Soul Path Parenting

Have you ever felt two seemingly contradictory feelings or thoughts at the same time? It can be confusing, frustrating, and make us feel like we have to choose between those feelings or thoughts, but do we really have to fight against the contradictions? This week Amy and Lauren explore how we can live in - and love - the contradictions that are inherent to life and find beauty in both/and.

In this episode we talk about:

• Breaking down false dichotomies and holding space for all things.
• How are inner child and adult self can contradict each other and the benefit of learning to hold space for both.
• Why judgement can stand in the way of our truth.
• The seemingly contradictory nature of life and death.
• How embracing the contradictions inherent to life can help us find “clarity.”

Links so you can explore more:

We also invite you to email us if you have questions about something that we talked about or would like to share your journey with us. We'd love to hear from you at [email protected] or [email protected]!

Calm and content reflect the opposite of some of the more volatile, unpleasant, and high energy feelings like anger, anxiety, and fear that we’ve discussed in prior episodes. Often seen as a desired destination on the feelings spectrum, calm and content are pleasant, but can be more difficult to embody than other feelings. So how do we get there? 

This series has been an invitation to feel all of your feelings and connect authentically in the moment with all parts of yourself. While we leave the door open for more feelings, for now, we conclude the Feeling Our Way to Wholeness Series with calm and content and we thank you for joining us on this journey towards wholeness! 

In this episode we talk about:

• Where calm and content sit on our spectrum of feelings
• How calm and content connect to flow.
• How judgement and other unpleasant feelings can prevent us from embodying calm and content.
• Some of the ways we can better connect with our feelings and grow closer to spaces of calm and content.
• The multifaceted and interconnected nature of our feelings and the importance of accepting what is present and true for you.

Links so you can explore more:

Be sure to check out the rest of the Feeling Our Way to Wholeness Series if you missed an episode and check out our Feelings Blueprint: Self-Assesment Tool at  https://www.soulpathparenting.com/feelings-blueprint-self-assessment-tool to help you contextualize your relationship with your feelings on your own journey towards wholeness!

We also invite you to email us if you have questions about something that we talked about or would like to share your journey with us. We'd love to hear from you at [email protected] or [email protected]!

Play - it’s fun, it’s joyous, it’s creative, it’s good for our bodies and souls - so why don’t we do it more often? Why are work and play considered polar opposites? And why is play largely confined to early childhood? 

This week we join the Play Revolution with parenting coach, educator, play enabler, and self-proclaimed joyous parent, Sivanne Lieber! Tune in as we explore the power of play and the ways we can all benefit from a little more joy in our lives.

In this episode we talk about:

• The true essence of play.
• Play as the work of childhood AND adulthood.
• How to bring play back into parenting. 
• The paradigms that unconsciously stand in the way of play.
• How we might co-create something new with our kids that doesn’t come from what we’re supposed to do, but rather from freedom, choice and inner knowing.

Links so you can explore more:

For more on Sivanne and the Play Revolution, visit www.thejoyousparent.com!

One of the things that most lights us up here at Soul Path Parenting is talking about what’s possible. In our Reimagining Education Series we’ve been focusing on what's possible in education, and this episode’s guest wrote an entire book about exactly that called, What School Could Be. Ted Dintersmith spent his career in innovation before becoming a change agent in education, focusing on reimagining school to keep pace with the tsunami of innovation that is reshaping society. 

This begs the question, what does school really need to do for our children? What is the purpose of school? And how should we educate our children in a world where computers and machines are replacing humans, not just in tasks that are simple and repetitive, but in increasingly complex jobs? Tune in as Ted helps us answer these questions and points us back to our most valuable strength, that which makes us most human.

In this episode we explore:

• Schools current purpose and what it could be when we envision the future.
• The increasing role of machines and technology in the labor force and our lives, and what that means for our children’s learning and future jobs.
• What type of learning and information really resonates with kids and is more likely to stay with them throughout their lives.
• The importance of letting our children follow their interests and passions.
• Why college might not be for everyone and the problem with college admission standards.
• Why we should foster and value human creativity.

