“I’m in the Weeds”
The week preceding my seventh week of teaching, I found myself in a particularly difficult mind state. I used all of my resilience tools to try to get myself mentally unstuck, but the troubled state of my mind did not budge. I was “in the weeds” when it came to helping myself feel better. So I surrendered, and instead of trying to help myself feel better, I just considered what sort of activities would be helpful to do while I waited for the crazies to pass on their own. When I taught my parent-child class the following week, I shared my “in the weeds” story with my students.
Shame, Kids, and Grown-Ups
When I make a mistake, often times shame is in the room.
If you have taken the Feelings Habit Animal Quiz and read my article about the four feelings habit animals, you might remember that the deer is the feelings habit animal that is most correlated with shame.
What to Do When You’re Beating Yourself Up
I will share with you the tools I used to respond to my intense self-criticism. And I’ll use the Resilience Habit Animals to describe my process.
Meet the Resilience Habit Animals
Not only do we want kids to be aware of feelings, we also want them to learn to how to skillfully respond. Enter the Resilience Habit Animals…
Three Simple Ways to Help Kids Grow Self-Compassion
Self-compassion helps kids cope better with challenges and experience more well-being and self-esteem. But just how do we help kids to develop an inner self-compassionate voice? Here are three ways to do that…
What is Your Feelings Habit Animal?
There is nothing that can get a group of kids to roll their eyes like talking to them about feelings. The topic of feelings for most kids (and many grown-ups) is boring at best and painful at worst. When I instead begin the conversation about feelings by introducing the four feelings habit animals, I get a very different response from children: curiosity.
Self-Compassion or Self-Pity?
If I’m self-compassionate, does that mean I feel sorry for myself? What differentiates self-compassion from self-pity? And what makes one resilience boosting and the other resilience depleting?
5 Keys to Resilient Parenting
What emotional and psychological gifts do you wish for children? Perseverance, happiness, kindness, authenticity, compassion, joy? What about resilience? Resilience can be defined as the ability to endure or bounce back from difficulties. Sometimes people define...
Six Ways I Fall Short as a Parent (and how self-compassion helps)
Sometimes I experience imposter syndrome. I think, “Who am I to share about parenting when I so often fall short?” It’s true. I do fall short as a parent. And it’s also true that self-compassion helps. We will all fall short in any endeavor that is important to us…
The Healing Power of Yoga
Have you ever been stuck in a difficult mind loop and unsure how how to get unstuck? Our minds and our bodies are intimately related. When we can calm and center our body, it can calm and center our mind…