The Conscious Parent

and not really about our children, we don’t feel the need to project these
fears onto our offspring. Consequently, we encourage them to live in a
manner that’s oriented to their authentic being.
I want to emphasize that the most profound way in which we can teach
our children to access their inner abundance, empowerment, and purpose
is if we have accessed our own. When we have, our presence becomes
our most potent parenting tool.
Our children sense when we are either connected to or disconnected
from our stream of purposeful living. When we are connected to a
constant flow of fulfillment of our own, we radiate this energy, which
serves to ensure our children won’t be used to fill an inner void or in
some way complete us. Through osmosis, they then begin to inherit a
way of being that’s similar to our own. They soak in our presence and
imitate our ability to relate to ourselves and our life. In this way, simply
by embodying our essence in our daily interactions, we help our children
find their way back to a sense of fullness, which enables them to identify
the abundance in every situation.
As parents, we may feel guilty if we put our needs on a par with our
children’s. We may feel ashamed to ask for time and space for ourselves,
independent of our children. If they watch us constantly sidestep
ourselves, perhaps by sacrificing our own needs for those of our spouse
or friends, they will learn to devalue themselves in favor of others. If
they see we are hesitant to embrace life in whatever shape or form it
presents itself, they will imitate our indecision. For this reason, we do
our children a spiritual service when we develop our ability to fulfill
ourselves and take care of our emotions on our own.