Who are you beneath the shoulds?
Beneath the Have-to’s, Must do’s, To-do’s or Must have’s?
Funny how the world gets in your head isn’t it?
I figure there are 3 types of shoulds, and only one which is a true calling.
1) You have the social shoulds. Those pesky things we feel pressured to complete because society implies we need to. The ones that when you go out, you might feel insecure or sheepish in case you aren’t fitting in.
2) There’s the Family shoulds. The beliefs and have to’s that were given to you as a child. The ones that you felt guilty when you didn’t fulfill, the ones that had a line drawn down the middle and was either right or wrong… and often you were in the wrong.
3) Your inner should. But let’s not call that a should… rather this is your calling.This one, you know from your inner depths. This one is authentic and deeply whole. This one… you follow.
Feel uncomfortable in your body, so you tell yourself you “should” lose weight? Ask yourself if its a calling, or if you just need to lighten your mood. Feel like your children “should” be reading by now, or “should” clean their room, ask yourself if your inner being is suggesting that, or if its what’s coming from everywhere and nowhere around you. Feel like you don’t know if you can handle a full family dinner, but you “should” see everyone over the holidays. Tune within and ask your heart “what can I manage” and arrange a holiday dessert or an excuse to leave early.
Your truth, your heart and who you are beneath the shoulds, matters. Be true to You and allow love to lead the way. – Christina Fletcher, Family Alchemist.

Christina Fletcher is a Spiritually Aware Parent Coach and Energy Healer who specializes in helping parents become heart centered and aligned to their highest vision of their parenting and of themselves. Through her background and training in religious and self development studies, as well as spirituality and conscious parenting, Christina helps parents dive past the “shoulds” created from their upbringing and society, and release beliefs that hold them back to create authentic, connected relationships with their children, and themselves. Using mindset techniques, practical spiritual tools such as simple meditation, the law of attraction and positive focus, as well as her training and gifts as an energy healer, Christina gives space for a mom or dad to drop into the feeling of satisfaction, alignment and relief, so they can tune in to what their children truly need and work from a centered perspective. She gives practical and spiritual advice on how to tune into a child’s perspective as well as concrete tools to pass on self awareness and mindful living to children as young as 3, so authenticity, emotional awareness, communication and connection can be the foundation for the whole family. Christina is a homeschooling mom of 2 daughters, (ages 16 and 15) and a 9 year old son. She is happily married to her husband Jeff. When their girls were born 10 months apart, Christina parented as she thought she “should”. Scheduled feeds, nights of pacing the floor with crying babies, and getting mad as they got older, she knows what it’s like to feel overwhelmed and in tears through those early years. It wasn’t until her girls were 3 and 4 that she decided her happiness mattered and that she wanted to have fun again. The change transformed everything, creating a powerful relationship with her children which is stronger than ever now that they are teens. When she was pregnant with her son, she became passionate about creating a spiritually aware pregnancy, and her connection with her son prior to his birth was crucial through some family tragedy taking place at that time. This later became the topic of her first book. Christina is passionate about helping parents create deep relationships with their children, from birth until fully grown. But she also knows that deep relationships with others can only be formed from a deep relationship with yourself, so through courses, coaching and her writing, she offers tools for the entire family so they can truly become self aware and present as everything they really are.