The Spiritual Parent: Mindful Tools for Raising Spiritual and Conscious Kids

Bonus: Are Our Kids Born With Superpowers? Raising Highly Sensitive, Neurodiverse, and Spiritually Gifted Children

• Carrie Lingenfelter, CCC-SLP • Season 1 • Episode 94

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What if your child's sensitivity isn't a weakness, but their greatest strength? 

As a speech therapist and parent of neurodiverse children, I've learned to navigate this delicate balance: acknowledging challenges while celebrating the extraordinary gifts that come with neurodiversity. While much attention focuses on moderate autism or nonverbal children, those who are highly sensitive, gifted, or have ADHD also arrive with remarkable abilities that deserve recognition.

These children process information deeply, notice what others miss, and often possess an innate spiritual awareness that manifests in profound questions like my seven-year-old asking, "Do dogs think about the future or live in the now?" Their minds move faster than their bodies can keep pace, absorbing knowledge rapidly and making connections that surprise even the adults around them. But this powerful cognitive processing can easily lead to anxiety or disconnection from their physical experience without proper support.

Recently, our family put our mindfulness practices to the ultimate test during our first backpacking adventure. Rather than sheltering our highly sensitive children from the unpredictability of the wilderness (complete with bear warnings and thunderstorms!), we equipped them with visualization techniques, grounding exercises, and present-moment awareness. We created "golden bubbles" of protection, established routines even in our tiny tent, and demonstrated how to address challenges one moment at a time. The reward? A magical 2AM awakening to witness a star-filled sky that reminded us of our place in this vast universe—a moment of connection we would have missed had we stayed in our comfort zone.

These vibrant, sensitive children are arriving with increasingly powerful gifts with each generation. Our role isn't to dim their light but to help them stay grounded and connected to their bodies while their brilliant minds explore. By teaching mindfulness tools and celebrating their unique perspectives, we help them maintain their spiritual connection into adulthood—perhaps the greatest superpower of all.

Ready to transform how you view your child's sensitivity? Visit hearttoheartlife.com and share your experiences or questions at info@hearttoheartlife.com. If this perspective resonated with you, we'd be grateful for your five-star review!

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Carrie Lingenfelter:

In my house, we have chosen to look at the strengths, the hypersensitivities and the ability to learn things so quickly that your brain jumps from one thing to another. We look at these sensitivities as superpowers. Yes, maybe I am turning a blind eye to the challenges, but also I'm a speech therapist. I was born to look at the challenges, so I cannot turn a blind eye to them. They're still there.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

My brain is still dissecting.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

How do I help my kid become a better version of themselves?

Carrie Lingenfelter:

How do I help my kid to be a happy adult one day?

Carrie Lingenfelter:

Yes, our brains are turned onto those pieces, no matter if we are living a mindful, positive life.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

We're not shutting it off. So when I talk about these positive pieces that we're turning to and looking at these as strengths and tools and as these amazing superpowers, that's because we are looking to empower my kids. Hi, conscious Parents, it's Keri here and I am here with a little info about raising our mindful kids. I've got some tips and tricks about breaking free of the box and becoming who you are and teaching your kids how to do that. Along the way, join us. I feel like I have been hearing a lot in a lot of places on Facebook and Instagram and YouTube a lot about kids who are neurodiverse, specifically autism in the more moderate level of autism, including nonverbal children, and how these kids are being born with amazing gifts. But as a parent that's raising kids who are under the neurodiverse umbrella and have other pieces, such as gifted and talented or even highly sensitive kids, I wanted to bring into our awareness this idea of these kids also coming in with gifts. So a lot of people have been focusing on kids with the moderate severities or the nonverbal pieces, but I myself was a highly sensitive child and grew up in a spiritual family where we were focusing on our gifts, learning about mindsets, learning about mindful tools, and I had all of these amazing guru books that my grandmother, my abuelita, was putting on my nightstand as a 20-year-old. But when you're 20, you don't have time for any of that. Anyway, looking back to what we were talking about, I was raised in that type of mentality and that mindset and I was born and these gifts were nurtured and looked at in our family as these amazing pieces of us, but I didn't necessarily have labels. Looking back, I was in the G&T side, definitely with the highly sensitive side.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

