Dr. Shefali, author of The Conscious Parent, argues that parenting is a path to your own awakening. Most parental impulses come from your unresolved wounds. Conscious parenting means connection before correction, treating children as sovereign individuals, not objects to control.
I can tell every parent out there watching that most of what they want for their child in the child's best interest, sadly, comes from their own brokenness.
Right? Oprah had Shefali on her show seven times, and she's written three groundbreaking books, including the New York Times bestseller the Conscious Parent. She merges Western psychology and Eastern philosophy. She's worked with thousands of families. What is interesting about what she's going to share is that it's unconventional.
Our children are sovereign beings. They are spirits, if you will, or their own essence, their own unique individual energies that are in the shape of this body that come through us. And because, you know, we biologically conceive them, we think that now we own them. What is the holy grail of parenting, disciplining your kids? Think about it. What is discipline? Discipline? It's supreme unilateral control. Traditional parenting is about fixing the kid, producing the kid, creating this masterpiece. And really, it's a control based paradigm. And conscious parenting is always about connection before correction. Every parent seeks and yearns and longs for connection, but the traditional parenting paradigm tells us we're going to get connection. But they do it through correction. And correction can never get connection. Parenting is the most sacred act we can ever endeavor. To participate in this journey with our children has the potential to awaken us like no other journey, but we're not prepared for it. You have to learn some skills. And that's why I do the work I do to teach the skills to connect to your children.
I wanted to get this out to as many parents as possible, because when we can raise our children as souls who are having their own sovereign human experience, I think that is the greatest gift we can do for our kids.
