As a parent on my own conscious healing journey, I wasn't quite prepared for the natural organic shift into conscious parenting. There was a profound quiet moment of realization that my own child had learned and adapted to some of my own unhealed patterns. Patterns learned not only through the example I was setting as a parent but also through my partner and the extended relationships and connections I surrounded myself with. The very same traits I had subconsciously welcomed and accepted as love were the very same traits my own child was learning. This reality hit me deeply and brought a layer of complexity on my journey that I wasn't quite prepared for.
As a parent, I believed I was the best parent in the world offering the kind of love my own childhood craved. The conscious reality, however, was much different and recognizing this felt complex. Loving from an unhealed place versus loving from a more aware place brings a different set of patterns, behaviours and communication that teaches our children differently. It can change the trajectory of their future by breaking the cycles of familiarity with improved communication and awareness to allow for better choices they can make for their own future. It's a process that takes patience, practice and time with a lot of compassion for ourselves as a parent and for our children as they continue to learn and grow.
There's no clear set of rules or approach with conscious parenting as it's like piecing together a difficult jigsaw puzzle. A child learns from across various areas including communication, personality, emotional triggers, behaviours, beliefs and values from each parent, and not all are negative.
The key thing I have learned about conscious parenting is around communication and using what I have learned from my own healing journey to give my child the option to make different choices with greater awareness. My role as a conscious parent isn't to fix or change my child but to understand, communicate, educate and be more open to their emotions in order to give them the tools as they grow and evolve into adulthood.