The Waiting Room
The other day my daughter and I were waiting nervously in the waiting room of the oral surgeon’s office. We were frazzled from arriving late, and Maya was fretting about the anesthesia that would be administered for her imminent wisdom tooth extraction. With nothing to do but wait, I decided to…
Complicated Gratitude
As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, I have been reflecting on gratitude. Gratitude is essential… and yet it can be complicated. Sometimes it almost feels wrong to be grateful in a world that has so much suffering.
We Felt More Connected: A Sweet Surprise from a Parent-Child Mindfulness Class
I just finished taking the six-week, self-paced Parent-Child Mindfulness and Self-Compassion class with my neighbor, Dee, and it feels both sweet and tender.
I invited my nine-year-old neighbor to take the class with me for 2 reasons:
How to Help Good Things Stick: A Playful Mindfulness Activity for Kids
A kid-friendly mindfulness lesson that uses a paper person, masking tape, and glitter glue to show how our brains hold onto the hard stuff and let good moments slip away. Includes steps you can use at home or school to help kids take in the good and grow the Sunny habit.
Finding the Spark Together: How Kids Turned Learning Into a Quest
Even the best ideas need a little magic. When the kids I was teaching started testing the workbook themselves, they found what was missing: adventure. What began as lessons became a quest—complete with a map, sixteen lands, and a dolphin named Doodles whose surprise birthday sparked joy
When Children Taught Me How to See: Why Pictures Teach What Words Cannot
Sometimes pictures teach what words cannot. In this story, kids (including my daughter, Maya) showed me how movement, imagination, and even a tiny ant named Anty could make learning mindfulness joyful. The lesson they taught me:
When Kids Told Me the Comics Sounded Too “Teachy”: Co-Creating Real Voices in the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids
How do you teach self-compassion without it feeling like a lesson? In this behind-the-scenes story, I share how kids helped me turn research-based ideas into authentic, laugh-out-loud
The Day Kids Made Me Write a Quiz: Origins of the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids
What helps kids actually want to learn mindfulness and self-compassion? When I first began creating the Mindfulness & Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids, six playful kid co-creators showed me the answer: curiosity, humor, and play.
The Day My Daughter’s Self-Compassion Eclipsed My Own
It was such a beautiful moment... Hello friends, I had a beautiful and humbling moment with my older daughter, Maya. We were standing in the kitchen talking about her cross country training. Ranked #3 in the state for her division, Maya shared how her response to her...
Helping Kids with Big Feelings: What I Wish I’d Known as a Parent
When Maya was little, the hardest part of my day wasn’t mornings or bedtime…it was the walk from her classroom to the car. Almost every afternoon, she’d melt down. Sometimes over something specific, sometimes over nothing I could put my finger on.