can simply jump on the spot, or you can jump while mastering counting! During such exercises, try counting the number of repetitions with your children, and it will be even more interesting to pronounce the names of the body parts involved in the exercises: arms, legs, right and left sides.
With each exercise you can plunge into a world of fantasy. When explaining movement to children, offer them various tasks to develop their imagination: “Here we jumped on a pebble, and now we need to cross a wide river. Here we jump and jump from pebble to pebble. A fish jumped out to the right! We are already in the middle of the river... There are 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 pebbles ahead! HOORAY! They fell onto the shore into the soft green grass! We watch the clouds and breathe. There’s a feather on our tummy—rising… falling… rising… falling.”
By playing with benefit, we not only create high motivation and the need for cognitive activity, but also develop sensory systems and speech.
To consolidate the acquired skills and improve them, multiple repetitions and mandatory recitation of instructions for each movement are necessary. At the same time, filling the same movements with new meanings and connecting the child’s imagination, we will get all the conditions for creating love and affection for a useful, developing sport - a sport that can create a strong reserve of health and strength for many years to come.
Movements, emotions and speech are the three most important pillars on which the harmonious development of a child is built. Only by realizing this connection and implementing it in every exercise, in every active game, can we pass on to the child all the keys for a successful, healthy and happy future!
…One day I found myself in line to see a local doctor. It was September, the heating had not yet been turned on, and the young doctor with a long braid - apparently a new graduate of a medical school - apparently was completely tired of freezing in her office.
Looking out into the corridor and appreciating the long tail of the queue, she decisively commanded: “Let’s go in two by two!” People looked at each other in bewilderment...
In fact, two at a time came in. While one was embarrassedly undressing behind a screen, the second was even more embarrassedly muttering something in a low voice to the young creature in a white coat about his ailments.
Every now and then the couples turned out to be mixed: a man and a woman. The doctor, however, did not seem to notice this. “One behind the screen, the other on the chair!” - without looking at those who entered, she commanded, and the patients understood: they, so alive and different, meant no more to her than this screen and this chair...
...What is happening to our medicine? This issue has long occupied not only patients and doctors, but also the entire Russian society. What happens to domestic medicine if the concepts of humanity and compassion for the sick that were once so inherent in it are nothing more than an anachronism for many of today’s followers of Hippocrates? What happens to Russian medicine if what, in essence, constituted moral basis This profession contains Christian commandments, without which healing the soul and body is probably simply impossible...
This was discussed a lot in September 2011 in Tver at the International Forum “Ethics and Charity of the Medical Community”, within the framework of which the Third All-Russian Congress Orthodox doctors. The forum was held with the blessing His Holiness Patriarch Moscow and All Rus' Kirill and was aimed at uniting the efforts of doctors and clergy for the main goal that worries many today - improving medical care in the country.
One of its participants was a Yakut woman, therapist Lyudmila NIKITINA, who devoted her entire life to medicine. She once completed her graduate studies with Professor T.I. Krylova for childhood tuberculosis, then worked for 17 years in the Kobyai region, and for the last 15 years she headed the Gazprom health center.
“Sisterhood is a great thing...”
– Lyudmila Sergeevna, what was discussed at the forum?
“It was a grandiose event in the life of Russian medicine. The forum began with a prayer service in Voskresensky cathedral Tver, after which the tone of the discussion and the work of all numerous sections was set by the Patriarch’s welcoming speech: “The Church has unwavering respect for those who, driven by mercy, compassion and love for their neighbors, help others maintain and restore bodily strength. “Honor the doctor according to the need for him, for the Lord created him and healing comes from the Most High,” teaches us Holy Bible. But we are called to take care not only of the physical well-being of the body - we must clearly understand that healing the soul is just as important as healing the flesh..."
There were six sections: “Issues of ethics, morality and deontology in modern society”, “Family, motherhood and childhood”, “Bioethical problems in pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology”, “The role of the Orthodox doctor in solving medical and social problems”, “Main directions, forms and methods of sisterhood” and “The ministry of the sisters of mercy”. In fact, these were six platforms where the points of contact between medicine and the Church were determined - where they could cooperate for the benefit of the patient...
- For example?
