Parenting is often portrayed as a journey filled with joy, love, and adorable moments. While it includes those aspects, any seasoned parent will tell you it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Parenthood is an intricate path filled with hurdles, and just like all other parents, I have had my fair share of struggles along the way.
Being a mom to two teenage girls has undoubtedly been one of the most challenging and rewarding journeys of my life. But on the other hand, it is a constant balancing act, a rollercoaster ride through emotions, and a daily test of my patience and resilience.
During my 14 years of parenting journey, I have been through various ups and downs and faced several parenting challenges at different stages while raising my girls.
So when I received an opportunity to join and review Mindvalley’s one of the most popular quests, Dr. Shefali’s Conscious Parenting Mastery, I enrolled myself in this quest without delay and completed 35-day journey to become a better and more conscious parent.
What is conscious parenting mastery all about? And what is my honest experience after completing this quest? Read on to know more.
Table of Contents
My parenting journey
If I talk about my biggest parenting struggle as a mother of two teenage girls? Well, it’s a multifaceted challenge that encompasses a myriad of moments, emotions, and lessons.
Nowadays, I am having a hard time finding the delicate balance between giving them the freedom they crave and providing the guidance and boundaries they need. It feels like walking on a tightrope, trying not to lose my footing on either side.
From handling teenage tantrums to keeping myself updated with the latest teenage trends, I put lots of effort into being a loving and caring mom for my girls. Despite these efforts, I often find it challenging to maintain a peaceful harmony in my relationship with my girls.
However, I am strictly against yelling, screaming, or losing my cool while dealing with my girls. Still, I have done all these inappropriate behaviors from time to time while dealing with various complex parenting challenges.
What is conscious parenting?
Before diving deep into the content of the quest, let’s talk about conscious parenting.
Conscious parenting is a thoughtful approach to raising children that emphasizes self-awareness, empathy, and intentional decision-making. It involves being mindful and attuned to both your child’s needs and your own emotions and reactions. The goal of conscious parenting is to foster a deep and nurturing relationship between parents and children while promoting the child’s emotional and psychological well-being.
To get a proper idea about Dr. Shefali’s groundbreaking conscious parenting mastery quest, I first watched the introductory video on the Mindvalley platform and loved it.
In this introductory video, Dr. Shefali begins her speech by debunking the myths about conscious parenting. She explains clearly that conscious parenting is not about doing or allowing all the things that your kids want. Instead, it is a gradual learning journey and maintaining a conscious approach while raising your kids. It is about making conscious efforts to create a state of attunement and harmony in your relationship with your kids.
While watching this first video, Dr. Shefali’s heart-to-heart conversation had a strong impact on me, and I felt an immediate sense of connection with her parenting journey, and excited to embark on a journey of conscious parenting mastery under her guidance..
If you want to know more about the conscious parenting approach, you can also watch this TEDx talk by Dr. Shefali on the same topic.
What do you learn in the Conscious Parenting Mastery quest?
The Conscious Parenting Mastery quest is easily accessible through the Mindvalley platform, where it is one of the more popular quests with over 100,000 students enrolled so far. The course involves 13.3 hours of training and is available on your computer, tablet, or smartphone.
The quest is divided into five parts that are delivered over five weeks. Let’s have a look at each of the part in more detail.
Part 1: Conscious parenting and our roots
The first part of the conscious parenting quest involves a process of deep self-introspection of your childhood patterns and experiences. Dr. Shefali asks us to observe how this childhood experience manifests in your relationship with your child.
Part 2: Changing the mindset
The second part of the conscious parenting quest focuses on changing the mindset and breaking the various cultural myths and archetypes about raising kids. In this part, Dr. Shefali talks about turning our fear into courage and inspires us to take the first steps toward making beautiful and nurturing relationships with our kids.
Part 3: Changing you
The third part is about changing yourself and redefining your role as a parent. In this part, Dr. Shefali offers an emotional toolkit to change your inner world and become a more conscious and effective parent with great self-awareness and compassion while raising kids.
Part 4: Changing the relationship
Part 4 focuses on widening our parenting perspective and allows us to explore things from different points of view. In this part, Dr. Shefali provides a well-structured mental framework to understand and accept your child’s individual entity. She asks us to transcend our role as traditional parents and motivate us to become a spiritual guide for our kids.
Part 5: Transform discipline into a mindful connection
In the last part of the conscious parenting quest, Dr. Shefali concludes things with an inclusive approach, focusing on creating conscious boundaries that help your child learn and grow rather than restricting them. She strongly emphasizes transforming discipline and control into mindful connection and suggests being patient while walking toward conscious parenting.
I hope this basic introduction has given you a fair idea about the conscious parenting philosophy, and just like me, you might feel excited to explore this quest in detail.
To satisfy your curiosity, here I am sharing week by week summary of a conscious parenting quest. Keep reading to know more.
What do you learn in the Conscious Parenting Mastery quest?
