Ep. 22 “If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your parents.” (Ram Dass) inspiring- “Parenting then and now” (and you do not have to be a parent or have one!)

Zooming in the Lens

“You never know the right way…life just goes on, click, click, click…you need a backup system, otherwise your just like a jellyfish floating around…” – Jan Chester.
I have never responded to anyone more with the word “right” than in this podcast, ha! Why? The guest is my mother. What topic did she pick? “Parenting then and now.” She doesn’t know I would have agreed to the topic of “Tupperware” to receive this experience with her. She is not a spiritual person, not physically well nor accepting aging, and is dealing with severe memory loss. A perfect self-practice. Some of what she says I’ve never even heard before! I love her dearly, and am really honored she was up for doing this. Shifting perceptions within family, witnessing their and your own roles and models, is wild practice! So, what would YOU experience if you shifted perception with someone in your family and engaged in a very different kind of ‘get to know’ during these holidays?
Doing this podcast with my mother shows me how self-awareness must grow individually, with understanding and compassion for our parents/family. If we want to see clearly into our personal responsibility and freedom from our roles and models. I am thankful and grateful to my mother for allowing me to show up in and out of the role of “daughter”, to experience her as “soul” and not just “mom”. Scary shit, lol.

“Individually, every grain of sand brushing against my hands represents a story, an experience, and a block for me to build upon for the next generation.” – Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina
“The aging of our parents provides a perfect opportunity to seek wisdom and maturity in our own approach to life. The effort we put into our learning about our relationship with our parents will give us strength and insight for the years to come.” -Jerry Waxler, M.S.
? Cool Article – http://tinybuddha.com/blog/secret-to-getting-along-with-your-parents/
? Book recommendation: One Soul, One Love, One Heart: The Sacred Path to Healing All Relationships – By John E. Welshons, Ram Dass
? Look for audio by Ram Dass (sorry, don’t have a link or title) regarding “Parenting”. Check out the Blog section of FunctionalYogaOnline.com for the references used within this podcast!

*Zooming in the Lens online course” – Skype online course with 5-10 hand-picked people from all over the world. For more info log onto FunctionalYogaOnline.com and RamDass.org/zooming. This course is in honor of Katrina’s teacher, Ram Dass, and Maharaji (Neem Karoli Baba). *Join the past ZITL students at Facebook.com/Functionalyoga.
*Music and editing for ZITL Podcast by Ian Hatton from www.ianhatton.com
*For show ideas, topics or questions write to [e-mail]