I want us to acknowledge these challenges that our kids are born with? Heck, yes, it can be a parent. It can be hard to be a parent raising a highly sensitive kid, raising a kid who maybe has ADHD and jumps from one activity to the next faster than other kids, or maybe is highly sensitive and highly scattered in their organization skills. These can be pieces that can be so hard. As a parent, and can feel like you're pulling your hair out day to day looking for that favorite water bottle because the back of water bottles don't work. All of these things can be hard and challenging.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

In my house, we have chosen to look at the strengths, the hypersensitivities and the ability to learn things so quickly that your brain jumps from one thing to another. We look at these sensitivities as superpowers. Yes, maybe I am turning a blind eye to the challenges, but also I'm a speech therapist. I was born to look at the challenges, so I cannot turn a blind eye to them. They're still there. My brain is still dissecting. How do I help my kid become a better version of themselves? How do I help my kid to be a happy adult one day?

Carrie Lingenfelter:

Yes, our brains are turned on to those pieces, no matter if we are living a mindful, positive life. We're not shutting it off. So when I talk about these positive pieces that we're turning to and looking at these as strengths and tools and as these amazing superpowers, that's because we are looking to empower my kids. So I have been connecting and as these amazing superpowers, that's because we are looking to empower my kids. So I have been connecting and hearing these messages since my kids were tiny babies and part of it was my brain would get so loud because I am a highly sensitive person and it can turn to our brain and our ego and our mindset and it's hard to hear our hearts that my messages started to get louder and louder, and louder, and those messages can be actions from my children. The way my husband or partner responds to my kids, the way my parents respond to my kids Can it bubble up things from my childhood Heck? Yes, because parenting is often our biggest journey of things that we did not overcome or pieces of us that did not heal or we didn't grow in or learn previously, when we were younger children that are now coming up. So I want to give an example of how we're honoring these challenges and how what it looks like. So this is a two or three year journey of what I have been doing with my kids. So, yes, I've been doing it. My kiddo, my oldest kiddo just turned 10 a little while ago and we have been doing it for a huge piece of their lives.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

It was shortly after my kiddo my first kiddo, who's 10 now was born that I started to realize that my brain would turn on and I would get cycle into these scary things. Read what Not to Expect when Expecting Like hello. Talk about turning your brain into the scary side of things. Right, and so, luckily, I had all these spiritually connected people like my mom and my grandma and friends around me that said tune into your heart. Put away the baby books, look to your child. They're going to show you what they need. And it wasn't all happy walking through fields of roses and flowers as a parent.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

After that, it's continually coming back to the root of what I have created in myself, connecting to myself. Coming back to that Because day in and day out, it can be challenging. For example, 10 years later, speed forward and we've been practicing spirituality and mindfulness heavy duty in our house for about three years now. Even so, things still bubble up in me as a parent, because I'm a highly sensitive person and I'm an empath and I'm open to all the energy around us. My kids are starting to bubble up these energies and emotions because the school year is coming up. We have one more week where I live in Colorado, one more week until school starts and my kids are starting to bubble up these highly sensitive people like, oh, school's coming, I'm not ready for it. I want to stay outside. I want to play, I want to be connected with mom. I love this environment. Right, I want to stay in my house, sheltered and connected. Right, I want to stay in my house, sheltered and connected. It's the easiest right I can be. I can be myself. I don't have to worry about other people's energies. I don't have to worry about where I can't control my environment. Yes, yes, I know these things are bubbling up in our house. And still, my husband and I decided we were going to go backpack camping and we had never done it in our lives. I had never done it. He had done it, my husband. Luckily, he was an Eagle Scout, so he's done a lot of it and he was our rock right.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

This is a highly sensitive mama going into the woods with two highly sensitive kids and highly sensitive husband. He's the only one that knows what to do. He's the only one that knows how to use a jet boil to make a meal. Like I don't know. There's a package it's freeze-dried food. Like what am I going? So I had to release control, which is really hard for a highly sensitive person. My kids were going to have to release control. They were following us, they were living by us. When our kids kids like this maybe want to control their environment, they want to be in control, they want to fight you telling them what to do.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

