All Life Wants to Grow. Seems obvious? Let’s just think about that for a minute… Let’s take teenagers for example. Being a mother to a teenage daughter, I have certainly questioned her desire to evolve in society – not wanting to go to school, not wanting to get out of pyjamas, watching youtube videos, snapchats, etc., etc. It seems like I was the one trying to stretch her social skills, trying to control and influence what I thought was her best path for growth. Isn’t that what all parents do? And aren’t all teenagers like that? With the help of good friend, Eddie O’Neill, (I like to call him the parent coach) I now understand that it is time to let go of deciding what I think is best for my daughter. That’s a scary prospect. How will she know what to do if I don’t tell her?
With this I started to understand, ALL LIFE WANTS TO GROW. This is the nature of all life – to evolve and grow, spiralling towards the sun or highest potential. So naturally, children will also want to grow and evolve of their own accord – without interference and being told what to do or which direction to take next – particularly teenagers as they step into young adulthood. Interference and control is off putting and disharmonious. Take a plant – given the right natural conditions and environment it thrives. With environmental disturbances, lack of water or the right food and soil it struggles. Some are more resilient than others and the environmental struggle can also strengthen their roots, giving them strong foundations, but inevitably damages the natural flow.
The struggle I have had with my daughter has ALWAYS been around me trying to control what she does. She naturally gets annoyed and frustrated at not having the space she needs.
With this new awareness, there has been no struggle in our relationship, just harmony and love. How refreshing for both of us!
Taking the control hands off is not only liberating but it is less draining energetically. We don’t realise how much energy we invest in trying to keep control on a natural growth cycle.
There is a lot more wisdom flowing from this insight, but I will leave that for another post and in the meantime, welcome your comments…
With this I started to understand, ALL LIFE WANTS TO GROW. This is the nature of all life – to evolve and grow, spiralling towards the sun or highest potential. So naturally, children will also want to grow and evolve of their own accord – without interference and being told what to do or which direction to take next – particularly teenagers as they step into young adulthood. Interference and control is off putting and disharmonious. Take a plant – given the right natural conditions and environment it thrives. With environmental disturbances, lack of water or the right food and soil it struggles. Some are more resilient than others and the environmental struggle can also strengthen their roots, giving them strong foundations, but inevitably damages the natural flow.
The struggle I have had with my daughter has ALWAYS been around me trying to control what she does. She naturally gets annoyed and frustrated at not having the space she needs.
With this new awareness, there has been no struggle in our relationship, just harmony and love. How refreshing for both of us!
Taking the control hands off is not only liberating but it is less draining energetically. We don’t realise how much energy we invest in trying to keep control on a natural growth cycle.
There is a lot more wisdom flowing from this insight, but I will leave that for another post and in the meantime, welcome your comments…
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