Week 1 summary
Week 1 starts with setting a sacred intention on why you are taking this conscious parenting quest and why it is important for you to follow a path of conscious parenting. In the first week of the quest, Dr. Shefali breaks many popular parenting myths, such as parenting is only about kids and becoming a good parent is a natural process, and creates a solid foundation for parents to understand the basics of conscious parenting philosophy.
In the first week, she introduces us to the first transformative skill, “practice pause to projection,” and ends the week with Integrated mediation practice and child-parent connection day.
Week 2 summary
Week 2 starts with debunking another set of popular parenting myths, that raising “a successful and happy child” should be the primary parental motive. During the second week, she talks about cultural archetypes and asks us to tackle the root of fear associated with traditional parenting styles.
Furthermore, she focuses on taking a step towards courage and practicing mindfulness while raising kids. In the second week, she introduces the second transformative skill as “expectation to empathetic engagement.” She motivates us to create attunement with kids rather than pressuring them to follow our chosen path. Like before, she ends the week with weekly integrated meditation practice and celebrating Child-Parent Connection Day.
Week 3 summary
Week 3 again starts with busting another set of popular parenting myths: “A good parent is a loving one.” While busting this myth, she requests us to redefine our role as conscious parents and focus on accepting and loving ourselves.
Moving forward, she shares an emotional toolkit for effective parenting. In the upcoming days of week 3, she talks about developing a sense of awareness and self-acceptance for our own and our children’s lives. She introduces the third transformative skill, “judgment to compassion. ” later in the week, she guides us to become more compassionate while raising tiny tots.
Weekly meditation and child-parent connection day conclude week three on a peaceful and joyous note, and you feel a sense of self-accomplishment while moving forward on the path of conscious parenting.
Week 4 summary
Week 4 starts with debunking another popular parenting myth: that we should judge our children as good or bad as per their behavior, actions, and other external factors. This week, Dr. Shefali calls on us to stop judging our kids based on these external factors and invites us to discover who our child really is. She wants us to shift our focus to our child’s inner needs and celebrate their unique individuality.
In week 4, she asks us to release our role as traditional parents and become spiritual guides to them. She also teaches another incredible transformative skill, “Reactions to feel the feeling.” Her in-depth explanation makes us realize how we are trapped in a blind cycle of reacting to our feelings rather than feeling them. Week 4 again ends with a weekly integrated meditation practice, and she gives us a chance to connect with our kids meaningfully with child-parent connection day.
Week 5 summary
Week 5 is the last week of the conscious parenting quest. This week, Dr. Shefali starts by discussing another important aspect of parenting: disciplining and controlling our kids. She shares why she is strictly against the traditional discipline strategies and why they do not work. She requests us to let go of typical discipline tactics and instead focus on creating conscious boundaries that are not for our kids but for ourselves. As another effective parenting strategy, she discusses the importance of natural learning and consequences and introduces us to the last set of transformative skills, “control to connection.”
She explains the importance of moving from control to creating deep connectivity and meaningful connections with our kids. She inspires us to become life partners and allies for our kids rather than micromanage or control everything.
The last two days of the quest are about connecting the dots and recapping what we have learned during the last 35 days. Dr. Shefali revises and recalls all key concepts in the last part of the quest and asks us to look back to the revised key learning and key challenges we faced during the quest. In the end, she concludes the quest by celebrating this journey and motivating us to take a pledge to follow the path of conscious parenting with patience and consistency.
Highlights of the Conscious Parenting Mastery quest
Outstanding work on debunking popular parenting myths
As I mentioned in a week-by-week summary, Dr. Shefali has done an incredible job busting many popular, but unhelpful, parenting models and practices. As unconscious parents, most of us follow traditional parenting practices and behave like our parents did with us. Here, Dr. Shefali’s conscious parenting quest creates the magic. She has busted various parenting myths so amazingly in this quest and bound us to rethink how we react or treat our kids.
Here is a list of popular parenting myths Dr. Shefali has busted in this quest.
- Parenting is all about the child
- Good parents are natural
- The goal is a successful and happy child
- A good parent is a loving one
- There are good children and bad children
- Parents need to be in control
Introduction to transformative skills
The quest is not only about breaking the traditional parenting model, but it is also about helping you to become a conscious parent as well. During the five weeks of empowering journey, she teaches us many incredible transformative skills that allow us to become new and better parents. She also shares an emotional tool kit and various parenting strategies that empower us and support us emotionally to lead toward conscious parenting.
Here is a list of transformative skills she taught us in the conscious parenting mastery quest.
- Practice pause to projection
- Expectation to empathetic expectations
- Judgment to compassion
- Reaction to feeling the feelings
- Control to connection
Weekly integrated meditation practices
Dropping the old ways of raising kids and leading the new ways to parent them is not as easy as it seems. It might feel overwhelming to many of us (including me) to learn many transformative skills and implement them practically to see the visible results. Dr. Shefali has incorporated a weekly integrated medication practice to reduce this overwhelming feeling. This weekly meditation practice helps us absorb the essence of conscious parenting very well and create harmony and peace in our inner selves.
