You’ve heard the old saying, “The family that prays together stays together.” Well, how about this: “The family that creates together loves life together”?
I’m sure by now most of you are aware of how the universal law of attraction works. In a nutshell, whatever you spend the most time thinking, daydreaming or talking about is what you will experience in your life. When we understand this, we can start to take control of the creation process of our own lives and, once we get the hang of it, we can pass this very useful understanding of life onto our children.
The most formative years for a child’s mindset are those before the age of seven. Everything they hear, see and feel becomes part of their belief system and sets the foundation for the automatic way they react to situations in life. As parents we have the opportunity to influence the regular words and situations our children encounter by using positive affirmations and honest communication to build their self-esteem and offer a safe and happy home. The truth about life and about how powerful they are (once they understand how the universe works) helps them to feel in control of their life and excited about the prospect of creating their dreams.
It is my belief that if we can fill a child’s mind with positive thoughts and feelings of self-love and gratitude, they will not have to go through the deep healing and reprogramming that many of us, as adults, have to deal with.
A confident child with a faith in their connection to the universe, or Source, will never feel a victim. A child who has knowledge of and practical skills in the ways of the universe will move forward in life prepared to conquer their dreams, because that’s what they know they can do. They envisage happiness and success and this is what will manifest. A child who knows how amazing they are and who has a head filled with positive thoughts will be able to navigate life’s challenges far more smoothly than a child who is filled with self-doubt, worry and guilt. An empowered child will move through life attune to their higher self, free to follow their heart and experience their every desire.
Children of this generation resonate with spiritual truth. They are open to universal law and want to centre their lives around love. Perhaps young children are the most spiritual of all because they have not yet been conditioned to be anything else!
Children are naturally attracted to parents who share with them spirituality. It feels right to them, they react positively to the “connectedness” of their parents and they want to know more. They feel calmer when their parent is calmer and are very interested in the tools a spiritual parent uses during their day such as meditation, guidance cards, gratitude, prayer, positive affirmations, angels, relaxation, love and affection, peaceful manner and visualisation.
There are a few simple activities that can help you teach your family how to ask the universe for what they want.
Know your dreams
Do you know what your family members dream about? How often do you sit with your family and talk about your wildest dreams?
For this activity, bring your family together and open the communication by talking about all of your dreams. Show excitement about the aspirations of each family member (all dreams are equally important). Explain to your family how the universe works, which is that everything you want you can have — you just have to show the universe what it looks and feels like to have it and take small daily steps towards your dream to show the universe your intention.
A great first step if this is new to everybody could be to watch the film The Secret by Rhonda Byrne that talks very powerfully and practically about the incredible creative force of the Law of Attraction.
Ask each family member to talk about their dreams for the future covering a variety of areas such as their health, career, relationships, friendships, wealth and self-development.
For young children under three you may encourage them by asking questions like: What things do you love to do? Are there any friends or family you would like to see more of? This helps the young child to form an opinion on what is important to them and gives them the sense that their ideas are valued.
Between the ages of three and five, children have more of a concept of what they really want and can talk about their thoughts on a desired holiday location, toys they like, outings they would like to go on, friends they want to see more of and so on.
Primary school-aged children may enjoy dreaming about things like Christmas presents, how they like to exercise their bodies, their favourite clothes, family outings, sleepovers with friends etc.
As they move towards adulthood, high school-aged children want to be in control of everything in their lives. This can be an awesome time for them if they feel like they’re being listened to but a terrible time if they don’t. So ask them: What does your future look like? What type of people are you surrounded by? How does your body look and feel? What activities would you want your day filled with? If you could do any job you wanted what would it be? What makes you happy right now?
The idea is to get them imagining outside the usual box. They don’t have to know their exact career/life path for this universal process to work. Thinking generally about career, do they want to be outside or in, at a computer or travelling overseas, working on their own or in a team? Help them to focus their dream on doing things they love, things that make them feel good, and if they’re not sure of the details about things have them think more broadly.
Allowing your children to know you have your own dreams and aspirations is great for them, too. They get to see you as more than just their mum or dad. As a parent you could dream about your flow of abundance, dream house, your circle of like-minded friends, health and wellbeing, career, happy children etc.
Once everyone in the family is aware of each other’s individual dreams, you can discuss dreams for the whole family to get involved in. A whole family talking and thinking about their next holiday or a brand new house creates a bond and a like focus, thereby bringing the family unit closer and sending a very powerful message to the universe.
Build vision boards
A vision board is a wonderful creative project that the whole family can get involved in. Grab some magazines, catalogues, photos, glue, scissors, pens and cardboard and get the family around the kitchen table. Now that you already know each other’s wishes and dreams, it’s time to make a vision board.
Finding images: You don’t have to find the absolute image of what you want; just a picture that represents it. For example, if you want a house with a pool, find a picture of a pool that makes you all feel happy and a few pictures of different house interiors that represent the “feel” you want from a home, like tiled floors, open living and big decks. You may like to download some images from the internet or write some words (“Happy Family”, “Money”, “Holiday” etc) and print them out for inclusion on the board. Make sure each family member contributes something to the board.
