Ten Steps to Unconditional Love The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well” -- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross We all know that children require unconditional love to thrive. But how many of us feel capable of giving it? We cant, quite simply, give something we dont have inside. Loving your child starts with loving yourself. So if you didn’t have a perfect childhood, if youre more cranky than compassionate, should you just give up on being a good parent? No. Research shows that we can always grow inside, to become more loving to ourselves and others. In fact, the fastest path to stretching our hearts is parenting, because our love for our child motivates us to grow. (You sacrifice and work harder for your child than for your own well-being, right?) It takes work, but the good news is that as our hearts get bigger, we’re not just better parents. We’re happier people. Healing your ability to love takes daily attention and commitment, but its quite do-able. Think of it like playing the piano. In the beginning, a scale is an effort. But in a year, you can play a sonata. Heres how. 1. Forgive yourself for not being perfect. Unconditional love means dropping that list of ways you need to be different before youre good enough in your own eyes. Perfection is the lowest standard anyone can have. We arent going for perfect. Were going for love! What your child needs is your full presence and appreciation, not perfection. Sometimes youll make mistakes. As long as you can forgive yourself, youll find a way to repair those little rifts with your child, which will strengthen your relationship and your childs resilience. Start by changing how you talk to yourself. Every time you notice self-criticism, remind yourself that your goal isn’t perfection. Your goal is loving yourself and others. 2. Unconditional love is like a muscle. It needs a daily workout. Compassion is the heavy lifting of life. You know it takes daily practice to build that kind of muscle. Why should your heart be an exception? Commit to treating yourself and everyone around you with compassion. Every time you notice harshness creeping in, toward yourself, your child, or anyone else, stop and find something to appreciate about that person. No exceptions. If you could choose compassion in every interaction with everyone, including yourself, youd be enlightened by the end of the month. 3. Want to wake up jazzed about the day ahead? Commit to radical self-care. We all know that when we can stay connected to our internal fountain of well-being, it overflows onto our children and were more patient, loving, joyful parents. To love our children unconditionally, we need to keep our own pitchers full so we aren’t running on empty. And yet, most of us live in constant stress, which depletes us. What if you committed to taking care of yourself and staying centered? First, because life is short, and you deserve it. And second, so you can be the peaceful, patient, encouraging parent your child deserves. Would that be a radical act? Whose life is it, anyway? And at the end of it, who will have been responsible for how you felt -- and acted -- during it? 4. Forgive your parents for being human. When your child pushes your buttons, do you ever wonder when those buttons were built into your psyche? Thats right -- during your own childhood. If you want to liberate your heart, you have to heal your old wounds. Maybe you got the message that you were too needy, too angry, too selfish, too lazy, too careless...too childish? Our parents, however well-intentioned, were products of their time, and most of us didnt get the message that we were wholly loved, human imperfections and all. It’s time to let that go. Letting your childhood family determine your happiness level is like letting the waiter eat your dinner. 5. Heal Your Heart, Heal Your Life . The only way out is through. Sorry, but that means breathing your way through that unfinished business. Find an hour by yourself. Light a candle and sit quietly. Reach out to that child inside you who still feels unloved and feel his or her pain. Breathe. Reassure that child that he or she is completely lovable and loved. Be brave. Once you get through that pain youve been avoiding, you wont need to hang on to any kind of anger. It may arise --youre still human! -- but youll be able to notice it and let it go, rather than acting on it. Thats why forgiving others heals us. It isnt about them. Its about consciously feeling our pain -- accepting it instead of fighting against it -- so we dont need to hang on to our anger as a defense. 6. Accept your child unconditionally. Unconditional love isnt just what we feel. Its what the object of our love feels: love without strings attached. That means our child doesnt have to be, or do, anything in particular to earn our love. We love her exactly as she is. A tall order, since most of us have a little list of things we want fixed in our child. The trick is to commit to seeing things from your childs point of view. Suddenly, misbehavior is comprehensible, forgivable. Challenging character traits evoke tenderness. Compassion comes easily. The blocks to love melt away, and our love becomes unconditional. 7. Commit to parenting from love, not anger. Its easy to love unconditionally when our child is being delightful and we feel good. But how many of us can stay lovingly connected to our child while we set limits on behavior? How many of us can resist the temptation to lash out at our child when we feel justifiably angry? How many of us can love our child through his upsets? A teachable moment is always when both people are receptive and positive. Anger and punishment are never based in love. Maybe its time to move your game up a notch and commit to parenting from love, not from anger. Notice I didnt say this would be easy. But every time you manage your anger instead of spilling it onto your child, it gets easier. Within a few months, you’ll realize you dont lose your temper anymore. And that your relationship with your child has completely transformed as a result. 8. Lighten Up and Show Up. Have you made mistakes as a parent? Join the club. They arent mistakes if you use them to guide you toward a better way in the future. You dont have to have all the answers. You dont have to fix your child or the situation. All you have to do is stay present and choose love instead of fear. Your child doesnt even need the red cup, or whatever hes crying for; he needs your loving acceptance of him, complete with all his tangled up feelings. His disappointment, rage, and grief? Theyre all ok, part of a rich emotional life, and they will all pass if you accept them, and him. Just love him through it. 9. Take the High Road. You know what the high road is. When you’re feeling really good, nothing fazes you. You respond to your child’s foibles with patience, understanding, and a sense of humor. You know what the low road is, too. It’s when you’re stressed, exhausted, resentful. When you insist on having it your way or proving you were right. When your fuse is so short that you feel justified in having your own little tantrum. When youre in the grip of fight or flight emotions and your child looks like the enemy. Nobody takes the high road all the time. But there are ways to live that help you find yourself on it more and more. 10. Practice Makes Perfect. Healing our ability to love unconditionally requires daily practice as we catch the curve balls of life. Nothing has to be different for you to love yourself exactly as you are. There is no such thing as a perfect parent. But it is entirely possible to be a better parent every day. After all, you have live-in teachers and 24/7 lessons! Use your mistakes to your advantage. They aren’t mistakes if you learn from them, they’re life lessons in your parenting PhD. That’s why spiritual masters call it a Practice! At first, it seems impossible. But its like playing the piano. In the beginning, scales are a challenge. But if you practice, in a year you can play a sonata. Just keep practicing, bringing awareness to every interaction, finding that moment of freedom between the stimulus (your childs behavior) and your own reaction. Noticing is what gives us a choice next time. The miracle of one foot in front of the other, in the right direction, is that one day you look around, and all the scenery is different. Enjoy the journey. Repeat daily. Watch your life transform. By Dr. Laura Markham
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 02:16:06 +0000
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