Celebrate the Great Fullness of Life!

The “Stay Connected Challenge™”

with the Parent as Coach Approach

 

A Message to Parents

If you Respect me,
I will hear you.

If you Listen to me,
I will feel understood.

If you Understand me,
I will feel appreciated.

If you Appreciate me,
I will know your support.

If you Support me as I try new things,
I will become responsible.

When I am Responsible,
I will grow to be independent.

 In my Independence,

I will respect you and love you all of my life.

Thank you

The “Stay Connected Challenge™”

with the Parent as Coach Approach

by Diana Sterling, Certified Family Coach

CELEBRATE THE GREAT FULLNESS OF LIFE!

May is a time for celebrating the blossoming of spring, enjoying the garden, being outside with our children, and getting ready for summer plans and vacations!

The Stay Connected Challenge has taken us on a journey these last few months; taking stock of our relationships, our language choices, weeding out the cobwebs of our family relationships, taking new self-care steps…whew!!!  Taking care and accepting responsibility concerning family relationships is PRIORITY #1 in The Stay Connected Challenge. Now what?

CELEBRATE WHO YOU ARE!

At a recent International Coach Federation conference, author and activist Lynne Twist (I highly recommend her book, The Soul of Money) discussed societal attitudes towards money. She touched on how our personal beliefs around scarcity, sustainability, and sufficiency offer insight into our own lives. Lynne suggested the difference between gratitude and gratefulness.  She explained that gratitude has two branches. The first is gratefulness – and gratefulness is the act of fully experiencing the great fullness of life.

As a person fills-up on life’s great fullness, he or she begins to overflow into the second branch – that of thanks giving. In thanks giving, we are grateful that there are others with whom we can share our bounty, our abundance, our joy, our peace . . . our GREAT fullness of life.

As Lynne continued to speak, I felt both sadness for not appreciating the great fullness around me… and also new joy…and wanting to truly embrace the Great Fullness of Life with new awareness and intention.

So many Americans appear prosperous and happy and are actually dealing with internal emptiness and confusion, sadness and lack. We have not yet learned to grab on to the natural abundance, beauty, and joy that comes from every moment of conversation, love, amazement, joy; and also may include every moment of struggle, great effort, every lesson, every … and yes, even every loss .

Take the month of May to celebrate in your new Great Fullness of Life… in your own inner life and family, and your accomplishments. Celebrate your “wins,” rejoice in the abundance around us in nature, our neighborhoods and be grateful that we live in a place of such remarkable beauty and splendor. Simply walking out the front door and being able to wave to our neighbors, driving over the magnificent bridges around us, seeing the water sparkle, grabbing a cup of coffee with friends on a sunny afternoon….that is much to be grateful for as we see with new eyes the wonder of all around us.

Here are some action steps to try out as you lean into your own Great Fullness of Life.

1. QUIET TIME: Take 5-10 minutes as a personal “time out” if you find yourself in a stressful situation…yes you can find 5-10 MINUTES a day to sit and do nothing.

2. CREATE A GRATITUDE JOURNAL: You can teach your kids to do this too! Purchase an inexpensive little notebook for yourself – something that would fit in your purse or backpack. Write down 5 things per day you are Grateful for.

3. FIND A GREAT FULLNESS BUDDY: Share this article with one good friend and together design a Great Fullness event, vision board, party, or simple outing.

4. TEACH THIS TO YOUR CHILDREN: Kids learn from our doing, not our saying. Help them to learn about this new awareness that there is Great Fullness all around us. How about an art project with them – or ask them how they would like to celebrate THEMSELVES!

 

SPRITUAL GREAT FULLNESS IN ACTION

 

Lord make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
And where there is sadness, joy.

O divine master grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive-
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And its in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.”
― St. Francis of Assisi