Our role as parents is not to turn our children into extensions of ourselves, or use them as a means to boost our feelings. Not to turn them into what we believe they should be, or what we wish we had been. Nor is our role to mould them into what is held in high esteem in our family, community or culture. No, our role, if it is even possible to define, is to help them to see and know who they already are.

So what happens to us adults when things are not going our way? What happens when we are all cooped up in the house during lockdown and definitely didn’t expect it to be this way. How might observing our children change the way we look at our own reactivity?

What if there’s so much more on offer, hiding beyond our current vision of life and waiting to be experienced, but we simply don’t know to look?

Ever have days when you feel like you’re working hard and getting nowhere? Ever felt consumed by pressure? This used to be the soundtrack of my life until I got curious and noticed what was really happening.

What if this urgent and achievement focused existence we’re submerged in is leading us further from the lives, careers and businesses that we aspire? How do we get real on the emptiness of this spedup way of living and move towards a more sustainable and fulfilling alternative?

Exhausted and disillusioned with the effort, discipline and willpower required to make change? Maybe we’re looking in the wrong place. Generating change by addressing behaviours fails to get to the root cause which lies upstream.