Simple Steps to Simple Parenting- Too Good to BE True?

Simple Steps to Simple Parenting- Too Good to BE True?

Simple parenting? Not a reality right? After all parenting is the hardest job there is on this planet!
Are you making that so real for you that you can't experience more ease with parenting? I used to think that too and as I raised my 3 sons and then added in 2 step children, I became a master at making life as hard I could.
I was a master at:

• projecting my fears, doubts and beliefs onto my children.
• discounting the fact that my kids knew more than I did about many things.
• taking on guilt for the choices that they made.
• feeling alone and hopeless many nights.
• giving away my own power to others and situations.

Until...

I had taken all I could take, and I made the demand that things change. Then I began asking questions and bit by bit my life and my relationship with my kids began to take on a different way of being.

As I let go of the belief that being a parent was hard, more ease has become a reality. Who knew that using some simple pragmatic tools and techniques could have such a profound effect on my life?

These tools were the place where I started claiming my power to be more than what this reality dictated. Getting started at first seemed overwhelming as I wondered if I would ever get it right. And then I realized that I kept getting stuck on "getting it right." I needed to let go of thinking that there is a perfect way to parent and change my focus to moving forward and asking questions, and being open to different possibilities that I had never even imagined before. I worked at getting more comfortable with who I am and who I wanted to BE.

Through this process, I found that I created more ease in using the tools when I could be with others who were also looking to change their lives and were exploring the use of the tools to bring more ease and joy into their lives. We offered support and enCOURAGEment to keep going and celebrated the results we were receiving. 

The first tool I received and now use as my #1 go to for all thoughts, feelings and emotions is "Who does this belong to?" How much of what you think really initiated with you? Yeah, I get that it sure feels like it when it is in your head, and yet really?

What if you have the capacity to pick up other people's thoughts and feelings and then you just think that they are yours? How much energy do you spend trying to make sense of it all when it isn't even yours? Pretty draining huh? When we acknowledge what isn't ours we then have the choice to ask what is true for each of us without having to buy into other people's points of view.

Take a moment and consider how many points of view there are about what it means to be a good parent and how much do you try to fit into those view points? Trying to fit into something that isn't true for you, does not create ease, joy or even the being that you are here to BE. I sure gave it good go and in the process I lost me, trying to be someone I am not here to be.

The judgments I carried about what is right and wrong didn't belong to me. I have learned that these beliefs and judgments, that didn't originate with me, have been handed down over from generation to generation. They destroy my relationship with my kids and others. Just because that is the way what we have always believed, doesn't mean it works for us. What if NOW is the time to look at these things with another possibility that doesn't include judgment. It all begins with knowing that it doesn't belong to me and I can return it and move forward with a different choice.

Is there a place that you can begin to use "Who does this belong to?" Play with it and be willing to return it to sender. You will have more availability to you and more clarity about what is true for you.

I get that getting started with becoming empowered to BE all of you can, may bring up some doubt, confusion and maybe even some resistance about the changes that will take place when more of you shows up. How long has it been since you really felt you were you? Are you willing to use being a parent as a way of connecting to you?

If you are, I invite you to join other parents who are stepping with courage into parenting from a different place of being. Together we will journey into the unknown possibilities and celebrate the changes that contribute to empowering you, your kids and the planet. 

​And if you want to know more tools for being an empowered parent, feel free to contact me. 
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How much fun and ease can you have on the parent journey?