Spiritual parenting is all about entering the realms of sainthood
Well, that’ s the way it seems to me as we are invited to find unimaginable depths of patience, love and selflessness in honour of our growing children. We might think of parenting as 'us teaching our children', but it couldn't be further from the truth, as each day of a child's life evokes uncharted realms of learning for a parent. My child is only 11 years old. So in some ways I feel inadequately qualified to talk about being a parent. Yet for me it has been (and continues to be) the most educational journey in my life. I feel moved to start a rolling blog here to share my own experience on this fascinating subject...

I often imagine how utopic life would be raising a child within an indigenous tribe without the distractions of the modern era. How easy spiritual parenting would be. The essence of life would be an innate part of the culture, whereby the entire growth of the child was supported by example and wisdom. But we don’t live in that world. We live in a culture that is being infiltrated by technology and consumerism at an alarming rate. In the few short years since my own childhood, the world is now a very different place. Modern society is actually by far the biggest hindrance to my spiritual parenting.

There is a big clue when my Mother (who has raised three children of her own and has worked with children for the past 35 years) says she is so glad that she doesn’t have children growing up in today's world. She notes how crazy it is these days, how there's just so much stuff to buy... "it’s all about getting stuff and that we have lost something really valuable."

So often it slams the breaks on to sharing the utopic realms of oneness and unity that I feel at the depths of my soul. My energetic hard work and commitment to parenting seems continually lost in the ever raging din of the modern world. Yet paradoxically, I also see that it can be the biggest blessing. My task is to be me, to allow the light of my soul to inspire my child to find the same within himself.

Society and its mass consumerism is all about taking us away from the heart of life. It’s about distracting us from what really matters. It is becoming increasingly a soulless virtual world, where people are unable to live without the latest technology, gadgets and distractions. It takes the soul out of being human. Our society seems perfectly configured to keep us from discovering our true selves. It is like an addiction, if the next fix can’t be had, then withdrawal symptoms rapidly kick in.

When my child was younger (and I was much more naive to the realities of parenting), I assumed that my strength of soul would be adequate to raise him in a way that encompassed all the tenets of spiritual parenting that I felt in my heart. This means to gently guide him, creating a safe loving environment whilst allowing him the freedom to find his essential self. I believe in the power of example - to me this is one of the most important things. We seem to learn best of all by reflecting upon the examples that have been shown around us. I believed that all I had to do was live the way I feel in my heart and all would flow. How naive I was! To me parenting is the most challenging experience I have ever had. And spiritual parenting is even harder!

In the same breath though, I must mention that it has also been the most valuable gift on my own journey of spiritual unfolding. It's all about finding an absolutely authentic and divinely given expression and acting as my soul guides me to. Being a Mother holds up the most powerful mirror to me. Parenting is something I cannot just walk away from when it gets too tough. More than any other experience in life, it exposes all the places within me that are flawed, broken and stuck. Even the smallest fragments of 'stuckness' can invoke the starkest mirror within the world of a mother/child relationship.

My child is my greatest teacher. I say that with no word of exaggeration. More so than anyone in this world. Yet I am his guide. It is my soul that must be fine tuned to allow us to create the experiences in life for our greatest spiritual growth. And what a cosmic journey that is!