Wisdom Within for Teen Girls

Passion and inspiration have been overflowing this week as I work on creating a course for teen girls!

I've long loved supporting and encouraging women to listen to their bodies, navigate their feelings, trust themselves and learn wise tools for reflection, self-care and self-belief so they can show up authentically in their lives.

For the past couple of years, I've also been thinking about how useful it would be for teenagers to learn these skills too. I decided to become a youth mentor, doing volunteering through Raise Foundation and some extra training with Shine From Within Youth Mentoring.

Like many parents, I worry about the high levels of pressure and anxiety our teenagers are experiencing, the impact of technology on their developing sense of self and the long term impact of less real connection to others. 

There's no question today's youth will have the best chances of thriving in tomorrow's world if they have a strong inner sense of self. Many thought leaders are saying in the future people will need to be highly adaptable, resourceful and resilient to tolerate uncertainty and navigate frequent change.

That means there is a pressing need to teach our kids now how to navigate their inner world, to cultivate all of their inner intelligence - from managing their feelings (especially big overwhelming emotions), to developing a flexible positive mindset, to knowing how and when to listen to their intuition and balance it with logic and common sense, to drawing on the intelligence in their body when they need to ground and reconnect to themselves. Also to know the importance of self-care and when to focus their minds and minimise the constant distractions around them. 

We have an incredible resource within us - so much body wisdom that helps us navigate our lives, and it is this instrument that we need to know how to use adeptly and care for, more than anything! 

We are so much more than just thinking beings!  Getting to know, trust and use our innate capacities and developing a strong sense of self is the wisest learning any of us can do, young or old. Because it is such a powerful resource when you know how to draw on what you have. 

Imagine how empowered teenagers would be in understanding that they have a resource of intelligence within them - far beyond their minds, and know how to tap into it depending on what's going on in their lives? Imagine if they had wise strategies to help them navigate their confusing and sometimes overwhelming inner states?  Imagine if they could learn to trust their gut instinct about people, develop a strong inner compass, understand the role of fear, the importance of mindset and respectful self-talk?

Of course all inner skills take practice, no one program is going to set them up for life, but we can plant seeds. We can introduce these concepts in the teen years and earlier so they don't have to wait until their late 20s to 30s - when the next round of "finding yourself" comes, only to discover (as so many do in adulthood) that their inner life is holding them back - because it's their least developed capacity. 

I will soon be putting out an invitation for 8 to 12 teenage girls (around 13-16 years old) to join my 6 week introductory Wisdom Within course which will be a group coaching / mentoring style program held locally for 1.5 hours a week, sharing my top core inner skills from the past decade of counselling, coaching, meditation and facilitation work with women.

This course will be super inspiring, practical, heart-centred and fun with lots of actionable inner strategies and experiential practices that the girls can apply immediately in their lives. For the first round, I will be offering this course at a special introductory price.

If you would like to register your interest to be the first to receive details about this course before it's shared publicly, please email info@laurellewishart.com. I would also be happy to chat with you over the phone to see if this course is suitable for your daughter. 

Please share this post with anyone you know with teen daughters who might be interested. Much appreciated! 

Here's to the next generation of amazing girls who will find the inner strength and know-how to uncover, trust and share their gifts with the world!