Join our mailing list!     Join Annie's Parenting from the Soul class on the beautiful DailyOM site. It includes 15 lessons. click here Other Ideas: "The Blind Side" This family discussion is based on the movie The Blind Side, a true story about professional football player Michael Ohr. After viewing this movie together as a family, create a family discussion highlighting the compassion and empathy shown by the main characters of this film. The impetus to not only feel compassion for another, but also to take action is modeled in this movie. It becomes clear as the story progresses that empathy and compassion can greatly affect all parties involved, not just those on the receiving end. Utilize the Blind Side as an everyday life tool to teach your children an expansive message. By watching and discussing this film together, children can be encouraged to think and act beyond themselves. As a family, commit to serving others through compassion and empathy. Create a list of ways to begin acting on this commitment regularly. It is important that children understand that they have the capacity, right now, to serve others in a myriad of ways. Sometimes a smile, a kind look, or a helping hand is enough. "The Power of Choice" This family discussion is based on every individual's inherent right to choose. Teach your children that they are making choices in every single moment. Explain that being conscious means becoming aware of each choice and taking responsibility for each choice. Each choice moves you in a direction, even the seemingly unimportant choices. Everything in life is energy; continuously reshaping and moving. Part of your job is to feel your choices. Ask yourself: Does this feel like a fit for me? Does this choice move me in the direction that I wish to go? Is this a self-loving choice or one that is detrimental to my well-being? Does this choice empower me or disempower me? Will this choice lead me to a future reality that I desire? Perhaps choose one of the questions above or create one of your own that most resonates with the family. Create a Soul to Soul Reminder (visual cue) by writing out the question and place in a visible area of your home with the words The Power to Choose. The purpose of dissecting true choice with your children is to help them to see that they are not victims unless they choose to be. Their point of power is always derived from the interior choice to perceive and act according to their own internal compass. There is always a choice... "Shine Your Light" This family discussion is based on the song Shine Your Light by Robbie Robertson. First, make sure that your children understand what their light means for them. In our family, we use light interchangeably with soul, inner voice, core self, and spirit. Review these terms and discuss ways in which you all shine your lights with grace, love, confidence, and compassion for others before listening to the song. It is important to differentiate between shining your light in an authentic, living true kind of way versus a boastful, ego-centered orientation. After listening to the song, use it as a context to initiate a conversation on shining your light NOW rather than waiting to do so inevitably after you have transitioned back to the non-physical realm. Being consciously spirit-embodied means that you deeply understand your capacity as a human being to be a shooting star or a diamond in the sky right now today. There is no waiting; live from your spirit while in the physical body and do so in full awareness of the beauty, truth, wisdom, and divinity that resides within you eternally. Encourage your children to lift themselves and others up each and every day through their thoughts, words, deeds, and choices. "Take a Pause" Discuss the importance of being tuned in to your emotional guidance system at all times. Teach your children to recognize when it is time to take a pause from an external focus and seek internal stillness when negative emotions alert them to discord in their energetic vibration. Often times, disharmonious energy can be diffused somewhat by taking a few moments to reconnect with the deep, quiet space within. This inner pause may allow the outer choices that follow to be of a higher quality. Conscious Breath and Meditation are two simple ways to redirect discordant energy and begin to once again step into the divine flow that is present reality. Conscious Breath can be done on the spot by taking several deep breaths while focused on the feel of life-giving breath moving through your body in two fluid directions. Meditation is a time-out from the outside world and can be done in a variety of ways in the space of ten minutes. The important aspect in this discussion is teaching your children to view Conscious Breath and Meditation as daily options for shifting negative energy so that future choices may be made from a calmer and more open perspective. Model Conscious Breath and Meditation for your children often. Encourage them to view these two methods as highly beneficial in regard to their taking full responsibility for their interaction with external forces. Stress with them the importance of being totally cognizant of their emotional state of being so that they may always be aware of their point of attraction in creating their reality. "LOVE Bigger, LOVE Wider, LOVE Deeper" Discuss the importance of choosing to love yourself and others in a bigger, wider, and deeper way. Love is ever-expanding and individuals must continually assess their openness to give and receive love. Encourage your children to always err on the side of bigger, wider, and deeper when it comes to love. Cite many examples in your own life where you chose to increase the love offered and examples where you chose the opposite. Express your feelings after each experience. Invite each family member to share a life experience where he made a more loving choice and one in which he did not. Encourage a comparison of the outcomes created by loving bigger versus remaining neutral or negative. At the end of the discussion, you may listen to a song (we used Tina Arena’s “I Want to Know What Love Is”) that encourages loving bigger or meditate together for several minutes focusing on the word LOVE.       In a family discussion, a family gathers to explore spiritual concepts and relate them to life experiences. Permission and the tools to spiritually dissect, decipher, and decode physical reality is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to your children —Excerpt from Soul to Soul Parenting

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