First and foremost, I would like to WELCOME all the new subscribers to the YPP blog – thank you. It is exciting to have you on board and I hope that you will find the blogs valuable and informative. For those of you who are new to it, I have been writing a 7 part blog over the course of the summer on the 7 steps recommended for “Taking Time for your Life”. I encourage you to read the previous blogs pertaining to this so that this final blog in the series makes more sense to you.
Last week I discussed the sixth step in Cheryl Richardson’s book “Take Time for Your Life”. This week I will be looking at the final step, step 7 and applying it to how we can help ourselves become better parents or the parents we want to be.
Step 7: “Don’t let life get in the way of your spiritual well-being – connect to your inner wisdom and create a personal practice”.
The most common element of every spiritual story Richardson hears is – a deep sense of love and connection with a powerful Divine force. That force is different for all of us but she believes that it forms the basis of why we are all here – to learn to love, ourselves and each other.
As a parent, I feel that there is no love stronger than the love we feel for our children. We need to make sure that our children know just how strong this love is. We do this in many ways, some of which being through the power of CONNECTION, feeling CAPABLE, feeling COUNTED or heard and feeling COURAGEOUS as these all contribute towards feeling deserving of love for ourselves and others. (The 4 C’s and foundation of Adlerian Parenting – Betty Lou Bettner).
I am no expert on how to put together your own individual spiritual practice (Richardson puts together a very nice framework for this with plenty of examples) but do know that having over the last few years carved out the time in my own life to do just this, can safely say that it has been an incredible and amazing experience and one which I benefit from daily. I find that my Mindfulness practice encourages me to be more mindful, grateful, respectful and, open, curious and more kind in all areas of my life.
“Trying to hear your inner wisdom beneath the roar of a busy life makes living authentically an impossible task” – Cheryl Richardson
In today’s busy world, I believe that many of us have lost the capacity to be mindful compared to generations past where there were perhaps less distractions, especially digital ones and being mindful was just a way of being. I think that it is especially important that we teach our children this vital life skill so that it can become a part of who they are and that we take the time in our day to consciously practice this skill for ourselves. We are role models for our children and very often they will copy us and take on some of the habits or practices / routines that we have.
I can’t believe that it’s been eight weeks since I started reading “Take Time for Your Life” by Cheryl Richardson and have now come to the end of this journey on exploring ways to take time for our lives.
I have certainly found this book to be extremely helpful would highly recommend it to anyone who has read these blogs and enjoyed them or to anyone who wants to honor themselves with a practice of self-care.
I hope that you have found it as helpful as I have and that you have enjoyed being part of this journey with me. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Partnering You
http://www.amazon.ca/Take-Time-Your-Cheryl-Richardson/dp/0767902076/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404063191&sr=1-1&keywords=take+time+for+your+life
PS. If you would like to receive our Newsletter straight to your inbox just once per week, please use the sign up icon in the top LEFT corner of the web site. You will then receive an email which you will need to confirm your subscription to and then each Wednesday at 2pm you will receive the blog.
Registration is now open for my fall Adlerian Parenting Classes. For more details, please look under EVENTS and Schedule on our web site. Please feel free to mention this to any friends you know who may be interested.
