The Conscious Parent

control, domination, sadness, anxiety, or even a positive emotion such as
happiness takes over and our sense of our “rightness” reigns supreme, we
are in ego. When we operate from this rigid place of “rightness,” we
bring to our reality an alreadyformulated assumption, ideal, or judgment.
If a situation or individual doesn’t conform to our will, we react to
control the situation or the individual, bringing them under our
domination.
Living in an egoic state, we fail to see others for who they are in their
true being, their essence. A classic example is that of Stuart, whose son
Samuel was an energetic, vibrant young man who was good at everything
he undertook. Samuel particularly excelled at acting, desiring more than
anything to go to drama school. Stuart opposed this. A first-generation
immigrant, all his life he had worked in unstable, low-paying blue collar
jobs, which caused him to want more than anything for his son to enjoy
the security of a steady job, not an acting career with its uncertainty and
instability.
When the time to apply to college arrived, Samuel wanted to select
schools with fine drama programs, whereas his father insisted he attend
business school. The two fought daily. Finally, Stuart threatened Samuel
that if he applied for acting school, he wouldn’t help with his tuition and
would cut him out of his life forever. When Samuel saw it meant so
much to his father, he caved in. Being the bright young man he was, he
was accepted at Columbia’s Business School and went on to have a
prosperous career.
Even though Samuel owns his decision to let go of his acting career, he
still resents his father for negating his passion. The lifestyle afforded by