The Power of Compassion: The Mountain that Loved a Bird
When challenging emotions are held with connection and love, our hearts and lives can be transformed in positive ways. There is a children’s story that beautifully illustrates the healing power of compassion: The Mountain that Loved a Bird. The play will open your heart…
Four Steps to Help Kids Grow Self-Compassion
How do we help children (and ourselves) develop the life-enhancing resource of self-compassion? The process of helping children grow self-compassion can be divided into four simple steps: 1) Learn the skill of self-compassion either on your own or alongside your child. 2) Model…
What if I Were Grandma
Like many parents, I often function in a sort of survival or efficiency mode. Recently, I’ve begun to ask myself the question: What if I were grandma?
She’s Going to be Okay
My ten year-old came home from her first field hockey practice with some news that touched my heart. She said that the first half of practice she had been practicing self-criticism and comparing herself to others, but then the second half of practice, she remembered self-compassion, and she began to repeat the kind wishes that we’ve been practicing…
The Path to Resilience Journaling Challenge
I am formally inviting you (yes you!) on a Path to Resilience Journaling adventure. I am sharing our first week of the Path to Resilience journaling blog with everyone. If you would like to receive journaling prompts for future weeks (it is a sixty-day challenge),...
Resilience Toolkit
A friend of mine recently sent me an article from the New York Times entitled, Is Resilience Overrated? As I read the article, I reflected on the many ways that people define resilience. I looked up the word resilience and found this definition: “the capacity to...
Calm Your Body to Calm Your Mind
"Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced." -James Baldwin We are in the midst of a pandemic. Let’s imagine that you sit still to practice mindfulness – the simple art of non-judgmental awareness. You observe your...
The Healing Power of AND
If you are like me, you are on a roller coaster of feelings during this coronavirus time at home. Sometimes, I momentarily forget about the virus while walking in nature or laughing with my kids, and then suddenly I remember once again. Hope, grief, sadness, joy and...
Creating Space for Grief
When I learned that school had been canceled due to the coronavirus, I was more than a little shocked. My default coping mode was to get busy and stay positive. I also knew that I had to move my body and spend time in nature each day. Simultaneously, I became less...
While I Lie Awake at Night
The other night I lay in bed, unable to fall asleep. I was feeling sadness about something that had happened earlier in the day, and I offered myself a little compassion for the difficulty. I then went through my usual repertoire of things I do when I lay in bed: I...