Helping parents set up emotional wellbeing for their children for life
Emotional intelligence coach and award winning academic, Dr Gauri Seth, explains how Conscious Connection can support parents in developing children’s resilience and emotional wellbeing. And it all begins with their own self-care.
Parents and early caregivers are uniquely placed to provide healthy messages for the emotional wellbeing of our children for the rest of their lives. This is an enormously empowering and exciting stage of life, and supporting parents with this is my mission.
By tuning in to conscious connected parenting, there are simple things we can do every day as parents. These can promote family dynamics that support self-esteem and self-worth in children. And these can support their mental wellness for life.
What is Conscious Connection and why will it help my family’s emotional wellbeing?
Conscious connection is a two-step process where:
1) Parents pause, and consciously connect to their own state of mind.
2) Once they have greater control over their own state of mind, parents can then consciously connect with their children. By doing this in an objective and non-judgemental way, it provides the emotional attunement which they need.
We can bring conscious awareness to those difficult moments which trigger our feelings. Or when our tolerance is slipping, and tensions are rising. These are the magic moments right there, where we can pause. Zoom out. Connect with ourselves as adults. And try really hard to be objective within the moment, on what’s going on and why.
Self-Care for parents is essential to support emotional wellbeing
Conscious connection requires parents to consider their own wellness and state of mind. So self-care and wellness for parents are paramount because parenting is hard and exhausting. And it is harder to connect with our children in an authentic way if we are in a difficult state of mind our self.
Trying to be a perfect parent does not help
Conscious connection also encourages a realistic view of parenting, rather than striving for perfection. Often, we are constantly trying to be in control of everything and wanting things to be perfect. But the chances are we are not then consciously connected to our authentic selves as parents. And this is necessary in order to connect with our children.
How can I help parents support emotional wellbeing?
Through conscious connected parenting techniques, I provide connection coaching for families. This supports the parent-child connection, for emotional wellness.
As a parent of three under-eights, I am also an emotional intelligence coach with a background in medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy. And as an award-winning academic, I have pioneered a method that families can apply to their own context, to ensure their children grow up with messages that boost self-esteem, positive self-regard, and self-respect.
I can also advise parents in modelling the art of seeing things from different perspectives which can help empower their children with an agile mindset. And this is particularly important as the pandemic has created unprecedented pressure on family systems.
One takeaway message from experience is that we don’t know when things might change and when. However, what we can do is practice and cultivate a flexible and agile mindset. With resilience to problem solve and adapt.
Using scientific insights, I provide Brain-Based Connection® programmes for parents, which:
- Enhance connection with children
- Boost resilience and emotional intelligence in children
- Improve emotional well-being for children and parents
- Empower dynamics where family life becomes fertile ground for learning life-long emotional skills
For more information on my work please see www.brainbasedconnection.co.uk.
