The Practice of Being Present with Our Children

Your undivided attention means the world to your children; it helps them know themselves as valued and precious human beings.  

This same quality of attention is critical to your own personal development. In fact, the spiritual traditions all teach that being present is the doorway to what it means to awaken. 

The problem is that, whether your child is two or twenty-two, when they behave in challenging ways it can feel difficult to find a centered place from which to respond. 

Even when your kids aren’t acting out, we all have such full lives, such long to-do lists, and so much vying for our attention, it’s hard to slow down and practice being present with them. 

Being present includes being with all the different feelings that arise while you are parenting, including emotions that re-surface from your own childhood when you get triggered in relating to your children.  

And kids know just how to push your buttons, so you may end up feeling angry, overwhelmed, or wanting to withdraw—perhaps when you’re most needed.   

As a conscious parent, you want to be aware of and recognize any feelings that are surfacing from your past. Working through and understanding these feelings is doing your parenting homework, so that you become more open and patient, responding to your children with less “charge” and coping more effectively, moment-to-moment. 

As you work through your personal material, you’ll start to experience more presence, love, and connectedness inside yourself and you’ll discover that your relationship with your children also feels more solid, that they act out less, and that they respond to you differently.  

On Sunday, August 18^th from 10:00 a.m. – 1:00p.m. Pacific Time, mother, grandmother, and long-time Diamond Approach teacher Joyce Lyke is leading a live, online seminar to give you the tools to work with your own material so that even in deeply challenging moments you can stay clear, open, and grounded. 

During this seminar with Joyce, you will:

• Learn the main sensing practices of the Diamond Approach, which help you become and stay more present  

• See how your focus is often externally directed or scattered, and how that pulls you away from both yourself and your children 

• Inquire into ways you are triggered by your children, so you can discover the historical roots of those feelings, understand them, and avoid passing on the same distressful patterns that you once experienced 

• Discover how being present with yourself leads to less stressful parenting and better-behaved children    

Everything you’ll learn in the seminar can also serve as a practice for your own awakening.  In connecting more deeply with ourselves, we also foster deeper connections with our children. And with more conscious interactions in our lives, all of us—adults and children alike—can grow, develop, and thrive.  

Meet the Teacher

JOYCE LYKE

is a lead and presenting teacher of the Diamond Approach.  She has taught on-going Diamond Approach groups for 27 years in the U.S., British Columbia, the United Kingdom, and Germany. 

Prior to her 35 years as a Ridhwan student, she lived and worked at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.  During those 15 years, she trained in Gestalt Awareness Practice, deep tissue bodywork, somatic psychology, early childhood development, and various body movement practices. She was a teacher at the Esalen Gazebo Park, a cutting-edge preschool under the direction of Janet Lederman. She was the director of a children’s ski school in her late twenties. 

She is currently integrating aspects of the Diamond Approach into the challenge and practice of parenting.  She teaches how it is possible to spiritually awaken through caring for our children and works with parents and parent educators helping them to recognize essential developmental stages in children.  For more information see the ‘Awakening to Parenting’ section of her website.