Take a Look Inside EVOLVE: The Conscious Parenting Summit

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Take a Look Inside EVOLVE: The Conscious Parenting Summit

In her book The Conscious Parent, Dr. Shefali Tsabary says, “When you parent, it is crucial you realize you aren’t raising a “mini me” but a spirit throbbing with its own signature. For this reason, it’s important to separate who you are from who each of your children is.”

So true! We can all agree with that! How would we raise good citizens of the world if, with our children, we simply cloned ourselves—without strengthening what I like to call their inner core intelligence, that is, the necessary life skills of self-reliance, self-respect, self-love, independence, and self-confidence. We all know that our kids have their own journey, which they create by their choices and life experiences. As parents, our only job is to surround our children with an environment that is conducive to and aligned with this type of growth.

Why, then, do we—very much like children ourselves—bicker, argue, push back, fight, throw tantrums, and deliver harsh consequences when faced with parenting challenges? More often than not, the guilt, doubt, worry, and fear that follows such behavior is the sound of our inner voice telling us that we have veered away from the goal of soothing our child or resolving an issue constructively.

What stands in the way of our building a connection with our kids during a communication breakdown? WE DO! As Dr. Shefali signals in my opening quote, the answer lies in “the importance of separating who you are from who each of your children is.”

That may sound complicated, but during the recent Evolve: The Conscious Way parenting summit, Dr. Shefali actually deconstructed, very simply, the chaotic workings of our own inner world, which often stand in the way of communication with our kids. She mesmerized the audience of more than 200 parents, candidly leading them through a series of workshops that not only helped them identify some of their old, broken parenting models but also helped them reconstruct new ones, turning challenging moments into opportunities for deep connection.

The eye-opening questions she addressed included:

What does “being a conscious parent ” really mean?
What does our inner world look like? How does it stand in the way of communicating effectively with our kids? Why does it stand in our way?
What are our emotional triggers?
Which of our own childhood disconnections are reflected in our parenting habits? How can we change them?

I was honored to be part of the event as Master of Ceremonies and Moderator, along with the dynamic motivational speaker, Aric Bostick. During panel discussions with Dr. Shefali, Susan Stiffleman, Jolette Jai, the Atomic Moms, Bryant McGill, Mallika Chopra, and, yes, Neale Donald Walsch and his co-authors Laurie Farley and Emily Filmore, I had the pleasure of speaking from the audience’s perspective, addressing hot topics such as:

the effects of media on family life and guidelines around media usage;
being authentic with our kids (taking their gadgets away for breaking rules about them, while not following the same guidelines ourselves);
for parents who do not practice a particular faith, should they bring up conversations about God or wait until their children raise the topic.

Each speaker answered with his or her unique perspective. Then Dr. Shefali tied everything together with her humorous, forthright observations, which, of course, left the audience thirsty for more!

Despite being a parent of adult children, I, too, left with a raised level of consciousness that went beyond aha! moments during the weekend summit and has created a higher threshold from which I will parent seamlessly and naturally.

The way I saw and experienced it, this event was a coming together of mindful parents who had either signed up for the conference looking for concrete ways to resolve specific issues with their children, were questioning their parenting skills, or simply looking for inspiration to grow. Dr. Shefali extemporaneously grabbed their attention and brought them all into the next phase of their evolution: from mindful parents looking for tools, to conscious parents fully empowered and equipped to meet the challenges of parenting.

I honestly can’t wait for the next EVOLVE summit. Inside sources tell me it will take place in October 2016. I promise to keep you updated. In the meantime, if you’d like to join this community or have any questions, please feel free to comment below.