Well, we have finally got around to starting a new parents workbook. We have set ourselves the rather ambitious target of getting a first draft ready for the Conscious Parenting Workshop this Thursday!
Bill has been writing the introduction today and we thought we would share the first part on the blog......
"Conscious Parenting
This workbook invites you to take a new look at your child.
At a practical level the information provided will give you an insight into how your child experiences their world. The resulting understanding will provide you with a greater awareness of the issues your child faces and in many cases we present useful tools to help you create an environment most conducive to your child’s development.
At a more profound level the information provided could well change the way you experience your world. We believe that the current generation of youngsters are offering us an opportunity to move beyond our current framework of limiting structures and patterns into a world of possibility. To access that world of possibility we need to develop a greater connection with present time. If you fully embrace the message contained within this workbook you will come to realise that the most powerful effect you can have on your child is by becoming fully aware of your own experience of the world.
Ghandi said “ be the change you would like to see in the world.” If we want our children to demonstrate a state of emotional well-being we must be in that state ourselves.
This workbook does not attempt to tell you how to parent. In fact it is often our attempts to be “good” parents which gets in the way of our authentic human responses to our children. We would rather you first get in touch with your feelings and instincts and then trust them, blocking out those chattering residents in your head telling you how you are falling short or failing as parents.
We do not claim to be experts. Just parents. Parents who were told their children were failing. Parents whose children dragged them out of complacency into an exciting world of possibility. We believe that if you have are reading this workbook you are at the beginning of an exciting journey. A cliche perhaps, but there is something really exciting happening with our children and they are asking us to wake up and join in. They will create something new and exciting with or without us, they would just like us to join in!"
What is going on with our children?
Hypersensitivity
As the list of labels grow, so do the numbers of children on those lists. A collection of symptoms or behaviours which fall outside normal expectations are grouped together to form a diagnosis. Parents relieved to have their concerns recognised are soon disappointed as the choices presented to them seem limited and convey little real understanding of the child behind the label. Medication and a little extra support in the classroom seem to miss the point.
It is a gross simplification to ascribe the many differences our children present to one factor, but the children, and in many cases adults, we have helped have one common characteristic. They are all hypersensitive in one or more senses. The world they experience is too loud, too bright, too abrasive, in fact too everything!
Acute sensory sensitivity in itself is not necessarily a problem. In fact those sensitivities are more often than not our gifts. Hypersensitivity becomes a problem when it moves a child into stress through their sensory experience. Simply stated, many of the issues and challenges which we find confusing in our children are just expressions of fight/flight or survival behaviour induced by stress.
The behaviours are often confusing because the source of stress is seldom obvious and one of the aims of this workbook is to help you better understand how your child experiences their world. Once you understand their perceptions you will come to realise that their behaviours are not only perfectly logical but also pretty much how you would respond to the same experience. The fact is we have never encountered a knowingly naughty or stupid child, just individuals who are having a different experience to us.
One final point about hypersensitivity is that it extends beyond five senses. This is perhaps the most important thing to understand about this current generation of children. They are acutely aware of their energetic environment and will be very attuned to how their environment feels. Their environment includes the feelings of those around them, particularly those very close to them emotionally. These children quite literally feel their way through life and are more likely to be aware of our true emotional state than we are. Words are frequently secondary and confusing to these children as they feel rather than think their way through life."
