Training our minds...

"Many of us are slaves to our minds. Our own mind is our worst enemy. 
We try to focus, and our mind wanders off.

We try to keep stress at bay, but anxiety keeps us awake at night. 
We try to be good to the people we love, but then we forget them and put ourselves first. 
And when we want to change our life, we dive into spiritual practice and expect quick results, 
only to lose focus after the honeymoon has worn off.

We return to our state of bewilderment. We're left feeling helpless and discouraged. 

It seems we all agree that training the body through exercise, diet, and relaxation is a good idea, but why don't we think about training our minds?"

~ Sakyong Mipham

Thoughts over Tea; "Unconditional Parenting"

Sunday is the perfect day for us to read, drink tea and to reflect on the events of the past week. It was quite a confronting week for me. Not only did I discover that a lot of my parenting techniques were not working for me and (more important) not working for M. But also I've read a highly confrontational book by Alfie Kohn "Unconditional Parenting" that gave me many insights into my well-meant, but as it turned out to be, conditional parenting behavior.

For example; We (my man and me) used to praise M a lot while he was playing. But I noticed that he would turn away from his activities as soon as I was interfering with my 'Well done!'.
I did not understand why. Everybody kept on telling me how important it was to constantly praise your child but it simply wasn't working for the both of us. After reading Kohn's book we tried a less judgmental approach. Instead of giving M unasked value judgments, we let him be and when he involved us we showed interest and asked questions. And it works! He plays longer, is better focused and tries things out again.

I am so happy with these insights despite the fact that they were very confronting. I discovered that although I thought my love for M was unconditional, my parenting behavior obviously was not. Strange how I've listened to everything and everybody except to my own inner voice. Quite a lesson!

P.S
After reading this refreshing blogpost 'Acceptance' on Ape Zen I felt much better. This was exactly what I was dealing with. Ha, two steps forward!