Note: Be sure to read all the way to the bottom for a special treat from our family. Hello Friends, Have you ever noticed that your brain gets a little (or a lot) more anxious, neurotic, depressed, etc. than usual when you get sick? It’s a common occurrence, and I try...
Parenting
Why Kids Don’t Want to Learn Resilience Habits
Recently, my colleague, Dajana Yoakely, signed herself and her kids up for my parent-child self-compassion class. When I sent her a welcome email, she replied that she wasn’t sure how her kids were going to feel about taking the parent-child class. She said, “I told...
Shame, Kids, and Grown-Ups
When I make a mistake, oftentimes 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...
Meet the Resilience Habit Animals
Kids learn best through play! That’s because it’s easier to pay attention to playful things, and also because the neurotrophic factors the brain produces during play make it easier to remember what you’ve learned. In previous articles, I have shared about the Feelings...
Three Simple Ways to Help Kids Grow Self-Compassion
This article originally appeared on Greater Good, the online magazine of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. When I teach self-compassion to kids in schools, I do an exercise in which kids imagine that a friend of theirs has lost or broken something...
What is Your Feelings Habit Animal?
The Feelings Habit Animal Quiz is from the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids. 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...
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)
Have you ever experienced "imposter syndrome"? Imposter syndrome is when you think that you are not "good enough" to share on a topic or do a particular task because you are imperfect, and your brain tells you the story that your imperfection and doubts make you...
Four Steps to Help Kids Grow Self-Compassion
How many of us know someone - an adult, teen or child - who could benefit from the resource of self-compassion? We might think, Wow! That person really needs to be kinder to themselves and stop beating themselves up! But what is the best way to help another person to...
What if I Were Grandma
Click here to listen to an audio of this blog. My children are growing up. As they enter the second half of their childhoods, I am increasingly aware that my time with them is finite. Like many parents, I often function in a sort of survival or efficiency mode. What...