Note to Reader: There is something so very soothing and hopeful when you think of parenting from your soul. It evokes feelings of truth, hope, and love. Parenting from a soulful place reduces stress, anxiety, and fear.  I found myself relaxing and smiling while reading Annie’s parenting tips. Thank you Annie for your views on soul to soul parenting.

By Annie Burnside, M. Ed.

• Utilize everyday life—such as friendships, nature, mealtimes, music, movies, and much more—as the perfect curriculum and forum to teach your children powerful, universal principles such as connectedness, self-love, presence, and forgiveness.
• Teach your children to allow multiple perspectives in all life situations and relationships by “flipping” challenges into positive, learning opportunities.
• Train your children to be more conscious of thoughts, words, and deeds so that they can assume greater responsibility for the shaping of their own reality.
• Encourage compassion, empathy and gratitude in your children on a daily basis by making them the most-used words in your home.
• Turn the JOY in family life way up by singing, dancing, smiling, humming, laughing, and relaxing rigid perspectives as often as possible through openness and gratitude.
• Model authenticity through speaking and living your truth thereby giving your children permission to do the same.
• Show your spirit daily so that your children can witness multiple aspects of you, and in turn, see multiple aspects in themselves.
• Teach your children that they are intuitive, creative, eternal spiritual beings—much larger than simply their physical form—and filled with infinite possibility and the capacity for direct divine connection.
• Assist your children in understanding that an appreciation for life in the present moment, coupled with enthusiasm for their future, plants the necessary seeds for manifesting their true heart’s desires.
• Provide the space and opportunity for your children to focus on their interior world as much as the exterior world, allowing greater intimacy with the voice of their own soul to feel what resonates as truth for them.

Bio: Annie Burnside is an author, educator, parent, and soul nurturer specializing in conscious relationships and spiritual development.  Annie’s recent book Soul to Soul Parenting: A Guide to Raising a Spiritually Conscious Family (Wyatt-MacKenzie, June 2010) inspires parents to utilize everyday mediums to infuse greater spiritual awareness into daily family life. She also writes the Soul to Soul Perspective: A Little Bit of Soul Goes a Long Way blog for the Chicago Tribune and the family consciousness column for Evolving Your Spirit Magazine. Besides writing, Annie speaks publicly and teaches workshops.  She lives with her husband and three children in Chicago, IL. More information about Annie can be found at www.annieburnside.com.

Today’s world forgets to give children a chance to be still. The Indigo Dreams Series offer children self-awareness techniques so that they can relax and explore who they are.