6 life lessons behind popular sayings

1. When the head doesn’t think, the body suffers.

Meaning: “Faced with a doubt or difficult situation, we often act on impulse”, explains psychologist Andrea Lorena. Reflecting before going on the attack avoids the serious consequences of an attitude taken without thinking.

When to use – Children have a lot of energy and get excited during play. Calculating the risks before going up on the roof to fly a kite can avoid serious consequences. Use the proverb to alert your child after a fall or accident. If he’d thought better of it, he wouldn’t have been hurt.

2. Nothing like one day after another.

Meaning: In times of crisis, it is difficult to see good solutions. To act with a cool head, you need to know how to wait. “The consequences of our actions, good or bad, will come one day anyway”, says psychologist Camila Junqueira Muylaert.

When to use it – School fight cases can seem endless. But trying to reconcile the children right after the misunderstanding is practically impossible and ends up generating false rapprochements. For Camila, this saying is ideal for situations in which the child or adolescent feels wronged in the face of a situation.

3. Those who want everything have nothing.

Meaning: You can’t have everything in life. Choices have to be made. For Camila, it is essential to exercise self-control. “Our desires are endless. Therefore, we must limit them and value each of our small achievements, ”she warns.

When to use it – By showing the child that we should do one thing at a time, with dedication and calm. Learning to play flute, piano and guitar at the same time does not work. Making choices means giving up something. “To achieve something, you need patience, persistence, focus and willpower,” explains Camila.

4. Soft water on hard rock, it hits so hard that it breaks.

Meaning: Persisting in the face of a challenge or a difficulty can be the key to the success of any life project. “This saying helps young people not to give up on their dreams, despite the difficulties”, observes Camila.

When to use it – Especially during the entrance exam phase, it is common for teenagers to get irritated when faced with a physics or math problem. Testing new paths, clarifying doubts with the teacher and rereading a chapter of the book are attitudes that will help your child understand that nothing in life comes without effort and the right dose of insistence.

5. Those in a hurry eat raw.

Meaning: Anxiety and haste are increasingly part of young people’s daily lives, especially because of the speed of the internet. But in real life, everything has its time and it is necessary to take steps to reach any goal.

When to use it – A few months after meeting his girlfriend, your son wants to move out of the house to live with her. Show the importance of maturing the story before making this kind of decision. Even if it is not an official marriage, living together means investing money and, mainly, a huge change in the relationship.

6. A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.

Meaning: When planning new goals in life, we must also take care of those already conquered. We need to go after what we want and trust our feelings, but we can’t forget the good things we already have in our hands.

When to use it – “If you think your child is greedy and unhappy, use the proverb so that he understands the value of everything he has”, explains Camila. Warn him about the dangers of dubious and miraculous proposals. “Before venturing into something, it is necessary to assess the risks and guarantee the permanence of the achievements already made”, completes the psychologist.

Sources: Camila Junqueira Muylaert, clinical psychologist and doctoral student at the Faculty of Public Health at the University of São Paulo, and Andrea Lorena, clinical psychologist and Master at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of São Paulo.