388. The Ideal Way To Expose Teenagers To Life
If there’s one thing I’m not, it’s a parent. Well, I suppose I’m a small percentage of the way there being a pet parent, but still. The last thing I want to do is provide not useful, out of touch advice. But the thing is…. my perspective is from a higher level. I don’t want to get into the nitty gritty. I simply want to provide philosophical and metaphysical reasons for my perspective, which may or may not resonate with the collective. So here goes.
The overarching theme of teenage hood is that of “coming of age”, but more specifically, development and transition. Essentially, “becoming a new person”. So we must ask ourselves… what is important metaphysically during this time?
I do truly stand with the belief that there’s a balance between safety and security of one’s life as a teenager, yet also encouraging them and supporting them to lead an independent journey. I’m sure many experts will agree that balance is key. But why is it so key?
To get super specific, this concept of safety and security is of course fueling their most basic needs, but it also helps supports transmission of negative energy. In other words, the support and education needed for children and teenagers to process their emotions in a “normal” and healthy way. Without this support, they will be ill equipped to deal with changes, problems, issues that will arise later in life. Certainly, they will “survive”, but they will be more likely to internalize this negative energy, which will not just snowball into more trauma, it will become more difficult/challenging to release throughout time. As a result, there will be a dissonance from their most authentic selves. They will need to inevitably “shed” this weight and learn a new way of thinking and being after this transitional time. And as we know… it’s quite challenging to change as you get older and more through life. One tends to get set into their own ways. This safety and security is the basis of not just our physical survival existence, but our emotional and mental existence, as well. And perhaps spiritual, since everything is inter-connected. It’s pretty obvious that we cannot move on without our safety and security needs, but I think we tend to misunderstand or neglect the ramifications of these issues. It seems as though the dissonance between millennials and boomers is the emphasis on mental and emotional health and well being and how incredibly integral and important it is. In some ways, it’s surprising that this was not entirely relevant for the boomer generation, as they grew up in a time somewhat prosperous. In other words, many of them were not fighting to survive. But perhaps, as some hypothesize, they “gift” that energetic trauma onto their newer generations. I do wonder if there’s simply too stark a contrast between the energetic signatures, and therefore, relationships to others, which is furthering this dissonance. But I can only hypothesize.
So we understand the importance of safety and security in terms of mental health and transmission of negative energy, but what about lack of safety and security? I know… I’m just kidding. There should be no “lack of” safety and security, however only if it benefits us at the end of the day, in other words, it overcomes our anxieties, fears and/or limiting beliefs. But my point is… do teenagers need to go out and experience the world unsupervised? My answer is yes. But how, why, and what is the relationship to metaphysical concepts? The truth is… as energetic beings, in order for us to learn, evolve and grow, we need to push ourselves to do so. While we don’t want to become too accustomed to risk, we will only succeed if we push ourselves to get out of our comfort zones. It’s true that we can live what I like to call a “flatlined life” where we remain in our own silo’d zones, but the true likelihood is that we won’t be helping ourselves evolve, and therefore, we won’t really be helping the collective evolve. Risk does not just benefit you, it benefits others as well. To be a true samara tin in this lifetime, there’s somewhat of a self-sacrifice quality. And these abilities and skills to warp, change or push ourselves are only made available to us (with safety and security of course), but the freedom to do and be ourselves. Simultaneously, if we grow up in an environment where it’s encouraged to be limited with risk, autonomy and perhaps even authenticity, it will become more challenging to transition ourselves later in life (without the “permission” of coming of age-hood), as opportunities to self-reflect and thoroughly change our life become more limited. Making over our lives is not always easy when we have responsibilities and bills to pay. It’s not exactly pleasant to start life over when again… you need to survive.
Teenage-hood is so incredibly important and pivotal because it is the track that you are now on for adulthood. There has to be a balance of safety/security as well as risk and autonomy in order to ensure that there’s equality of balance which can be perpetuated into the future. When anyone, regardless of age, is silo’d too tightly in one direction, it throws us off-balance and tends to arrest our development and stagnate us. It’s so important to continue to encourage both of these aspects of life. Consider it like the “dichotomy” of ourselves. Our divine masculine/divine feminine side, our left and right, etc.
If you’re raising a teenager and you’re looking to integrate spiritual concepts, consider these thoughts and ideas. There’s no wrong way to raise a teenager out of true/authentic love, as everyone is incredibly different. Remember to give and take with being intuitive reading what their authentic self needs, and helping to guide and push them with your knowledge and expertise as a human being.