– The brightest are the Orthodox sisterhoods. The business is relatively new for Russia, although they are already working in 47 regions of the country. In St. Petersburg, for example, it has been for 10 years, and it is led by Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Candidate of Theology, Archpriest Sergei Filimonov.
– Who is part of these associations, what do they do?
– Sisters of mercy, unlike graduates of medical schools, are, first of all, people of the Church who, in addition to a purely medical mission (they are also taught this to the required extent), also perform a catechetical mission: they prepare people for baptism, confession, communion, unction, just talk about God... Therefore, a confessor always participates in the preparation of sisters, and such groups are most often organized at churches.
Sisters working in hospitals care for the most seriously ill, the elderly, and people with mental disorders. Here help is needed not so much for helpless bodies as for souls. Ideally, sisterhood is a fusion of spiritual and professional medical care for the sick.
– How great it would be if something similar appeared in Yakutia...
– As far as I know, Bishop Roman has such plans. Orthodox sisterhoods are doing a great job. At the congress we were shown films about their activities in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, etc. I was especially touched by the speech of the Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, Director of the Orthodox Sisterhood of Novosibirsk, M.P. Korotkova. They work in four areas: in hospitals (care for seriously ill people), patronage service (care for the disabled and elderly), “Hot kitchens on wheels,” and charitable pharmacies.
“In the name of God and everything for the people!”
– Lyudmila Sergeevna, you are a doctor with extensive experience. Please explain how an Orthodox doctor differs from an ordinary one? After all, among unbelieving doctors there are also real devotees of their work, ready to do anything for the sake of the patient...
– I think the difference is that the Lord is at the center of an Orthodox doctor’s life, including professional life, and everything in it is built on the commandments of God. That’s why his work begins with prayer, during which he asks the Lord for help: before an operation, before a complex procedure, etc. He knows that he is healing with the help of Christ. And that in front of him is not just a random person, but a unique creation, created in the image of God, in need of love, for which the Lord will ask the doctor. The Savior’s commandment to love one’s neighbor is the second most important. By observing it, an Orthodox doctor will never offend a patient.
– They say that it is impossible to find more materialistic people than doctors. Surgeons hold the human heart in the palm of their hand... How can someone who is used to believing everything by logic combine faith in higher power and pure materialism?
– This is successful when the doctor understands that the Lord created man, and therefore himself. When he becomes convinced in practice that not everything is in the power of science, but everything is in the power of God.
I think that there are no non-believers at all. A person always believes in something. Another thing is, what and how? So, if the center of a doctor’s life is God and His commandments, then that’s one thing. And if it is a professional ego, then the essence of aspirations becomes something else.
– Lyudmila Sergeevna, how did you come to faith?
“I was raised by my grandparents. Grandfather, Nikolai Nikolaevich Stafievsky, an educated, intelligent man, graduated from the 1st Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg, where the Law of God was taught, back in tsarist times. And I was always surprised when he said: “If they hit you on one cheek, turn the other.” I was a Komsomol member and thought: if you hit me, then you have to fight back!
My grandfather’s fate was difficult: first he fought under the command of Kolchak, then under the command of Tukhachevsky. Both, as you know, were shot, however, each for their own reasons... Grandfather ended up in Yakutia, worked in the regions, was deputy director for the economic part of the Pedagogical Institute, during the war he headed the Yakut orphanage, and in 1947 became deputy chairman of the Presidium of the Yakut scientific research base of the USSR Academy of Sciences. But still, he was always labeled as a “white officer.”
My grandfather married a local woman with three sons, one of whom became my father, and then he and my grandmother took in two more Yakut orphans. He was a man who was supported by sincere faith during many trials. The family didn’t talk much about her, but all his actions were based on faith. Grandfather raised us by his example.
I remember once in a store, instead of half a kilo of candies, they mistakenly weighed me one and a half kilos. Joyful, she ran home: “Grandfather, what happiness!” And he says: “Did you think that the seller might be in trouble? Go and give it back!” At that time there was nothing on the shelves - people stood in line for half a day for punch candies... For me this was a lesson for life. My grandmother could beat me, and I wouldn’t cry, but if my grandfather said: “Darling, I’m ashamed of you!”, it became very bitter...
It is difficult to explain how I came to God myself. Probably, the faith laid down by my grandfather matured gradually. And at some point (I was 50 years old at the time) I just realized: I need to be baptized.