Links so you can explore more:

For more on Ted and his groundbreaking work visit www.WhatSchoolCouldBe.org and www.teddintersmith.com or follow him on Twitter @dintersmith.

For more episodes like this, check out our Reimagining Education Series at www.soulpathparenting.com/reimagining-education-series.

In this installment of the Reimagining Education Series, Lauren is joined by prolific author and lecturer, Alfie Kohn, described in Time magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.” Some of Alfie’s most popular books include Punished by Rewards, Unconditional Parenting, Beyond Discipline, and The Myth of the Spoiled Child. 

Join us as Alfie and Lauren discuss what it means to be a reflective rebel and how we can make trouble by questioning the false dichotomies and assumptions that are so prevalent in education.

In this episode we talk about:

• The false dichotomy of punishment and reward and other common false assumptions in education.
• What’s wrong with education’s focus on tests, grades, and homework.
• What is deep modeling and how educators and parents can embody it.
• Why it’s important to see children as having autonomous desires.
• That if our goal is to raise generous, caring, curious, creative, and compassionate life long learners, then our education system must change.

Links so you can explore more:

For more on Alfie and his spectacular works, visit www.alfiekohn.org

If you have any questions about this episode’s topic feel free to email Lauren at [email protected] or join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram!

For more episodes like this one, check out our Reimagining Education Series at https://www.soulpathparenting.com/reimagining-education-series 

How does the way a school views its students impact their learning? What happens when we radically trust students and educators? How can we better integrate communities into schools? And what could alternatives to large class sizes look like?  

This week, we explore these questions as we continue to Reimagine Education with our inspiring guest Miguel Gonzalez, the Director of Embark, a micro-school here in Denver, Colorado embedded into a coffee shop and a bike shop! Join us as Miguel discusses the unique origin and goals of Embark and what it can teach us about the future of education.

In this episode we explore:

• What’s a micro school and what’s so revolutionary about Embark.
• The difference between teachers and educators.
• What’s possible when we put learners, rather than the curriculum, at the center of schools.
• The power of radical trust in the school setting.
• What’s a trim tab and how we can use it to turn the ship that is education.

Links so you can explore more:

For more on Embark, go to www.embarkeducation.org

If you're interested in exploring this  conversation about education further, check out our Reimagining Education Series at www.soulpathparenting.com/reimagining-education-series for more episodes! And if you liked this episode, please share it with a friend and leave us a review so we can keep the conversation going!

Anxiety can show up for us in many different ways. For some, it is an ever present companion, for others it’s triggered by work, social interactions, or new experiences. It can motivate or debilitate us, but no matter how anxiety presents itself in our lives, it is an unpleasant feeling that can be hard to shake once it takes root.    

Join us in the second to last installment of the Feeling Our Way to Wholeness Series, as Amy and Lauren discuss anxiety!

In this episode we talk about:

• How anxiety presents in the body and the mind. The importance of being in-tune with our anxiety’s manifestations. 
• How anxiety has shown up in Amy and Lauren’s lives.
• The connection between anxiety and perfectionism.
• How befriending our anxiety can help us be with it, learn from it, calm it, and release it. 
• Ways we can validate our children’s anxiety and help them move through it.

Links so you can explore more:

Be sure to check out the rest of the Feeling Our Way to Wholeness Series and check out our Feelings Blueprint: Self-Assesment Tool on our website to help you contextualize your relationship with your feelings and join us on this journey towards wholeness!

In this episode, Lauren is joined by fellow parenting coach and host of the Happier Mom By the Minute podcast -- Stacey Yates Sellar -- as they discuss Conscious Parenting and Stacey’s specific niche: Conscious Parenting children with ADHD! Stacey shares her wisdom and personal experience on how to consciously face the unique behavioral challenges of a child with ADHD, but don’t worry, these insights can apply to just about anyone. As Stacey puts it, “The techniques, the tools, and the parenting I do for my ADHD child is exactly what I'm doing for my typically developing child. It’s just more extreme, more often, and I have to do more investigating [for my ADHD child].”

