hat is the greatest gift we give our children?
What do children really need?
I dare say it’s Wholeness. Yes, it’s wholeness.
Children need to know that they are whole just as they are and they need to feel whole within themselves.
As parents we are often focused on what they need to fix and do differently. This can erode away their sense of, “I’m okay, even if I’m learning how to be in the world and learning all these things about life.”
Our challenge as parents is to balance our corrective input with connective input. How can we help our children stay connected and feel whole inside?
What is wholeness really?
It is many things:
* Self-confidence
* Health and well-being
* A sense of belonging
* Resilience (ability to bounce back from hard times)
* Authenticity and the freedom to express who they came here to be.
What does wholeness feel like?
It can feel like peace, strength, groundedness, joy, ease, and flow.
How do we cultivate wholeness in our children?
One way is to validate their uniqueness and mirror it back to them. When a child is grounded in who they are and what their unique gifts are they can shine their light in the world and navigate life with much more ease.
Developing a practice of focusing on what is right with our children and who they are provides a foundation of acceptance and self-esteem that will help them navigate life’s difficult passages.
This can take the form of a validation ritual where you encourage them to acknowledge things they have done well each day and to instill this as a self-loving practice to sustain them through life.
This can be done in a journal style practice and/or done verbally before bedtime as a wonderful way to end the day. A gift you can give everyday of the year!
Linda Newlin
Linda Newlin is a coach, author, speaker, singer/songwriter, teacher, and mom whose passion it is to help people claim their wholeness and live their destiny as authentic, purposeful and joyfully as possible. She is the author of "The Inner Traveler’s Guidebook to Moyo: Discovering the Power of Listening to your Own Heart" and "Growing up Whole: A Child’s Guidebook" She writes validation journals for all ages to practice self-loving connection and listening to oneself. For more information visit www.GrowingUpWhole.com and www.LunaMadre.com.