Right, and when you're in an outdoor environment like this, it can be life or death If they're getting too close to the water and you're like, let's back up, let's back up. Like these things are serious, right, when you're out and about and you've got animals. And where we were going, there were like signs, 20 signs and also 20 rangers we met while we were hiking with our giant backpacks, like did you know there's a bear? We've been having a bear problem this year and it's right where you're camping, right, where you're camping, there's a bear problem. But do you have your bear box? Did you put your food in your bear box. Are you going to eat? 50 steps away? Okay Right, talk about fear. It's bubbling it up even as I talk about it.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

So we were going into this moment and we were building up and my husband was getting the gear ready and the pack was going to weigh 30 pounds but I have back problems, so my husband was taking all the weight I don't even know what his pack weighed like 70 pounds. My son, the 10 year old, he was taking his pack and you know he's a kid so we can only give him a certain amount. And then the tiny seven year old she was carrying a pack more for fun. She had all the snacks, but in a little water.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

As this was all building up, I went to a healing with my girlfriend who does Qigong and I was sitting there with her and she has an older version of kids, which is amazing because I can see my future, an older version of kids that are so similar in some ways to my son. It was so wonderful to connect with her and say am I going to survive? What do I do to stay grounded? Help me, because I'm getting in my head, things are getting a little nerve wracking and she said, we're going to create a bubble of gold. Thank you, anne, for your help in this.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

By the way, we're going to create this bubble of gold protection. We're going to picture that protection and we're going to say everything's going gonna stay out of it ticks, mosquitoes, giant thunderstorms with lightning, bears, cougars, you name it we'll put it outside of the bubble. It's not? Oh, moose, let's not forget moose. We're gonna put that outside of the bubble and you are going to live in the moment. So. So I'm thinking this in my mind bubble, we're going to put the bubble up. I'm telling my kids bubble, we're going to put the bubble up.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

So we get there and we're driving around trying to find a parking spot and I'm telling my kids oh, let's use our positive mindful tools. Right, we're going to picture the spot. We're going to find the. Oh, we found the parking spot. Right, it works. Guys, okay, now all of us are going to white and gold light of protection. We're going to picture roots growing deep into the earth. We're doing all of our energy work so that we can feel connected. Then I tell them about picturing the gold and bubble of protection. Right, all of these things are tools of mindfulness and tools of meditation that we are picturing so we can feel empowered to go out into the wilderness by ourselves, with no cell phone protection.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

We were walking along, we were carrying the shelter on our backs. We're making jokes. When my daughter's like, how long are we going to get there? The seven-year-old, we're like, well, guys, don't worry, don't worry, mom's got the dad's got the house on his back, mom's got the kitchen on her back. So we've got all the things we need here and it's getting a little heavy. At least you don't have the kitchen. Do you want to carry the kitchen for me, sissy? No, I don't want to carry the kitchen. Okay, cool, then let's keep going.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

So we were working on showing them how to live day to day. In the moment we're not thinking about oh, I see those clouds building up. Yes, my husband and I Note the clouds. We've got the rain gear out. Note the clouds, let's do function first. We're going to think of number one first. We're going to build the shelter first.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

So we get the shelter up. We're walking around, we run into somebody that we know while we're camping and we're like thank you, universe, for having this back of family, literally 15 feet away from us, that we know how random, but I guess not that random, because everybody we know backpacks too as well. So we are also looking for living in the moment, day to day, moment to moment. We're not in the moment, day to day, moment to moment. We're not projecting the problems. We're not going to continue to focus on the scary thing that could happen. We're not going to continue to focus on not having our cell phones. We're not going to project what could be scary. We're not going to live in our mind and get bubbled up in that emotion and that right, it just continues down the road. It's like this giant avalanche of emotions that we don't need. We're going to focus on staying in our heart. We're going to focus on yep, feel some raindrops. Okay, we'll get the rain gear out. Good thing we got the tent up.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

