There are so many parenting books out there that it’s hard to know which ones are worth spending your valuable time to read. We’ve rounded up five of the most enlightening parenting books that will really inspire you!
Moms will easily relate to this book because the author shares many of her own real life experiences during pregnancy, miscarriage, and raising her three sons. Some of the best parts of the book are when Kent interjects with her personal stories of healing, such as finding peace after a miscarriage and what she learned after a traumatic experience with her first child. She gives insightful advice for working through the many challenges that come your way as a mother and stresses the importance of taking care of yourself – allowing yourself time to rest and do things you enjoy, things that bring you peace and happiness. By doing so, you allow positive energy to flow that will affect your whole family. After all, “When you live from the beauty of your own center, your children learn to live from theirs.”
Encouraging Your Child’s Spiritual Intelligence, by Mollie Painton, Psy.D., defines and discusses seven branches of spiritual intelligence on “The Spiritual Tree of Life” on which children can “rest.” Painton uses case studies of children, her patients, to exemplify the experiences of children on these seven branches. Painton maintains that many children are born spiritually gifted, but that Western culture tends to debunk or devalue a connection with the spiritual world, and so these gifts are often lost as children age. With the help of a spiritual partner, Painton believes that children can learn to access and trust their spiritual gifts, and speaks directly to parents: “My hope is that you, as spiritual partners, will validate your children’s remarkable wisdom and compassion while embracing their experiences, feelings, thoughts, and beliefs”. For parents, the best part of the book is that Painton provides tests, tips and advice on how to support spiritually gifted children and help them further develop their gifts.
The ability to make and create things can be classified by some as a basic human need. Creative You, by Otto Kroeger, helps you discover your creative personality so you can best match that with an appropriate outlet. Utilizing a popular test used by psychologists, the authors help you discover not only your personality qualities, but teach you how to live your best productive creative life. Creative You begins with a simple quiz to figure out your Myer-Briggs classified personality. Using four components; Introvert vs. Extrovert, Sensing vs. Intuition, Thinkers vs. Feelers and Judging vs. Perceiving you will discover your creative type. The authors then give wonderfully detailed descriptions of each personality type. After you’ve learned your creative type you will go on to understand how to work best in collaborations, discover the best creative outlets for you, and how to succeed in your work life. There is even a chapter on encouraging children to stay creative. While this book is not necessarily a parenting book, it can definitely be utilized to find your creative center. Spending some time each day getting in touch with our creative self can be a wonderful therapy that will translate into a more peaceful state of mind, making everyday issues become easier to face. The book could also be used to classify your children’s creative personalities so you can best equip them in their life of art and creativity as well.
Caron B. Goode authored the book Nurture Your Child’s Gift: Inspired Parenting on the platform of helping guide your children to discover their natural gifts as individuals. She challenges you to shift, and reexamine your role as a parent, and begin to lead your children through life in an encouraging way. The book begins by recognizing your children’s dreams, and how they may begin to manifest throughout their lives into such things as career development, or passions or hobbies.
It then goes on to explain how self-esteem builds empowerment, and, through empowerment, children ultimately create meaning in their lives. You will learn how to guide your children to the discovery of their own gifts, and how to empower them to act on them and grow into the best version of themselves.
Realistic approaches are utilized throughout the book, such as self meditation, and reflection into your own experiences and past. Nurture Your Child’s Gift: Inspired Parenting then begins to show parents real life tools that will help achieve these goals, such as music, mental fitness, and breathing techniques. If you are looking for a book that will shift your viewpoint yet is also practical, insightful, and easy to follow along, this book should be your next parenting guide.
We’ve all heard the terms “sixth sense” and “gut instinct” before. If following your instinct is something you do often as a mom, this book is for you. Intuitive Parenting: Listening to the Wisdom of Your Heart, by Debra Snyder, Ph.D, really focuses on the sixth sense, otherwise known as your intuition. She offers a practical guide to help you develop your intuition and use it to better understand your children and their needs. Snyder’s journey to strengthening her intuition began when daughter was born with a rare mental birth defect and she had to find a way to connect and communicate with her child. Through this experience Dr. Snyder came up with tips and techniques that will work for all parents. She advocates for and teaches you how to tap into subtle energy systems that surround all people and to use this as a way to better coordinate a peaceful life for your family. By building these deeper connections with your children, you’ll greatly improve the quality of the life you share with your family. And, each chapter includes HeartGlow exercises to help you tune into your intuition, as well as journal prompts to keep your heart open and aware. Lastly, she offers tips to be sure you’re encouraging your children to utilize their own intuition and instinct to the fullest capacity.
Each one of these books will inspire to you to parent your children in new and exciting ways. Perhaps the best part of them all: they don’t encourage formulaic, “one-size-fits-all” parenting. Instead, they’re meant for you to read and take some time to think about. Then you can put the pieces of them that work for you and your family into practice and help guide your family to a more enlightened life!
