Whole and Healthy Families, A 21st Century Challenge

WHOLE AND HEALTHY FAMILIES,
A 21ST CENTURY CHALLENGE
Throughout the world today people are being particularly challenged by the fast pace of change, the stress of change and the fear of change.  But no matter the challenge, no matter the struggle to keep the status quo, change is here and the speed and impact of that change continues to be more and more dramatic.  The challenge is to move from an old paradigm to a new paradigm.

The impact of this challenge is especially felt within families.  Our current generation of children have a unique role to play in guiding the transition from the old to the new; and, with this role, they face the conflict between tradition and innovation; between the drive to be successful (however that is interpreted) and the drive to follow their own path; between control and allowance; between anger and forgiveness; between the need to please parents and the drive to be themselves; between acceptance/approval needs and self-acceptance; between hate and love.  These children come armed with enhanced abilities to achieve this collective purpose.  They have unique talents, they are often hyper-sensitive emotionally, they have a unique sense of compassion, and they have an enhanced desire not to conform to the old. 

The first challenge that children face is being born into an environment of old patterns of fear, mostly fostered by parent and family traditions.  Understandably, most of today’s parents remain woefully unaware of the uniqueness of their own children as they continue to parent in the old style of control, dominance and punishment/reward, laced certainly with love at the outset but with heightened frustration during adolescence. 

The role of today’s guides and teachers of this generation is two-fold. The first is to assist the child to: a.) heal those issues that they allow to block them from joy, b.) strengthen their own individual abilities and self-esteem and c.) become aware of and follow their own unique purpose and path in life.  The second role is to assist parents to break away from their demand for ‘compliance to tradition’ in order to foster a more beneficial environment for their children’s growth and happiness.