Conscious Parenting Weekend ~ Personal Insights

It has been just over a week since my last Conscious Parenting Workshop. It was a very interesting one for me.

This was the first workshop I had where I was a stranger to the participants (save for one).

This was the first workshop I had where there was a man participating. (That was a huge awakening for me personally).

This was the first workshop where I advertised and where there was so much interest generated. (I have a list of people interested in my next one)

This was also a very unique workshop because of the people who entered the program room.

If you recall an earlier entry entitled Dreams & Energy ~ Men & Parenting I spoke of this woman who had e-mailed me and she and her husband wanted to take my workshop. This e-mail alone was a huge shift for me to realize the self limiting beliefs I held about men being up for a different kind of conversation. Her husband stayed home with the kids and she joined me for the weekend workshop.

(Note to self, arrange some kind of daycare/children’s program)

There also was a single Dad who participated in my workshop that weekend. He was a huge invitation for me to be rid of many things. To me this man is a seeker, he was continuously curious, always wondering, freely expressing, and it called up a filter in me very quickly.

In my past when a man asked questions about what I was saying it was to prove me wrong or prove me incompetent. So when this single Dad became curious, I had to allow breath to come into my body and see it as simply that… curiosity. Curiosity is fantastic; to be genuinely curios is to be continually growing.

For me this was one of the most important things I allowed my self to be rid of this weekend… I no longer need this filter/strategy in place. I do not have to justify myself, my experience, my truth… I can simply state it as my own and stand in the knowledge that I no longer have to shrink (become small) in the presence of a man.

This workshop was a fantastic experience for me… the conversations were more inquisitive, the participants seemed to each have taken something different away from the weekend (of course as they were each there for their own reasons).

We talked a lot about being present for your children. Seeing your children and allowing them to feel whatever they may be feeling, not stopping their waves of emotions but simply inviting them (by modelling) to breath into them.

Not only seeing your children, but allowing yourself to be seen by your children… allowing yourself to take time for you, if you need a time out or a chance to breath. Allowing the information (disappointment, rage, frustration, anger, hurt, sadness) to process before engaging with your child… the experience will be much different, more powerful and less hurtful.

These are just some of the conversations that have stayed in my consciousness from this past workshop.

Another huge lesson for me… honour myself… allow time for myself to recuperate. Sleep… I did not do this after my last workshop and on Friday of last week I crashed. I was so physically exhausted, I was sick, I had a fever, I had a headache, and I had stomach problems… I eventually slept a long undisturbed sleep and woke up feeling like a million dollars.

My lesson for myself is to recharge after a weekend workshop.

Tomorrow is another day… and there is always more.