Life is precious and can be gone in an instant. Do not waste a minute of it.

Guest post by Erin Taylor, author of 

Connection and Kindness: The Key to Changing the World Through Parenting.

I WAS HIT BY A DRUNK DRIVER LAST NIGHT
Yes, you read that right. I was hit by a drunk driver last night. Thank God I walked away without a scratch, but needless to say, it was pretty scary. As you know well by now, I tend to write through my experiences in order to process them, so this will likely be a long but chocked-full post. Please read on if you will….

I was on my way to a school to meet my friend and colleague Sue DeCaro so that we could present part one of our Conscious Parenting series when the accident happened. I was in rush hour traffic on a very busy road. I was probably the 20th car stopped at a red light when out of nowhere, a car slammed into the back of my car. I called Sue right away to ask her to come pick me up where we were so that she could bring me to the workshop (because yes, I truly am that committed to the work that I do!). She immediately turned around to come to me. 

As Conscious Parents, We Must Accept The As-Is Of A Given Situation

Guest Post By Erin Taylor Author of,  

Connection and Kindness: The Key to Changing the World Through Parenting

Leaving the grocery store this morning, I noticed a mom holding the hands of her two young children as she waited to cross the parking lot to get to her car. With the amount of information one can glean from a very short observation of another, it appeared that the mom seemed relaxed and peaceful, as did her two children.

As I reflected on this woman's demeanor, it got me to thinking about how I used to feel as mom of very young ones, and I believe that more often than not, I looked anything like this mom today; for I remember very often feeling stressed and unhappy, with a furrowed brow and all. I am certain that people who saw me must have wondered why I looked so tortured and miserable. This was unsettling to me, especially as a mom who had suffered the death of her first-born daughter. How can parenting be so difficult and stressful? Why is it so hard? And I felt guilty for not enjoying it more than I did, especially given my life experience.

Temper Tantrums ~ An Opportunity to Teach Your Child How to Process Emotions

By Yvonne Perry

Empathy and intuition gives us the ability to better understand how we are connected to other living things. It is a form of communication with others, nature, animals, and even higher or spiritual forms of life. We are all born with empathic ability but most of us shut the sensing ability down at some point either because the energy overload causes discomfort or we are taught not to trust our inner guidance. By shutting down our intuition and empathic ability, we live in our heads and are pretty much out of touch with our body and our own emotions.

Introducing Loren Buckner, LCSW

Introducing Loren Buckner, LCSW

Loren began her career as a substance abuse counselor in Waitsfield, Vermont. In 1980, she and her husband moved to Barcelona, Spain, where they taught English for two years. From Spain, they moved to Tampa, Florida, where Loren worked in community mental health for many years. She is currently in private practice as a psychotherapist. Loren has spoken to parents locally, nationally, and internationally about the emotional challenges of raising children. Her book ParentWise offers parents professional counsel in the privacy of their own homes and is a valuable resource for parents to return to again and again.

Join Carol & Stacy for a live chat with Loren Buckner January 10th in their BlogFrog Parenting Community.

9 PM Eastern ~ 8 Central ~ 7 Mountain ~ 6 Pacific

~ Prizes ~

Did you miss Loren's guest articles on ICP? No problem, here they are.

Struggling with Motherhood

Childhood isn't something we get over.

Here's more praise for ParentWise: The Emotional Challenges Of Family Life And How To Deal With Them

Debra Blackburn, Step-parent. "Even if you're not a parent, you'll appreciate all you discover between the pages of this book. If you want to better understand yourself and your relationships with others, read this book!"

Cara MacMillan, Ecologist and Expectant Mother. "I love it already! I think that it is important for me to read this book, as I identify with the "conscientious parent" to-be, who also avoids some negative feelings."

Jeannie Cucher, Ph.D. Student and Mother. "It gave me hope, confirmed some of my beliefs, made me wonder about some others. I felt myself breathing in her definition of unconditional love, and wanting to retain her formulation in my mind."

