{"id":513,"date":"2011-06-01T07:00:32","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lettinggo\/?p=513"},"modified":"2011-05-26T11:58:10","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T15:58:10","slug":"lead-children-by-example","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/06\/lead-children-by-example.html","title":{"rendered":"The Best Present of All for Your Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lead by example. Children not only see<\/em> better than adults but they can taste <\/em>what they see in a way adults have forgotten. Their essence absorbs energy without the filters that we\u2019ve developed in the process of maturing in this world. Children naturally are nourished, for either the good or bad of that inner food, by the energetic states they pick up from those around them.<\/p>\n

If we will taste what we give our children to eat — psychologically, emotionally speaking — then we will gradually come to understand that we should never feed them anything we don’t want ourselves. For instance, what do we teach children when we’re angry or impatient? What do we teach them when they see us anxious over some news?<\/p>\n

Children and sponges have a lot in common. They soak up what is around them. Words that are in contrast with conditions are absorbed by children in the form of conflict. On the other hand, if they \u201ctaste\u201d our inner silence, they’ll want to be nourished in time by what they have seen. And what could be more healthful and healing to those around you who are distressed than your calm detachment from any pain they may experience?<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

What all of us need is awareness of the reality of our interior life and its impact on others around us. However, the fear that we may have fallen or failed our children gives them not our wish for solid ground, but instead a soiled ground. Just drop the moments in which you find yourself compromised. Intend to love and let it show you what is not loving. Be as consciously kind as you can be, which means to not express (but watch instead) your own negative states. Be as encouraging as possible without producing false hope. Speak the truth at all times without being cruel or unnecessarily over-correcting. And when asked for what you think is right, dare to speak it in spite of the consequences.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the overall well being of your children — all of your relationships, for that matter — there is nothing more important for you to do than to stay awake as best you can. It may be invisible to the eye, but the human heart needs the energy of love to grow, and this holds especially true for our children. Giving them the right kind of \u201cfoods\u201d to grow, to successfully develop their essence, begins with being conscious of the kind of energy you\u2019re expressing moment to moment. This is why being present to yourself is the best present of all for all that you love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lead by example. Children not only see better than adults but they can taste what they see in a way adults have forgotten. Their essence absorbs energy without the filters that we\u2019ve developed in the process of maturing in this world. Children naturally are nourished, for either the good or bad of that inner food,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,73,7],"tags":[619,620,616,51,615],"class_list":["post-513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-raising-children","category-love-relationships","category-self-remembering-awareness","tag-best-present","tag-energetic-states","tag-leading-by-example","tag-parenting","tag-raising-children"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Best Present of All for Your Children - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/06\/lead-children-by-example.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Best Present of All for Your Children - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lead by example. Children not only see better than adults but they can taste what they see in a way adults have forgotten. Their essence absorbs energy without the filters that we\u2019ve developed in the process of maturing in this world. Children naturally are nourished, for either the good or bad of that inner food,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/06\/lead-children-by-example.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-01T11:00:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-26T15:58:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@guy_finley\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Best Present of All for Your Children - Letting Go with Guy Finley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/06\/lead-children-by-example.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Best Present of All for Your Children - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"Lead by example. Children not only see better than adults but they can taste what they see in a way adults have forgotten. Their essence absorbs energy without the filters that we\u2019ve developed in the process of maturing in this world. Children naturally are nourished, for either the good or bad of that inner food,…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/06\/lead-children-by-example.html","og_site_name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","article_published_time":"2011-06-01T11:00:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-05-26T15:58:10+00:00","author":"Guy Finley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@guy_finley","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/06\/lead-children-by-example.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/06\/lead-children-by-example.html","name":"The Best Present of All for Your Children - Letting Go with Guy Finley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-06-01T11:00:32+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-26T15:58:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/06\/lead-children-by-example.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/06\/lead-children-by-example.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/06\/lead-children-by-example.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Best Present of All for Your Children"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/","name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","description":"Holistic, Mental Health and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16","name":"Guy Finley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","caption":"Guy Finley"},"description":"Bestselling \"Letting Go\" author Guy Finley's encouraging and accessible message is one of the true bright lights in our world today. His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. The Foundation's popular Key Lesson e-mails featuring inspirational quotes by Guy are read each week by a hundred thousand subscribers in 142 countries. Guy speaks four times each week on inner-life principles at Life of Learning Foundation's home in Merlin, Oregon. These meetings are ongoing and open to the public. For more information about Life of Learning Foundation, Guy Finley, and their life-changing messages, visit guyfinley.org. \"Guy Finley is...one of the leading experts at the forefront of human potential.\" -Nightingale Conant \"Guy Finley has helped millions live fuller, more peaceable lives.\" -Barnes and Noble","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.guyfinley.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","https:\/\/x.com\/guy_finley"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/author\/gfinley"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":521,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions\/521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}