I have been reading a fascinating book by Lynne McTaggart about quantum physics. Don’t stop reading – I promise this won’t be boring!
Now I always used to be really rather sceptical about spiritual things. I wouldn’t have called myself an atheist, but I certainly wouldn’t say that I believed in a single higher power who is male etc.
Following a rather dire personal crisis towards the end of last year, I have, however, been beginning to explore spirituality and what it means.
Alongside this, I have also been reading these amazing books about quantum physics, which basically say that we now know that all the mystic, remote healing, pagan, shaman, buddhist etc. spiritual paths have been saying since the dawn of time is, in fact, correct. We really are all connected, and we really can all communicate remotely with one another.
So, there is science behind spirituality (not necessarily behind a single male higher power, but certainly behind connectedness and a shared universal energy.)
I am finding this growing awareness very helpful to myself, but also in my parenting. This blog is not going to turn into a spiritual parenting blog – as I hope all my readers know, this blog is for all parents and about opening our hearts and minds to finding the way that is right for us.
However, I wanted to share this with you because one of my daughters is really struggling a lot at the moment with self-esteem issues and what seems to be the only thing that is beginning to break through the shell she’s created is me sharing my new knowledge with her.
I have talked to her about that wonderful quote by the French philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin:
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
which I love, and which is very similar to CS Lewis’s quote:
You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
Apart from many monotheist religions, most spiritual peoples talk about our spirit and soul as being purely good, and light. Evil doesn’t exist according to these beliefs. What does exist is a shared, universal spirit (or, as physicists call it, energy – it’s all semantics), which is unchanging and powerful.
Housing that energy is things – rocks, trees, animals, humans – and it is these ‘things’ that act or think in a way that creates the concept of evil.
When I talked about this with my daughter, I suggested to her that she try to believe that, however badly she views herself, her soul can never be bad. It is always light, and strong, and beautiful, and good.
I really wanted to share this with you as it resonated so deeply with her. For the first time in many, many months, she said to me that maybe she thinks that she might be a bit nice after all (she is nice, by the way – she’s wonderful!).
Visualisation can be such a powerful tool for children – whether or not you are a spiritual person, I urge you to consider finding little images and visualisations that may help your children to deal with difficult issues.
A long time ago I wrote about helping children to deal with nervousness, and the little visualisation I taught to my children to help them when they were coming up to an activity they wanted to do but that they thought they may be too nervous to take part in.
I’d love to hear your experiences of using visualisation, or spiritual ideas to help your children.
Image credit: Sven Kirkpatrick