Kindred World (Multiple Initiatives)

There are lots of organizations who help families, but Families for Conscious Living is the most progressive organization I have encountered. Their projects are consistently pushing the limits on how parents envision a better world. I love reading the pieces in Kindred Magazine - I always look forward to how each piece helps shift the paradigm to a more peaceful planet.

It takes a village to raise healthy children in mind, body and soul. Families for Conscious Living offer parents a new and refreshing worldview through support, guidance and excellent resources.

I work as a writer on topics relating to birth work, support for the dying, spirituality, and parenting. I've found the Kindred Community to be an excellent and progressive resource for families and individuals seeking insight, support, guidance, and inspiration. I'm honored to have my work featured on their website and know that Families for Conscious Living is doing wonderful work in this world.

My work as a psychologist brings me every day into contact with families who suffer cultural isolation for their efforts to live more sustainably and to reflect their social conscience in their lifestyle choices. What I find so exhilarating about Family for Conscious Living is their template for forming supportive groups around shared core values. FCL has a long proven track record for gathering families into dynamic and supportive communities in which children can thrive in greater health and emotional wellbeing. Their work books for discussion draw from leading edge health sciences. My research in early intervention and child development tells me that the innumerable groups created under the FCL umbrella are the building blocks of a more peaceful, vibrant, ecologically harmonious and sustainable society. This not-for-profit is an engine room, it generates rivers of social capital. It is exactly the kind of initiative that brings me hope and reassures me - someone is doing something powerful to change the world from childhood up - and the ripples will be felt far and wide.

As a mother of two children, I was seeking community of other families so that I could have support for my development as a parent and for making decisions for my family in health, education, and parenting. Families for Conscious Living encouraged me to seek out local families and gave me resources for gathering as a group. Personally, what ended up benefiting me the most was the connection to the resources that can now be easily found on FCL's project Kindred. Articles, books and dialogs hosted by FCL began to answer "questions I didn't even know I had" and to help me see differences between consumer-driven lifestyle choices versus life-affirming choices based on principles of vitalism and inter-connectedness/holism.

Families for Conscious Living as a non-profit has several projects. One of them is Kindred, an online community of journalists, authors, educators, researchers, representatives from other non-profits and other initiatives, and parents. Kindred is going beyond filling the gap left by Mothering magazine, which went out of print after many years of serving parents who sought information and encouragement for natural living and loving ways of caring for children and families. Kindred goes far beyond all other magazines for parents by providing leading-edge, truly holistic viewpoints in support of optimal family health.

FCL operates on the premise that humanity is continuing to evolve and that we can engage consciously with that process of evolution, and that by so doing we can improve the future health of our planet and ourselves. FCL encourages families to create and participate in local communities, to create and benefit from sharing stories, news, and dialog on current research and traditional wisdom about family health and wellness. FCL's vision and mission comes from an integral understanding of the child's and parent's relationship to our many ecologies. FCL makes evidence-based wellness information accessible and sparks dialog about best practices for family relationship and wellbeing.

I am very grateful that Families for Conscious Living exists. In the mainstream media it is difficult to find truth and wisdom for families who want to raise their child in a conscious and mindful way. The beauty here is that new ideas, incredibly interesting topics, and important concepts are introduced in non-threatening and heart opening ways. I consider myself to be someone who keeps her finger on the pulse of the holistic movement and yet I also find new ways of thinking about my work with families and completely new ideas here. It is a place to calm down amidst the busyness of life and the complications of living/managing a modern household and also a place to spark the fire inside you when you need warming.
Laurel Wilson, IBCLC, CLE, CLD, CCCE
www.motherjourney.com
www.theattachmentpregnancy.com

My experience as a mother, therapist and perinatal researcher is that although parents are biologically primed to become closer during the perinatal period, our current society both creates obstacles for this and does't support it. Hollywood fosters unrealistic expectations; there is some hard work to be done before we get to “happily ever after”. The media distracts us with issues and things that aren’t important or in some cases even healthy, advertisers charm expecting couples with expensive products they don’t need. Some birth experiences are not always respectful or a gentle start for a new family. Newborn parents are often separated from extended family, under intense financial pressure and new-parent learning curves are steep. Pressures stress our families and cost us all in terms of mental health and marriages. This system isn't working.

We need foresight. We need to do more to protect, preserve and support our next generation. Families for Conscious Living provides awareness, empowerment and holistic support to create a healthy future for us all.