Always looking forward to your weekly posts! As I read the empty boat story, I was thinking how we can best apply it to busy, consumed, overwhelmed parents - including those without financial safety net worrying about basic needs.
Compared to work, I struggle often with parenting. I love quiet but my kids are active/ noisy so I am often wrestling with emotional buttons.
Kids, especially little ones, need attention and support almost 24/7 so it’s easy for parents to react emotionally. What would an effortless Wu Wei parenting look like, I wonder. 😊
Thank you for engaging and sharing your thoughts. I like the empty boat story a lot. It is so relatable in everyday life, a reminder that we are often at war with our inner selves. We encounter so many situations in life that we can easily get carried away.
My understanding is that we can still tell the inner self to calm down and see things clearly and that emotions and ego want to get the better of us in those uneasy situations as long as circumstances do not threaten our survival.
Applying wuwei to parenting will be even more challenging because the level of internal battle may be higher. After all, love and care will always be there, not like the encounter with a stranger on a boat. On an analytical level, I would think that if parents can adopt a wu-wei mindset to allow children to grow and develop naturally, that would be ideal. But it is always easier to say and analyze than to do it.
Always looking forward to your weekly posts! As I read the empty boat story, I was thinking how we can best apply it to busy, consumed, overwhelmed parents - including those without financial safety net worrying about basic needs.
Compared to work, I struggle often with parenting. I love quiet but my kids are active/ noisy so I am often wrestling with emotional buttons.
Kids, especially little ones, need attention and support almost 24/7 so it’s easy for parents to react emotionally. What would an effortless Wu Wei parenting look like, I wonder. 😊
Thank you for engaging and sharing your thoughts. I like the empty boat story a lot. It is so relatable in everyday life, a reminder that we are often at war with our inner selves. We encounter so many situations in life that we can easily get carried away.
My understanding is that we can still tell the inner self to calm down and see things clearly and that emotions and ego want to get the better of us in those uneasy situations as long as circumstances do not threaten our survival.
Applying wuwei to parenting will be even more challenging because the level of internal battle may be higher. After all, love and care will always be there, not like the encounter with a stranger on a boat. On an analytical level, I would think that if parents can adopt a wu-wei mindset to allow children to grow and develop naturally, that would be ideal. But it is always easier to say and analyze than to do it.
Really well explained and accessible. I so appreciate your work and sharing the old stories and how they apply today!
Thank you, Megan. Glad you find them helpful!