On Conscious Parenting and Raising Conscious Children



Most people reading my blog are doing a lot of inner work on themselves to change their templates and live a more conscious life. Many of us are parents, teachers, family members or mentors of children and know that those little humans very much can test the best of our intentions and thus be our biggest and most challenging teachers. At the same time, we are doing our best to find ways to teach our children to become conscious adults, respecting earth and all beings, and how to consciously deal with difficult emotions.

We look at our children today, the stress they are already experiencing yet there are little to no efforts done to teach them how to release the stress they are faced with. They are in school most of the day asked to sit still and coming home often spend time in front of the tv or the computer, not getting much exercise. I saw an image a while back of a school installing bike pedals under desks to keep kids moving during class. I think that may be an excellent way of dealing with kids who have ADD or ADHD keeping their feet and mind busy at the same time. It is challenging for parents working full time to play with their kids. However, even half an hour a day to set aside spending time can have a tremendous impact.

Mindful Parenting
A lot of parents do not even know how to handle their own stress, so how could they teach their kids how to be happy, healthy, relaxed and mindful.

So we want to be more mindful parents and practice what we have learned with our children. Here are some short tips and resources that have helped me.

• Be aware of your ancestral parenting programming. We all know we always said that we would never parent our child like our parents treated us. Look back and see what they did, did it work or not and how are you parenting differently today? Does it work? What does no longer serve you? Awareness is the first step to change.
• Be aware of your own body, mind and spirit needs. Are you tired? Are you hungry? Do you take a little time for yourself?
• Model for your kids how to handle difficult situations mindfully. Help them to communicate about what they are feeling and experiencing
• Check in within yourself, if possible, on a daily basis. "How am I feeling inside? What kind of physical sensations are there (tingling, pain, hunger, tightness)? What is the weather pattern inside?" Just observe without judgment and be with it. Bring your attention to your breath as you inhale and exhale, that helps you to re-center. Then expand your awareness around your whole body and just be present while breathing. This is a short exercise that can be done within a few minutes and anywhere.
• When the child triggers you, stop for a minute and breathe. If you are very upset, and feel out of control, take a parent time out to recollect yourself. Leave the situation and go to another room or place for a few minutes. Sometimes our children remind us when we are losing it, they pick up on our anxiety, tension, anger, stress and depression. Breathe while you are in time out and step out of your thought pattern about the situation for a minute to become an outside witness. Re-evaluate the situation seeing the bigger picture from the witness perspective and develop a new action plan.
• As best as you can, listen to what your child is saying and where he/she is coming from with the intention of taking their point of view into account, while setting safe boundaries for both you and your children.

 For further reading: Pilar M. Placone. Mindful Parent Happy Child

Raising Conscious Kids - Some activities

Raising conscious and empathetic kids is a big task. I would like to offer some suggestions of activities you can do with your kids to foster consciousness:

• Make a game around recycling and trash

• Consider volunteering with your kids somewhere. Some animal shelters have kids pet or feed cats.
• Have them pick out a toy for a toy drive for another child less fortunate and explain to them how they are bringing happiness to another child by doing this.
• Have them give a coin or a gift to a homeless person sitting on the street. This also may start a discussion about how some are less fortunate and about gratitude and compassion.
• Explore nature in detail, go on hikes, have picnics. Being mindful of the different patterns and feels of tree barks, the different sounds of nature, the creatures and their habitats.
• Use Yoga pretzel cards with your kids to do different yoga poses together. There are even partner poses.
• Get some crystals for your kids to sit with and hold. You can ask them if they can feel the energy or just have them explore the texture and color (younger kids), you can ask older kids to tune into the crystal.
• Use breathing buddies to help your kids breathe more deeply. Ask them to lie on their backs, having their favorite stuffed animal lying on their bellies. Ask them to move the animal by breathing into their belly, watching it rise and fall.
• Make a family game using yoga poses, for example catch, whoever gets caught freezes in a certain yoga pose. Or play Simon says including yoga poses.
• Use a hoberman's sphere to help kids understand the process of the deep balloon breath, as it expands and collapses. Great tool to have kids breath deeply and slowly. Good for calming them down.

There are some great books for conscious younger kids out there, wonderful to read and some full of magic.
Here are some of my favorites.

• Wayne Dyer, Kristina Tracy. No Excuses. How What you Say Can Get In Your Way. About a boy achieving his dream by setting intentions
• Wayne Dyer, Kristina Tracy. Unstoppable Me. 10 Ways To Soar Through Life. Affirmative words for kids.
• Wayne Dyer, Kristina Tracy. Incredible You. 10 Ways to Let Your Greatness Shine Through.
• Louise Hay, Kristina Tracy.  I Think, I Am. Teaching Kids the Power of Affirmations. 
• Michael Chissick, Sarah Peacock. Frog's Breathtaking Speech. How Children (and Frogs) Can Use the Breath to Deal with Anxiety, Anger and Tension. Great yogic breathing exercises explained through story.
• Lori Lite. Bubble Riding. A Relaxation Story. Little mermaid riding a bubble through all the colors of the rainbow, great guided chakra meditation wrapped into a story.
• Byron Katie and Hans Wilhelm. Tiger, Tiger, Is It True? Four questions to make your smile again. Tiger having a bad day until turtle asks him questions that change his attitude.

Please contact me if you are interested in some other books containing guided meditations and visualizations for kids.