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…
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…