– Has faith helped you in your work?
– I have always loved patients and my work. And even now, having retired, I don’t leave it. Or rather, work itself finds me: now in the monastery, now in the church, now with sick grandmothers-parishioners... I feel that this is mine, that we are all family here, and I consider it my duty to help everyone who turned to me...
“Then I’ll ask this: what is the difference between a simply good but unbelieving doctor and a believer who should see the image of God in every patient?”
– And an unbelieving doctor can be a very good specialist and person. It’s just that a Christian has a completely different level of responsibility - he lives before God. That is why he goes when the patient calls both in the evening and at night. He knows that he is not doing this for himself or even for the patient - for God’s sake! And it heals not only the body, but also the soul. Of course, when the patient is ready to hear him...
At the congress I learned about a wonderful woman, Princess Bakunina. During the Crimean War of 1855-1856, she organized mercy courses, trained people herself and went to war with them. There she met the great surgeon Pirogov, with whom she became great friends.
25 years ago Russian Orthodox Church One of the oldest Moscow hospitals, Fifth City Hospital, was transferred. Today it bears the name of the hospital of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow. The chief physician and director of the institution, A.Yu., spoke in an interview with Interfax-Religion about how the largest church clinic in Russia works, why it is needed, and who receives help in the church hospital. Zarov.
― Alexey Yuryevich, exactly 25 years ago a decision was made to organize the first church clinic in post-Soviet Russia on the basis of the Fifth City Hospital. How correct was the decision to transfer such a serious medical institution to the Church, and what are the features of a church hospital?
- The Church in Russia for many centuries has cared not only about the spiritual, but also about the physical health of a person. Almost immediately with the adoption of Christianity, the first church social institutions appeared in Rus'. Monasteries and parishes fed the hungry and poor; almshouses and hospitals were built at the monasteries. This activity continued for centuries. IN Soviet years this no longer happened: the Church was simply prohibited from engaging in charity.
Today our hospital is not only a multidisciplinary modern medical institution, but also, thanks to the opening of the palliative department, the heir to the traditions of mercy of the Medvednikov merchants - the founders of the future hospital of St. Alexis. It was they who, at the end of the 19th century, decided to build a hospital for incurable patients and an almshouse with 60 beds.
Probably one of our main features is the combination of highly professional medical and spiritual assistance. After all, it is impossible to heal the body without healing the soul. In our church hospital we treat both body and soul.
-Who is being treated by you? Only Orthodox?
- When the hospital was created, it was intended “for people of the Christian faith,” as the creators of the hospital, the merchants Medvednikovs and Rakhmanovs, bequeathed. IN Soviet time The hospital, naturally, lost this focus. Now, after its transfer to the Church, of course, the majority of patients are Orthodox people. But we also accept everyone, regardless of religion. We also have a lot of atheists, and many of them receive holy Baptism right here - about 60 people a year are baptized. Recently there was such an amazing case in the palliative department. Grandfather entered, although he was baptized in childhood, he lived his entire life as an atheist. His whole family came to faith, his son-in-law even became a priest. But he doesn’t. Everyone prayed for him very much, his two granddaughters were constantly with him. This grandfather had only a few days to live. And finally, he agreed to confess and take communion, unexpectedly for everyone and firmly: just as firmly as he stood all his life on his atheistic ideals. Having confessed and received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, on the same day grandfather peacefully departed to the Lord.
- What has changed in the hospital over the past last years?
- In 2005, the hospital was transferred under the management of the then Archpriest Arkady Shatov (now Bishop of Orekhovo-Zuevsky Panteleimon). Thanks to him, a special rise and revival began church life in the hospital. Bishop Panteleimon, being the confessor of the St. Demetrius School of Sisters of Charity and Sisterhood, was able to attract all this potential to the hospital, and the patronage service was revived.
An important point The life of the hospital began to receive funding, due to which it was possible to carry out a serious reconstruction and modernization of the hospital, restoring competitiveness in relation to other medical institutions in Moscow.
All these events and changes confirmed to us that the decision to transfer the hospital to the Church was correct. One more amazing proof What happened is that we managed to organize the palliative department, which opened in 2016, in the same building and on the same place where there was an almshouse more than 100 years ago, and we got the same number of beds as was laid down by the creators of the hospital, the merchants Medvednikovs - 60 .
