Conscious Parenting
Whether you are in the stages of considering becoming a parent, or you are already a parenting veteran, the practice of bringing consciousness and mindfulness to this transformative endeavor that is parenting, can begin at any moment.
The greatest gifts we give our children are attunement to their internal states and our empathic responses to their experiences. These gifts from parents and caregivers promote life-long positive development both interpersonally and intra-personally. Many things however, ranging from our technology driven culture to our own unconscious processes can get in the way of giving our children what they need most.
Conscious Parenting is a response to the fact that parents tend to transmit their own unconscious attachment patterns to their children, often despite strong efforts to “do things differently” from how they themselves were parented. As a result, bringing an intentional level of awareness to your parenting process can be the single most effective and beneficial step you can take on behalf of your child.
Mindfulness practice is an approach that works with the mind’s capacity for reducing negative reactivity through present- moment and somatic awareness (Gioffe, 1991; Kabat-Zinn 2003). As parents we can often find ourselves in a reactive mode with our children, and with the origins of the reactions having nothing to do with the present-moment.
Rite Path Home works with parents and caregivers to cultivate and integrate the quality of mindfulness, allowing parents to reframe virtually any situation. Mindfulness is defined as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn 1994). While this practice can be used to address so many aspects of our lives, as a parenting tool, it is invaluable.
Finally, Rite Path Home will also support you in developing ways to deepen your understanding of your child/ren as well as identify and strengthen the authentic connections at the heart of the parent-child relationship.