So tune in as Lauren and Stacey connect over Conscious Parenting and share tools for parenting children with ADHD and beyond in this special conversation!

In this episode we talk about:

• What Conscious Parenting children with ADHD looks like and how that differs - or doesn’t - from Conscious Parenting “neurotypical” or typically developing children.
• Misconceptions around ADHD and parenting children with ADHD.
• The gift, benefit, and necessity of conflict/challenge.
• Deconstructing the notion that compliance equals “good.”
• How we can empower and honor our children’s preferences and feelings, as well as our own. 
• Why a dysregulated adult cannot help a dysregulated child regulate themselves.

Links so you can explore more:

You can find Stacey at www.happierbytheminute.com, visit parentingadhdod.com for her free webinar on Conscious Parenting children with ADHD, or check out her podcast -- Happier Mom by the Minute -- on your favorite podcast streaming app!

For more Conscious Parenting conversations, you can also check out our Conscious Parenting Series at www.soulpathparenting.com/conscious-parenting-series

Fear is one of our most primal feelings. The feeling of fear can lie on a spectrum from an agitated bubbly excitement to a survival level driver that activates our fight, flight, or freeze response. Fear can live in our bodies - taking root with trauma - and can easily overwhelm us. As parents, fear for our children can be extremely painful and all consuming. So how do we live with our fear?

Tune in as Amy and Lauren explore how we can parent and move through fear in this episode of the Feeling Our Way to Wholeness Series! 

In this episode we talk about:

• What fear feels like in our bodies and our minds.
• Amy and Lauren’s experiences with fear as parents and as people, how they responded, and have grown since.
• The human experience of fear and its relation to survival and the the fundamental  fear of death.
• How we can shift from a survival level thinking into spiritual growth by accepting and moving through fear.
• The connection between types of parenting and fear.

Links so you can explore more:

Be sure to check out the rest of the Feeling Our Way to Wholeness Series and check out our Feelings Blueprint: Self-Assesment Tool on our website to help you contextualize your relationship with your feelings and join us on this journey towards wholeness!

In this week’s episode, Amy is joined by certified professional astrologer and parenting coach, Tara Vogel, as they explore how astrology can help guide us in our parenting journey!  Astrology can be a tool for awakening and self-actualization that gives insight into our struggles, pain points, and gifts -- so what does that mean for us as parents? Tara shares how understanding natal charts can help us better connect with our children and ourselves, so we can be more in-tune with one another and fully honor our soul’s lesson plans.

In this episode we talk about:

• What are natal charts and what they can reveal to us about our soul’s lesson plan.
• Tara and Amy’s personal experiences with astrology and natal charts.
• What modern day astrology looks like and common misconceptions.
• How astrology can help us better understand ourselves and our children so we can honor and accept our authentic selves.

About Tara Vogel

Tara  is a certified professional astrologer and coach who is passionate about helping moms stay connected to their kids and themselves via the cosmos. She loves to dive deeply with her clients and believes that understanding your astrological natal chart along with your child's natal chart is one of the greatest tools we have for understanding ourselves and our children better.

She posts daily on Instagram about how to use the celestial bodies to support you in your everyday life with your kids in an easy to understand and practical way. She also teaches astrology online for her teacher, Debra Silverman. 

Tara believes in a holistic approach to living and weaves her knowledge of nutrition, herbal medicine and psychotherapy into her readings.  She is a mom of three. Her middle daughter has special needs and having her natal chart read as a young child helped her to navigate the uncharted waters of raising a child who has different needs. Tara wholeheartedly believes understanding your whole family's astrological birth charts can bring more peace, harmony, and compassion to your daily life with kids.

Links so you can explore more:

For more on Tara Vogel visit www.taravogel.com or check out her Instagram @luminaryparenting for daily astrological forecasts!