- How is the hospital financed?
- The clinic has several sources of funding. Throughout the 25 years since the transfer of the hospital to the Church, support for the founder of the hospital, the Moscow Patriarchate, has not ceased. We receive a significant part of our funding through the compulsory health insurance system. Palliative care is partially funded from the federal budget. But for the multidisciplinary modern medical complex that the hospital has become over the years, this is not enough. For full functioning and development, the hospital needs charitable funds, since it is a non-profit organization and provides all medical services free of charge to patients. We develop charity programs and events to support the hospital. For example, to support the palliative department, we have a “named beds” program, an analogue of the pre-revolutionary programs for funding one or more beds by philanthropists. A certain benefactor pays for one or more beds, and any patient with a severe incurable diagnosis who ends up in this named bed automatically becomes a ward.
- A hospital is not only patients, but also employees. Who works in it?
- We have about 500 employees. We invite experienced professional doctors and nurses, constantly train and improve their skills. Currently, 9 doctors and 19 candidates of medical sciences, 9 professors and 7 associate professors work at the St. Alexy Central Clinical Hospital. 113 doctors and nurses have the highest and first qualification categories.
Certainly, Special attention We focus on the caring and attentive attitude of nurses towards patients. We have our own patronage service.
In March of this year, a delegation from the World Health Organization came to us and noted the high qualifications of not only doctors, but also nurses. Colleagues from the Ministry of Health and WHO especially noted the work of the palliative department, which, despite the fact that it has existed for less than a year, is already at a very high level and is not inferior to the palliative departments of the largest Russian and foreign clinics that have been operating for several years.
25 years ago, one of the oldest Moscow hospitals, the Fifth City Hospital, was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. Today it bears the name of the hospital of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow. The chief physician and director of the institution, Alexei Zarov, spoke in an interview with Interfax-Religion about how the largest church clinic in Russia works, why it is needed, and who receives help in the church hospital.
For many centuries, the Church in Russia has cared not only about the spiritual, but also about the physical health of people. Almost immediately with the adoption of Christianity, the first church social institutions appeared in Rus'. Monasteries and parishes fed the hungry and poor; almshouses and hospitals were built at the monasteries. This activity continued for centuries. In the Soviet years, this no longer happened: the Church was simply forbidden to engage in charity.
Today our hospital is not only a multidisciplinary modern medical institution, but also, thanks to the opening of the palliative department, the heir to the traditions of mercy of the Medvednikov merchants - the founders of the future hospital of St. Alexis. It was they who, at the end of the 19th century, decided to build a hospital for incurable patients and an almshouse with 60 beds.
Probably one of our main features is the combination of highly professional medical and spiritual assistance. After all, it is impossible to heal the body without healing the soul. In our church hospital we treat both body and soul.
-Who is being treated by you? Only Orthodox?
When the hospital was created, it was intended “for people of the Christian faith,” as the creators of the hospital, the merchants Medvednikovs and Rakhmanovs, bequeathed. During Soviet times, the hospital naturally lost this focus. Now, after its transfer to the Church, of course, the bulk of the patients are Orthodox people. But we also accept everyone, regardless of religion. We also have a lot of atheists, and many of them receive holy baptism right here - about 60 people a year are baptized. Recently there was such an amazing case in the palliative department. Grandfather entered, although he was baptized in childhood, he lived his entire life as an atheist. His whole family came to faith, his son-in-law even became a priest. But he doesn’t. Everyone prayed for him very much, his two granddaughters were constantly with him. This grandfather had only a few days to live. And finally, he agreed to confess and take communion, unexpectedly for everyone and firmly: just as firmly as he stood all his life on his atheistic ideals. Having confessed and received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, on the same day grandfather peacefully departed to the Lord.
- What has changed in the hospital in recent years?
In 2005, the hospital was transferred to the management of the then Archpriest Arkady Shatov (now Bishop of Orekhovo-Zuevsky Panteleimon). Thanks to him, a special upsurge and revival of church life in the hospital began. Bishop Panteleimon, being the confessor of the St. Demetrius School of Sisters of Charity and Sisterhood, was able to attract all this potential to the hospital, and the patronage service was revived.
