[I'm a conscious parent when I] believe that my child is here to teach me as much about myself and how I need to grow, as I am here to teach them.
A conscious parent is not one who seeks to fix her child or seek to produce or create the 'perfect' child. This is not about perfection. The conscious parent understands that is journey has been undertaken, this child has been called forth to 'raise the parent' itself. To show the parent where the parent has yet to grow. This is why we call our children into our lives.
Conscious parenting is a new paradign shift in the way we look at our roles as parents. It's turning the spot light away from fixing the child and managing the child, obsession with all things that have to do with the child and the child centric approach and really focusing on the evolution of the parent. It about fully understanding that unless the parent has raised themselves to a certain level of emotional integration and maturity, they will really not be able to do true service to the child's spirit.
If you want to enter into a state of pure connection with your child, you can achieve this by setting aside any sense of superiority.
The traditional paradigm of parenting has been very hierarchical, the parent knows best and very top down. Conscious parenting topples [this paradigm] on its head and creates this mutuality, this circularity where both parent and child serve each other and where in fact, perhaps, the child could be even more of a guru for the parent .... teaching the parent how the parent needs to grow, teaching the parent how to enter the present moment like only children know how to do.
When you parent, it's crucial you realize you aren't raising a "mini me," but a spirit throbbing with its own signature. For this reason, it's important to separate who you are from who each of your children is. Children aren't ours to possess or own in any way. When we know this in the depths of our soul, we tailor our raising of them to their needs, rather than molding them to fit our needs.
Life is to be experienced, not fought against, run from, or engaged halfheartedly. Though we may wish to make changes in the future, to be conscious is to be with an experience as it’s unfolding, rather than thinking about how we would like to change it. Taking charge of our life so that we alter the quality of our experiences in the future comes after an experience.
Life doesn't happen to us, but happens with us.
[I'm a conscious parent] when I stay away from fear-based control tactics - punishment, yelling and threats and I'm seeking more enlightened ways to create boundries with my child.
[I'm a conscious parent when I] believe that my child matters more than their relationship to academics or success.
I think the main benefit is that much of the traditional parenting that's being carried out today is so fear based and while the parent thinks they're in control they're really being ruled by fear. Everything is connected to fear.
I'm a conscious parent when I believe... a parent's presence in their child's life is of paramount value and provides the foundation for their sense of worth.
There is no universal template that can be applied to everybody. So everyone kind of enter the process in their own way, on their own time.
We can teach children about natural consequences and cause and effect of their relationships which is really a mirror of what happens in nature.
Children are way more articulate, way more connected to their rights, and they want to be fully participating, empowered members of society but we have to release and we have to let go. We have to allow children to enter their self-governance and their state of empowered presence.
The child is free to live out their own destiny.
The more you focus on connection the more free you are on one hand and the more free you can be because the child does feel authentically connected to their destiny.
Parents who engage in this kind of [conscious] parenting understand the power of being present being mindful to take the time to build connection understanding that this foundation is the bedrock of all later self-worth, self-esteem and self-actualization.
The principal task is to put spiritual foundations under both our child's life and our own. This triggers a shift in the elemental way in which we relate to our children, with the result that their behavior automatically falls in line as they become aware of, and true to, who they really are. Behavioral changes are an outgrowth of a shift in the relationship.
The Children's Justice Campaign reminds us of our sacred obligation as adults to raise ourselves into consciousness so that our children may thrive.
The pressure we put on ourselves to produce this perfect... operatic... version of ourselves really puts an inordinate amount of stress and tension on us.
Now when you transfer into the conscious parenting paradigm, you have to release those pressures and those fears... you actually think into the very ordinary but profound moment to moment connection to your children and you do away with those extraneous attachments to achievement or beauty or wealth or success. And while those things have their place, they don't overwhelm or override the life of the parent and child. Your life is actually suddenly liberated.
When we prioritize and focus... and that becomes the anchor... the relationship becomes the anchor... and it trumphs everything else... than it's at once freeing and anxiety relieving... because the connection itself feeds empowerment and self-worth and self-esteem so it takes away the anxiety of raising a child.
I think we're seeing that the way we've done parenting cannot be sustainable in this generation, for sure.
Freedom to really prioritize and really zone into what really matters which is the parent-child connection.