Teaching Humanity Remotely with Dr. Mindy Shaw

In this brief and personal episode, Dr. Shaw talks about the parenting dilemma of being overly enabling versus allowing our children to have experiences that sometimes can be very difficult. She shares an illustrative example from her own life and friendships as she describes a parent experiencing their child in an abusive relationship. Her philosophy is that as a parent, we can't judge or intervene sometimes... we have to help our children navigate their situations, but all we can do is pick up our children when they fall. Sometimes, in fact, when they fall, there are important and hard lessons learned via natural consequences. Our children need real life experiences to build their own independence, difficult as that may be to witness.

In this episode, Dr. Shaw examines the concept of not moving forward in life because we are defending our positions or defending our own limitations. She uses some illustrative examples of how we defend our positions in order to set the stage. Then we learn that what she feels we need first and foremost are good relationships, and a key to a good relationship is having communication that includes the views of our partners and not disregarding their opinions. If we can learn to not defend our positions, we can teach our children to be better friends and not to sweat the small stuff. Don't take things personally... that's an important axiom to live by.

In this episode, Dr. Shaw shares a very personal story about a recent experience in her own life. In this tale, she talks of a moment at which she felt like she needed a reprieve and she internally "cried uncle," and then within hours, the situation resolved itself. The lesson of the situation was that she noticed that she momentarily forgot her aim of remaining optimistic and she actually fell into an old pattern. What she was reminded of was that her new intention of being present and trusting that the universe will help work things out. It was a reminder to remain vigilant about maintaining a vision and to live life in the moment.

In this brief but important episode, Dr. Shaw discusses the concept of acceptance, and mostly from the point of view of self-acceptance. Her belief is that if someone is not accepting them self, then the alternative is to be filled with desire, and that's a negative and potentially dangerous emotional space to be in. We must teach our children to be satisfied with what we have. That is not to say that we shouldn't be aspirational, but we need to move forward based on who we are with an attitude of gratitude. We also want our children to have self-love, self-worth and self-respect. From that position of accepting who we are, we can begin personal growth from a positive point of view.

In this brief but important episode, Dr. Shaw discusses the need to be true to ourselves in order to attract people into our lives who are like we are. She believes that we attract what we need when we need it. It is important for children to understand that friendships go through transitions, and that's ok. Life can be filled with different kinds of relationships, and some may be more fulfilling than others. Things evolve. The keys to communicating all of this to our children are intention, attention and reflection. Also, we must note and mark important moments... children need to be reminded of what they are learning. Through authenticity we earn fulfillment.