An important moment in the life of the hospital was the receipt of funding, due to which it was possible to carry out a major reconstruction and modernization of the hospital and restore competitiveness in relation to other medical institutions in Moscow.
All these events and changes confirmed to us that the decision to transfer the hospital to the Church was correct. Another amazing proof was that we managed to organize the palliative department, which opened in 2016, in the same building and on the same place where there was an almshouse more than 100 years ago, and we got the same number of beds as was intended by the creators of the hospital merchants Medvednikov - 60.
- How is the hospital financed?
The clinic has several sources of funding. Throughout the 25 years since the transfer of the hospital to the Church, support for the founder of the hospital, the Moscow Patriarchate, has not ceased. We receive a significant part of our funding through the compulsory health insurance system. Palliative care is partially funded from the federal budget. But for the multidisciplinary modern medical complex that the hospital has become over the years, this is not enough. For full functioning and development, the hospital needs charitable funds, since it is a non-profit organization and provides all medical services free of charge to patients. We develop charity programs and events to support the hospital. For example, to support the palliative department, we have a “named beds” program, an analogue of the pre-revolutionary programs for funding one or more beds by philanthropists. A certain benefactor pays for one or more beds, and any patient with a severe incurable diagnosis who ends up in this named bed automatically becomes a ward.
- A hospital is not only about patients, but also about employees. Who works in it?
We have about 500 employees. We invite experienced professional doctors and nurses, constantly train and improve their skills. Currently, the St. Alexis Central Clinical Hospital employs 9 doctors and 19 candidates of medical sciences, 9 professors and 7 associate professors. 113 doctors and nurses have the highest and first qualification categories.
Of course, we pay special attention to the caring and attentive attitude of nurses towards patients. We have our own patronage service.
In March of this year, a delegation from the World Health Organization came to us and noted the high qualifications of not only doctors, but also nurses. Colleagues from the Ministry of Health and WHO especially noted the work of the palliative department, which, despite the fact that it has existed for less than a year, is already at a very high level and is not inferior to the palliative departments of the largest Russian and foreign clinics that have been operating for several years.
Did you know that you can make a special soap from ordinary soap that not only cleanses the body, but also the soul. Every home should have this energy soap.
"Cleanliness is general concept, some people wash themselves several times a day, but this will not make them spiritually cleaner. You can help him with this, there is a soap that cleanses not only a person’s body, but also his energy.”
How to handle soap.
To prepare special soap, you need to take the most ordinary white soap without dyes or fragrances. Any other soap will not work for us. You also need to take a church candle, a thick darning needle, scissors and a piece of red rope or braid.
The ritual is carried out on the waxing moon, it is advisable that no one else is at home and no one bothers you. Remove the wrapper from the soap, thread the braid or rope through the needle, but do not tie a knot. Light a candle, heat the needle over the candle and say:
The fire is bright, the fire is pure, this is how I and my whole family will become.
Then stick a hot needle into the middle of the bar of soap, pass the braid (rope) through. Tie the braid (rope) into three knots, first removing the needle, and cut off the excess ends.
All family members should wash themselves with this soap no more than once a week and at least once a month. You need to make sure that you never run out of this soap. If you see that there is already some soap left, make a new energy soap.
What does soap go with?
Soap should be stored in the bathroom, close to running water, just make sure that the soap does not get wet. Use any ceramic or wooden saucer as a soap stand.
What does soap not go with?
Soap has a very bad effect synthetic materials, you don’t need to store it in a plastic soap dish, cover it with plastic, etc. It’s not good when the bathroom is dirty, the pipes are covered with rust, the paint is peeling. All this attracts bad energy. If the owners do not fight this, then the soap will begin to spend its energy charge on neutralizing this disorder and will lose its power.
What can you replace soap with?
If suddenly you are left without soap, and at the same time you feel that you urgently need to wash yourself of the blackness (you cannot get rid of black thoughts, envy, you just feel bad at heart), dissolve a handful of Thursday salt in a three-liter jar of water, strip naked, stand up into the bath and pour water and salt on your crown and say:
I pour water on it, wash off the black from myself so that everything comes off and my soul becomes light.
To prevent dark thoughts from swirling around in your head, they dissolved in water, washed away with water, and were absorbed in Thursday salt. Then place a crystal of Thursday salt on your tongue and suck it.