Hey, my husband knew sensitive kids. He brought this rain shelter fly that we put up between the trees so we could have dinner and not have to worry about the rain. We're focusing on that. I'm telling my husband thank you so much for helping to show me how to make food with a jet boil. Actually, you made it and I was the backup with helping with the kids, but we are monitoring how our kids are handling the situation because, yes, we can't control this outdoors and we are supporting their needs. We're helping them to see if they are starting to decompress, needing to decompress, if they're starting to get agitated, unnerved, bothered by the wind, bothered by the lightning, as we start to go to bed. And we have done all of our. We have done all of our guided meditations. Even though we're in this tiny tent in the middle of nowhere, we are doing all of the things that we normally do at home and we are empowering our kids by being there. We did not shelter them by staying home. We took them outside and we put all of our mindful tools in place for ourselves to help us and to help them.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

So I want us to think about these kids that are coming in today. They are born with amazing gifts. I myself, in the 80s, I was born with amazing gifts too. But you know what? The world was really heavy at times. The world can feel really intense. Heavy at times, the world can feel really intense. When I was going to college, I was one out of 300 people trying to get a spot for 22 for grad school. Do you think I focused on the 350 people. No, I focused on the 22 spots and I focused on seeing what I was going to achieve. So our brains can easily especially when we're gifted and talented ADHD, have autism, are highly sensitive. All of these different pieces that fit into the neurodiverse umbrella or the highly sensitive child piece. I'm separating those because right now they're separated, but I don't know. I feel like they're also a little bit conjoined right.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

So when we are watching these kids develop, it's so easy for these active minds that are firing. They're absorbing knowledge very quickly. They're wanting to understand the world very quickly. They're born spiritually connected, asking why does this happen, mom? What happens when I do this? Where did we come from? Mom? Do dogs think about the future? Do they live in the now? My seven-year-old asked me that today. So when they are born spiritually connected and they are so fast-paced, I can't even keep up with my daughter. That's what I asked Qigong was please give me some energy to keep up with this girl. It is easy for them to become anxious. It is easy for them to get into that overactive mind that is powerful and moves fast and moves faster than the human body can move. It is easy for these little people to want to disconnect from their body. The body is hard.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

It's cold outside. It got really freaking cold when we were camping. You guys, I was freezing. But here's what happened Our son woke us up.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

Another tangent about this. Our son woke us up at 2 am and said guys, I have to go potty and I have to go potty now. I have to go to the restroom right now. Get outside, guys, I can't go outside. I'm like okay, okay, we're getting up, we're getting up. There was no warning. It wasn't. Hey, mom, wake up in two minutes, I need to go to. No, it was like now, right, these kids move fast. Now we walk outside. And, yes, I'm freezing, yes, I want to scream. Yes, I'm upset that he woke me up. And it's very wet outside because it has been raining all night. Husband and I look up at the stars in the sky and we're like whoa. Thank you, buddy, for waking us up at 2 am so we could see this.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

Do you understand how tiny we feel in this giant universe? What a gift this is to see this so connecting with our kids and teaching them, these mindful moments. That is what these neurodiverse, highly sensitive kids, with any labels are needing, and it's not just our moderate level kids with autism, our nonverbal kids, it's all of our kids. And guess what guys? Majority of our kids are somewhere on this spectrum. They're somewhere in this highly sensitive area. Because these kids are coming in louder and more vibrant. Any of you maybe have heard of Dolores Cannon. She talked about indigo children and how each generation is getting louder and louder and getting more and more gifts as they come. They're more intense and they're more vibrant. So we will listen to them. So let's help them so they can stay spiritual and consciously connected into adulthood, because the world is a hard place as a human and we don't want them disconnecting from themselves. We want to keep them in their bodies, keep them grounded. So continue to connect with us and continue to come along this journey with us as spiritual parents.

Carrie Lingenfelter:

Signing off live session complete. Well, that's a wrap. Thanks so much for tuning in Changemakers. This is Keri, and if you haven't done a review for us five stars and a little few words about what you've enjoyed in our podcast episodes we would really appreciate it. If you guys would like to ever message me, I would love any questions you have or any feedback. At info at hearttoheartlifecom. We also have a brand new website which we're super excited to share it's hearttoheartlifecom. We also have a brand new website which we're super excited to share it's heart to heart lifecom. Thanks so much for tuning in and happy life, happy times, change maker families. Bye.