Get Rid Of Clutter And Change Your State Of Mind By Leigh Harris

Get Rid of Clutter and Change Your State of Mind by Leigh Harris

Clutter affects the environment and energy of your house.
What appears as simple overabundance of physical objects triggers energetic and emotional responses.

Think about your own home environment. How do you feel in different areas of your home? Often you walk in from the garage, and an automatic to-do list hits your mind. Jackets need to be hung up, dinner made, and laundry sorted. Just once you would like to grab a cold drink and head out to relax on the patio, but distractions beckon. With increasing irritation, you notice the hall filled with shoes thrown off haphazardly, or the bathroom floor covered with scattered towels. You would like to sit down and enjoy a moment of peace on the patio, if the mess would just go away. Each moment has its share of joy and frustrations, but there are moments in a parent’s life when the aggravation of clutter is overwhelming. For example, Janie was so preoccupied with finances that she allowed clutter to build in her house, only adding to the stress. When we reorganized her duties, she listed items that accumulated into clutter such as mail, magazines, plastic leftover containers and last season’s footwear. She resolved to sort, recycle, stack and put away these items. I cautioned her, however, that clutter sometimes indicates emotional attachment. If the emotion is still present, the clutter will simply reappear. It is a symptom, having an emotional hold on a memory, fear or hope. Clutter stems from the psychological effects of life lessons. Perhaps as a child, you learned from your parents to squirrel away the food, dishes, and even your own socks, for the future was uncertain. Perhaps you learned that a bare kitchen meant you lacked the money for basic necessities. Or perhaps the many gifts and trinkets that fill your shelves remind you of how far you’ve come in life. Either could still be true for Janie. In each case, clutter is a symbol for something both deeper and greater than the items themselves.

Let go of clutter - in 5 Minutes

For a collection of items to release its emotional hold on you, take five minutes to consider what having those items means to you. If someone were to take them all away today, how would you feel? What memories would this stir up? Allow yourself to keep these memories, but release the emotional control they have over you. Simply say, “that was a difficult time in my (or my parents’) life and I’m feeling some anxiety about it. I allow myself to feel anxiety, but it no longer controls how I feel about the present.” Don’t fight your feelings, instead, let them go. Or, “it reminds me of my grandmother, whom I was extremely close to. Giving it away feels like I don’t care.” Notice your feelings of love for your grandmother and allow them to stay, but let go of the guilt associated with this object. Once you understand what the clutter in your life symbolizes, it will no longer be a burden.* How does clutter affect your life? What changes can you make to clear clutter, and clear your mind? *Another short excerpt from Leigh's forthcoming book. To receive notice of publication, sign up on the blog email list, top right corner of this article. Or follow MetaphysicalLife on facebook

Empathic Babies, Children and Teens

Empathic Babies, Children, and Teens

By Yvonne Perry

Empathy is what makes other people matter to us and reminds us to acknowledge the people around us as we understand and share their feelings.  Empathy exists in early mother-infant bonding. Even before birth, a baby in the womb is sensitive to the mother’s feelings, whether positive, neutral, or negative. Once born, a baby shows receptivity to both parents’ anger, tension, and depression, as well as their caring, responsiveness, and love. 

You’ve probably noticed how they imitate your facial expressions, smiling in response to your smile. They also may cry if they hear another baby cry. This type of response is a step in the development of empathy and the ability to share the feelings of another person.

Babies absorb the mental and emotional energy of the people around them. They don’t filter anything; they simply receive. As a child ages, this empathic tendency may increase and get out of control. Some children pick up the emotions, energy, or thoughts of others to the degree that it becomes overwhelming and interrupts the development of their social and emotional life. 

Because these children do not know how to set personal boundaries (or that they need to), they do not realize when they are in another person’s mental or emotional space, much less how invasive this can be to that person. It can also lower the child’s own vibrational level.

An empath is sensitive to what is obvious as well as unseen things such as ghosts and the thoughts, emotions, and illnesses they sense around them. Empaths may get hunches, see mental pictures, hear voices, or have a gut feeling that supplies hidden information about people and situations. They may also get a physical sensation in their body that lets them know where another person is afflicted or suffering.

