What Spiritual Practice Helps With Child-Rearing?
Children and grandchildren can provide you with wonderful moments.
Their spontaneity and sense of fun can brighten your day.
But almost out of the blue all hell can break loose and they can be a real pain testing your limits and boundaries.
What they want can be different from what you want.
They seem to be noisier, more untidy and more demanding than ever you expected.
Responding as a good carer can be a real struggle, particularly when you feel stressed and tired.
What psycho-spiritual ideas can help? The professionals talk about empathy, consistency, and unconditional love.
But how do you find these within yourself when you are feeling challenged? I would like to suggest the answer is that understanding and acceptance comes from focusing the mind on deeper aspects of the interaction with the child; more than on just how you are feeling at the time and more than what you are immediately aware of that is going on.
This deeper watchfulness is a form of spiritual discipline: staying in the moment, and being alert to deeper issues, rather than mindlessly jumping to judgment or being attached to what you hope for.
Experience shows illuminating insights can emerge as one stills the mind.
When the baby is crying non-stop it might be caused by a wet nappy, or hunger, or perhaps due to an uncomfortable position, or teething pain or maybe it is a sign of illness.
If whatever you do doesn't seem to work and the problem keeps recurring most days you might be feeling fraught and think something like 'This is a wilful attempt to control me' or 'It's an emotional cry for help' or 'This baby has too low a level of tolerance of discomfort'.
Whatever you happen to think colours your feelings and actions.
The danger is you become unduly upset and this will affect the trust the infant has in you.
It will probably take an effort to reserve judgment, to remember that the cause of the crying might be different on separate occasions.
To become alert to such possibilities may mean staying in the moment and focusing on the problem rather than jumping to conclusions.
Likewise how do we see it when a school age child is having a tantrum of shouting, hitting, and spitting? As a sign of a psychiatric condition? An evil disposition? A spoilt brat who requires harsh punishment? When caught up in the feelings of the situation it can be hard to see other possibilities.
Not rushing to judgment would mean you calmly dealing with the immediate crisis and only later trying to explore whatever had been going on.
The child is not in thinking mode just yet.
Filled up with anger he or she isn't ready to be reasoned with.
That can come later.
I hear you thinking 'It's all very well saying don't jump to conclusions, but how do I do that?' One suggestion is that you try to consciously reflect on what you are saying to yourself.
Question what it is you are assuming, what you are expecting to happen and what belief is being aroused by the situation? Admittedly this requires some effort but once thoughtful consideration becomes something you are used to doing then it becomes easier to put one's emotions on one side and instead gain some insights into what might be going on.
This accords with the old idea of counting to ten and taking a step back before reacting.
Like all spiritual practice this requires self-discipline.
One common assumption is that the child will conform to one's hopes and aspirations: for example be sensitive, hardworking, or athletic.
Such beliefs are unfair as children come with their own characteristics and dispositions and cannot be moulded against their will to fit in with adult expectations.
By being attached to certain future outcomes there is a danger of mindlessly denying the child a sense of individual uniqueness.
One thing that can enhance a relationship is when adults make room for children accepting each of them as they are, for example being prepared to negotiate and compromise.
Accepting a child's warts and all as a person in his or her own right doesn't mean encouraging any socially unacceptable behaviour but rather acknowledging that, like the rest of us, he or she has certain negative as well as positive tendencies.
I would suggest it means looking for opportunities to encourage and support new behaviours.
Giving care to children is one of the most important and challenging of all jobs yet people often expect to be able to do it without any help.
For those people who have the money time and resources, help can be gained from a mindfulness meditation retreat coupled with daily practice.
No money is needed however to set aside a little time by yourself each day to deeply reflect on the challenges of a child's behaviour.
You may think that it is only natural to feel unconditional love and selfless concern for children but no one has limitless amounts of patience and self-restraint.
We all need some rest to restore our inner resources and find the concentration and forbearance required to focus our attention on somebody else's needs.
