Father's Day

A FREE reflective exercise for you

We want to acknowledge that Father’s Day is a mixed day for some of us.  In a perfect world, today would be a day for gratitude and celebration of the fathers in our life. But, for many of us the day is more mixed.

We want to acknowledge that Father’s Day is a mixed day for some of us.  In a perfect world, today would be a day for gratitude and celebration of the fathers in our life.

But, for many of us the day is more mixed.

The way that we feel today can be dependent upon our relationship with our father, on the way he showed up for us, on how our children’s dads show up for them.

And it can also be dependent on how much of our own re-parenting and healing work we have done.

Today, we want to offer you a journaling exercise developed by our counsellor and play therapist, Eleanor Mann.

She brings to the course years of experience supporting families to parent more consciously and intentionally.

“Reflective parenting is essential to be the place where patterns of dysfunction end.  Many of us have a challenging relationship with our parents, and embarking on a journey of healing is such a powerful thing to offer to ourselves.”

Journal these Prompts: 

1.Reflect on your beliefs about the role of a father. Describe the things a father ‘should’ do for their children and their family.

2. Now, take a moment to reflect on your own father.  How did he ‘measure up’ to this vision.

3. Now…for the ooft moment. As a child, WHAT did you make this mean about you.

I invite you to take as much time as you need to journal what arises.  Don’t be afraid to feel any emotional response that comes up.  

Feeling the emotions and seeing how we internalised our fathers ways of loving and showing up that were perfectly imperfect, is a powerful step towards having more freedom and more love in our lives.  

This is important work.

Finally, we wanted to share some words from a father in our Reconnected Parenting Community, James; “As a man, it can be sometimes hard to show up in groups like this, but what I have found through the course, is that I am really noticing my triggers and connecting with my breath.

Reconnected Parenting is helping me to rewire this through the breath, simply through just coming back to the breath and I notice so much more when I do go vacant, and I can bring myself back again.

My mantra has become ‘come back to the breath, come back to the breath’.”

#fathersday #fatherhood #thereconnected