You may have heard of Indigo Children or Crystal Kids who have intuitive gifts that surprise or even astound adults. These empathic children easily pick up on the feelings and thoughts of adults and others as they unconsciously reach into human and spirit energy fields to gather information and understand things around them. Seeing with their spiritual eyes, feeling with their spiritual senses, hearing with their spiritual ears, they may give information about a past life, tell of events before they happen, see ghosts, or know something about another person or situation that no one else does. Today, as many as one in four children have this ability and are tuned into the higher frequency all the time.

Appreciation Jars For Kids

Every parent struggles at some point in life with feeling unappreciated.  You've bathed, clothed, fed, and lost sleep over the little wonders you've brought into this world.  Doesn't anyone notice how much you've sacrificed?  It seems hard to imagine those kiddies may feel like you don't appreciate them enough.  But, kids struggle with the same internal angst that we model for them.  So, today is your day to model appreciation.

It won't take a playstation, electric guitar, or keys to the car to show your love.  Instead, one of life's most valuable lessons can be taught with a tiny, inexpensive jar.  Now, this will take a little work, but it is worth it.
You'll see.  First, identify a milestone in your relationship.  It could be a 15th birthday, college graduation (17 years of school), or your 20-year-old is finally taking the leap and completely moving out of your nest.  Tell your babes 15, 17, or 20 reasons you love them and package the message up in a bottle.

Here's what you will need:

1-A tiny (yes tiny) glass jar from the dollar store, with a lid.

2-A few pieces of colorful paper.

3-A fine tipped black marker/pen.

4-A piece of ribbon

5-A piece of cardstock to make a small card.

6-Hole punch
7-Glass beads optional

Fold your cardstock into the shape of a small card.  Punch a hold in the corner and slip your ribbon through it.  Then, write a message to daughter or son.  Need an idea?

To my beautiful child,
     You have enriched my life beyond words.  Each day I am more grateful for the time we've shared.  Now, as you prepare to move into your own home...I want to celebrate each year of your life by sharing 20 reasons that I love you.

Now you need to come up with those 20 reasons.  The thought can be as simple as "I love your beautiful eyes", "I love that you call your grandma everyday",  or "I love your artistic side".  Just make sure the words will fit on the paper square you're about to cut out.  You can also offer 20 reasons you are proud of your child instead, depending on the occasion.  If you need a higher number...tell them how they've made each of your 40 years in this world worth it.  Don't get complicated.  Just sit back and let yourself think about all the ways you love your child.

After you cut several squares out of the multi-colored paper, write each of the things you are thankful for on the paper.  You can also buy a heart-shaped punch if you prefer that instead of squares.  Fold the pieces once or twice, just to give the paper some volume in the jar.  My jar is rather large (too large really), so I padded the bottom with glass beads, which I got from the Dollar Store.  Tie the ribbon attached to your card around the top of the jar and throw on the lid. 

Carve out alone time for this special gift.  Pull out each piece of paper one by one to read to your loved one.  You will knock their socks off.  It will only cost a few dollars to make, but the results are priceless.  Your child will say it was the best gift they've ever gotten, and if they don't...you'll know it is the best gift you've ever given.  You'll feel wonderful all night having the peace of mind that you didn't keep those feelings bottled up for a lifetime...you opened that jar and made sure your kids know just how much you love and appreciate them.
P.S.  I'd love to hear all about your give-giving experience.  Connect to the original post on my blog and share your story in the comments section by clicking here.

Written By Guest Author Tammy Palmer (Crafty Cat) from the super creative blog Crafty Life And Style.
Tammy & Jodee are super creative ladies. Be sure to check out one of their recent blog posts.
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"Your unconsciousness isn't your children's to inherit: it is yours to excavate. Being a conscious parent means you are increasingly aware of the force and prevalence of your unconsciousness as it arises in everyday situations." Shefali Tsabary, PhD
The Conscious Parent ~ Transforming ourselves empowering our children.
The Conscious Parent (book) by Shefali Tsabary