Daily tasks and downloadable workbooks to keep you on track with your learning
The conscious parenting mastery quest includes daily tasks and worksheets to make your conscious parenting journey easier and more exciting. Dr. Shefali has included many daily tasks based on the day’s theme that not only involve a process of self-introspection but also help keep you on track with your learning of conscious parenting strategies.
To keep you on track, you also have access to a community – your “supportive tribe” of other students. I did not have much chance to interact with the supportive tribe due to my hectic schedule. However, if you want, you can share your conscious parenting journey with all the ups and downs with the supportive tribe and can get all the needed support to not feel alone in this journey.
Things to keep in mind before enrolling (what the quest is not all about)
This quest is not a quick fix or immediate solution to any parenting challenges or struggles
Yes, this is one of the important things to remember before joining this course. If you are in a hurry and looking for some quick fix steps or immediate solutions to your parenting challenges, then this quest is not suitable for you. This course involves a serious and dedicated process of looking deep into yourself and healing your own child so that you can create a better relationship with your child. The course involves various emotional practices, such as looking back on your childhood patterns and experiences, which might bring strong emotional turmoil for a moment. Thus, preparing yourself well before embarking on the journey of becoming a conscious parent is important.
Do not expect immediate results
This one is an extension of the previous pointer. Because the conscious parenting mastery quest did not focus on offering quick-fix solutions, you cannot expect to get overnight or immediate results after joining or completing the quest. Dr. Shefali asks you to break the old, traditional parenting practices and offers you many transformative skills to become a conscious parent, but making that transformation is not an instant task. It is a constant learning journey of breaking stereotypical parenting practices and establishing new ones that are unique and empowering. Hence, it will require time, energy, and serious efforts to make this transformation possible. Changing your settled parenting behaviors and adopting new ones will require consistent practice. So, be patient and follow the path passionately to see the visible results.
Previous experience with mediation and spiritual principles can offer a great help
Though it is not mandatory, if you have previous experience with meditation or other spiritual practices, then this journey will feel a little less overwhelming to you. Many of the suggested parenting strategies involve incorporating a spiritual way of thinking. This journey will ask you to transcend your traditional role as a parent and become your child’s spiritual mentor or co-traveler; thus, having previous experience with these principles can be a bonus point to reach your desired goals. You might feel lost or confused with the whole quest if you have never heard about the spiritual process.
How can you access the quest?
You can access this quest through a Mindvalley membership, which costs $99 per month or $499 for a year. Apart from this quest, membership also gives you access to almost all other quests on Mindvalley – many of which are great complements to this one.
Importantly, if you are unsure whether the program is worth it for you, Mindvalley membership comes with a no-questions-asked trial period of 15 days so you can try out the program with no financial risk.
Conclusion and recommendations
Being a mom of two teenage girls, I went through an emotional roller coaster ride with the conscious parenting quest. From looking back on my old childhood patterns to breaking cultural archetypes, each step has put me in a unique emotional state. At times, I was able to complete the given tasks with ease, while at some stages, I struggled to keep up the pace of the course.
The conscious parenting quest has helped me analyze my parenting behaviors from a different angle. I realized many of my behavioral mistakes, such as projection or overreaction on trivial topics with my girls, without pausing. With this self-realization, I started working slowly and habitually paused before projection (one of the important transformative skills).
Moving forward, I learned the art of celebrating the uniqueness of my children as a separate entity and started celebrating their unique individuality. As a parent, it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing your child to others, measuring their achievements against societal standards. However, after completing my conscious parenting quest, I quickly realized that this approach stifles the very essence of what makes my children special. Now, I celebrate their uniqueness and encourage them to embrace it wholeheartedly.
The conscious parenting quest has widened my horizon, and I cultivate the art of looking at things from their perspective. After completing the conscious parenting quest, I decided to honor their individual choice and unique personality traits and make conscious efforts to make better choices as a parent.
Furthermore, I felt a strong sense of commitment. I promised myself I would consistently follow conscious parenting principles to create harmony in my relationship with my girls.
Finally, the conscious parenting quest has also inspired me to drop my role as a traditional parent who dictates, instructs, or behaves in a predictable way. Instead, I pledged to try to become my girls’ spiritual mentor rather than following the traditional, stereotypical parenting role.
I cannot say that I have mastered the art of conscious parenting by just completing the course in 35 days, but I can say one thing confidently: I have felt a huge sense of transformation within myself after completing this quest. I am optimistic that following these conscious parenting principles will bring a state of freshness and uniqueness to my relationship with my kids.
I want to end this review by expressing gratitude to Dr. Shefali for creating a new path for parents that is purely divine and empowering. If you want to know more about Dr. Shefali’s work, click here.
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