Copyright 2011 Stephen Russell-Lacy
Their spontaneity and sense of fun can brighten your day.
But almost out of the blue all hell can break loose and they can be a real pain testing your limits and boundaries.
What they want can be different from what you want.
They seem to be noisier, more untidy and more demanding than ever you expected.
Responding as a good carer can be a real struggle, particularly when you feel stressed and tired.
What psycho-spiritual ideas can help? The professionals talk about empathy, consistency, and unconditional love.
But how do you find these within yourself when you are feeling challenged? I would like to suggest the answer is that understanding and acceptance comes from focusing the mind on deeper aspects of the interaction with the child; more than on just how you are feeling at the time and more than what you are immediately aware of that is going on.
This deeper watchfulness is a form of spiritual discipline: staying in the moment, and being alert to deeper issues, rather than mindlessly jumping to judgment or being attached to what you hope for.
Experience shows illuminating insights can emerge as one stills the mind.
When the baby is crying non-stop it might be caused by a wet nappy, or hunger, or perhaps due to an uncomfortable position, or teething pain or maybe it is a sign of illness.
If whatever you do doesn't seem to work and the problem keeps recurring most days you might be feeling fraught and think something like 'This is a wilful attempt to control me' or 'It's an emotional cry for help' or 'This baby has too low a level of tolerance of discomfort'.
Whatever you happen to think colours your feelings and actions.
The danger is you become unduly upset and this will affect the trust the infant has in you.
It will probably take an effort to reserve judgment, to remember that the cause of the crying might be different on separate occasions.
To become alert to such possibilities may mean staying in the moment and focusing on the problem rather than jumping to conclusions.
Likewise how do we see it when a school age child is having a tantrum of shouting, hitting, and spitting? As a sign of a psychiatric condition? An evil disposition? A spoilt brat who requires harsh punishment? When caught up in the feelings of the situation it can be hard to see other possibilities.
Not rushing to judgment would mean you calmly dealing with the immediate crisis and only later trying to explore whatever had been going on.
The child is not in thinking mode just yet.
Filled up with anger he or she isn't ready to be reasoned with.
That can come later.
I hear you thinking 'It's all very well saying don't jump to conclusions, but how do I do that?' One suggestion is that you try to consciously reflect on what you are saying to yourself.
Question what it is you are assuming, what you are expecting to happen and what belief is being aroused by the situation? Admittedly this requires some effort but once thoughtful consideration becomes something you are used to doing then it becomes easier to put one's emotions on one side and instead gain some insights into what might be going on.
This accords with the old idea of counting to ten and taking a step back before reacting.
Like all spiritual practice this requires self-discipline.
One common assumption is that the child will conform to one's hopes and aspirations: for example be sensitive, hardworking, or athletic.
Such beliefs are unfair as children come with their own characteristics and dispositions and cannot be moulded against their will to fit in with adult expectations.
By being attached to certain future outcomes there is a danger of mindlessly denying the child a sense of individual uniqueness.
One thing that can enhance a relationship is when adults make room for children accepting each of them as they are, for example being prepared to negotiate and compromise.
Accepting a child's warts and all as a person in his or her own right doesn't mean encouraging any socially unacceptable behaviour but rather acknowledging that, like the rest of us, he or she has certain negative as well as positive tendencies.
I would suggest it means looking for opportunities to encourage and support new behaviours.
Giving care to children is one of the most important and challenging of all jobs yet people often expect to be able to do it without any help.
For those people who have the money time and resources, help can be gained from a mindfulness meditation retreat coupled with daily practice.
No money is needed however to set aside a little time by yourself each day to deeply reflect on the challenges of a child's behaviour.
You may think that it is only natural to feel unconditional love and selfless concern for children but no one has limitless amounts of patience and self-restraint.
We all need some rest to restore our inner resources and find the concentration and forbearance required to focus our attention on somebody else's needs.
Copyright 2011 Stephen Russell-Lacy
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