Design the board: Once the pictures have been cut out and prepared, the next step is to paste these images and words onto cardboard. This vision board represents your family’s vision for the future and helps the whole family to have the same focus for everybody’s growth and happiness. The more people thinking and visualising the same thing, the more powerfully the result will manifest. You could also create a separate vision board for each family member.
Hang it up: Position the vision board in a communal area so that it can be seen on a daily basis. Encourage family members to get excited every time they look at the board and imagine how they will feel when they are living their dreams on the vision board.
Imagine you are already living the dream: The power of a vision board is intensified when you can imagine yourself as already living the dream and giving thanks to the universe for it being in your lives. For example, you can affirm, “Thanks, universe, for our awesome house. We love swimming in the pool and having friends over to play. It’s such a great family home.”
Affirmations
In the book You Can Create an Exceptional Life, Louise Hay and Cheryl Richardson ponder the effect affirmations have on our lives. “Too many people think you need to go somewhere to quietly focus on affirmations,” Louise explains, “but we’re doing affirmations all the time. Everything we think and say to ourselves is an affirmation. We need to be conscious of what we’re saying and think all the time so that life can get better.”
When your children are young it’s a wonderful time to start filling their heads with positive affirmations. Then they will grow up with a healthy mindset that always reverts to positive thoughts about themselves and life. You can help them to create positive affirmations to overcome challenging situations and to bring dreams into their lives.
Some of my favourite affirmations to use with young children are “You are such a beautiful person, inside and out”; “You are very good at trying new things”; “Your body is amazing and knows what it needs”.
For school-aged children encourage them to say affirmations that build self-belief and confidence: “The answer to everything I need is within me”; “Everything I am led to do I will succeed in”; “I let go and let the universe lead me to the answer”; “I am supported in all I do”; “I am loved”.
Affirmations are great for people of all ages and can be adapted to suit any life situation. As a parent, some of the following are very helpful: “Every day in every way I get better and better”; “I love my harmonious home”; “Abundance flows into my life in surprising ways every day”; “I nurture myself and my family daily”.
Visualisation
I always remember Doreen Virtue’s story in her book The Lightworker’s Way. When her father needed a new car, the whole family came together every day and would visualise the type and colour of car that her father had chosen. They would stand in a circle, hold hands, close their eyes and imagine the brown car being in the driveway and they would give thanks that it was so.
Within a month that brown car was in the driveway — a memory that Doreen always kept as a child and a tool of visualisation she’s carried with her always.
Dream about it enough and it will come
Here is an example of how you could respond to your children when they see something in the shop that they “just have to have”: “Do you like that? It’s lovely, isn’t it? Well, you know if you dream about it every day and think about it all the time, it will come to you. It has to — that’s how the universe works.”
Now, this is what will happen from there: either they didn’t really want it and it’s forgotten as soon as you leave the shop, or they did really love it and can’t stop talking about it. They pray about it and thank the universe for bringing it. They cut out pictures of it and look it up on the internet. You teach your child not to worry; the universe or God will bring it to them in some miraculous way. It has to.
What you are doing is teaching him or her how the universe works. The gift will arrive in some way at some time, as long as they show their serious intention towards it and keep imagining themselves with it. Focused thought and action build excitement as you wait to see how the universe will provide and, when it does, it helps the whole family’s faith in the universe to grow.
How things manifest
There are so many ways that the universe provides. A relative may have the feeling to buy a certain gift. You may win a prize. The child may be asked to do some work for a neighbour, who then gives them some money. You may have an idea about something and it leads to greater things coming into the home. You may get a call with some unexpected good news.
As long as you can keep in connection with the universe and listen to your intuition and guidance, you will be lead to all your dreams or they will find you.
Instil an abundant attitude
It is really important to always keep the energy of abundance flowing into your home. When money is mentioned in your home it always needs to be in a positive way. Even if you find you have difficulty believing in the flow of abundance, you can still create an abundant mindset in your children.
Your communication and actions surrounding money are the best way to affirm prosperity. For example, when your child asks, “Do you have any money?” you should say, “Of course! We have enough money for everything we need and want. We are rich.” Obviously, they are then likely to ask for some and you will have to teach them about creating their own money or working for it.
My point is, there should never be comments about a lack of money: “money doesn’t grow on trees” or “we just can’t afford that”. If you want to condition your child to believe in the abundance of the universe, you need to be mindful of your words and let them know that money flows freely and in a variety of ways. They need to develop a positive, respectful, grateful relationship to money, believing they will always have it coming easily into their lives and that they are deserving of wealth.
Enjoy the ride
Building a family that co-creates is an incredibly rewarding journey. The family works together as a unit, supporting one another towards their dreams. You will enjoy the process of the teamwork that’s involved in letting the universe know what you all want and then waiting to see what and how it is brought to you. Imagine how wonderful it could be: a family that loves living life together because they feel connected to their source and you.
Joanne Mensforth is a Doctor of Philosophy specialising in Holistic Life Coaching, a Master of Metaphysical Science, Meditation teacher and a Reiki Master Teacher. Joanne creates soul-touching guided meditations and relaxation CDs are available to purchase at www.joannemensforth.com. You can follow her on Facebook.
