Mindful Moments Blog

While June is a month to honor and celebrate those in the LGBTQ+ community, inclusion is not a one-time or one-month conversation. It is an everyday lived experience. Here are 8 children's books to nurture inclusion. 

Starting school or starting a new school year can be stressful at the best of times, let alone during a global pandemic.

This mom feared something was wrong with her three-year-old child. And then she realized that his behavior was a sign of healthy brain development. 

Nothing makes you feel like a failure quite like having a child you can’t control. Until you realize control isn’t the goal. Control starts to slip away as children grow, and you either have to up the ante to maintain that illusion of control or you have to accept the fact that you really don’t have control at all.

Art can help your child release and express feelings they may not know how to process and let go of otherwise. Use these 5 art activities to navigate loss, stress and transitions and to nurture emotional intelligence such as managing big emotions. 

If we want to step away from punitive measures and towards a deep understanding of manners, and an internal motivation to practice them, it stops with “say the magic word” or “say you are sorry” or “what do you say???” And it starts with these 5 tools. 

This mom was searching for a way to transform her child's misbehavior. And it was these three connection-based tools that did it.

A poem to her son. One mom watches her strong-willed boy drift to sleep and she sees the child under the big emotions and power struggles, and it restores her for whatever tomorrow brings.

National Nurses Day is celebrated annually on May 6th, providing an opportunity to thank nurses for the contributions they offer daily to serve the health and well-being of others, and to educate the public about the important role nurses play in our lives. 

One foster family shares how they are managing emotions on a daily basis in raising their five children.

We share parents' top concerns and frustrations about their children’s behaviors during this time of staying home, and tools for navigating regression and other stress responses.

A new study concluded that almost half of children in the United States don’t get the recommended nine hours, and their lack of sleep is negatively impacting their development. This tool may change it all. 

Looking for more peace in your home? Start here. I love having tools in my parenting toolbox. The bigger the belt, the more I feel prepared to handle all the things that come with raising children. And the big heavy-weight tool for my household has been a Calming Space.  I am not saying that (poof!) magically all of your problems are solved. There are still meltdowns (both theirs and mine) and power struggles, but it is so much less. The frequency of my kids’ arguing, my yelling, and the family battles has exponentially declined.  5 Reasons Your Family Needs A Calming Space What’s that saying, happy wife, happy life … well … happy mom, smoother home. But jokes aside, here are five reasons why your family can benefit from a Calming Space.  1. It meets the need for safety. Safety is a fundamental need. If we want our children to cooperate with us (and decrease power struggles), regulate emotions (work through meltdowns), and learn new skills (like impulse control) then they must first feel safe. When daily rituals are created in a Calming Space, children come to know that they can count on that time with you and that they can be who they are (and feel what they feel) without shame or blame. This builds trust not only with you but within themselves.  2. It meets your child’s need for connection. Connection is the wheel that keeps the Calming Space spinning. Not only do you and your child create this space together but you visit it together, too, especially in the beginning. Unlike a Time-Out where children are sent to isolation with their feelings, a Calming Space is one where co-regulation happens. Your child has access to your nervous system to regulate and process unpleasant sensations and experiences. So snuggle up, read a book, color, explore feeling posters, or any other activity that brings your relationship closer, even if it is just five minutes a day.  3. It meets your child’s need for power. Children who feel they have some agency in their process become empowered, and when they feel empowered, they fight you less for that power. Really reiterate to your child that this is your family space and that everyone has a say here. Engaging in five to ten minutes of child-led play not only fills their connection tank as mentioned above, but it is also a potent way to honor their authenticity. Additionally, as children begin to understand their internal sensations and control their outward behaviors, they feel a sense of governance over their own bodies.  4. It helps you channel your unpleasant emotions. Ever feel like you just need a small pause so that you don’t flip your shit? The Calming Space is that space. Whenever you feel your overwhelm taking over, take a Time-In in your family’s space. Model to your children what it looks like to feel something, name it and choose a calming strategy. They are watching and when we show them that our emotions aren’t scary and contagious, they begin to believe that about theirs too. Of course, we won’t be perfect at this, but the way I figure it is, some of the time is better than none of the time.  5. It grows our child’s brain. At least in a sense. We can’t rush optimal development in our children but we can teach skills that promote it. So every time we connect with our children in this safe space, we help them build somatic awareness and build an emotional vocabulary. The more they learn to understand themselves and share it with another, the more they can connect and heal any hurts that have accumulated throughout the day. This takes time and consistency. Remember, we are dealing with fairly immature brains here. Our leadership paired with neurological development can lead to new circuits that take our kids from blowing up to working through emotions in productive ways. And not just emotions but impulse control, problem-solving, and relationship repair, to name a few.  Our children are never going to have fewer emotions. In fact, they will only get more complex as they get older. But when we stay steadfast in our connection and guidance, they become adults who don’t feel less but who feel their feelings and know what to do with them. 

In the midst of a meltdown, five-year-old Rudy and his mother Natalie Fernando were met with kindness from a stranger. The man's shocking actions helped regulate her child. Fernando shares: When you see a parent and child struggling, offer compassion, not judgment. And that's exactly what Ian Shelley did.

Here are 10 feelings you may be feeling as a parent. There’s a good chance you aren’t talking about these feelings because they are the ones we fear others will judge us for, and they are the feelings we criticize ourselves for. It is when we notice and share those feelings that we find our way back to ourselves.

These positive communication tips will create a family culture where children and adults alike are spoken to with respect and listened to with love. Children live what they learn at home, and all of their future relationships will benefit from having learned these important and positive skills early in life.

Ever work with a student on a really cool organizational plan, only to find it crumbled up at the bottom of backpack? Have you ever tried to teach planning and executive functioning skills to students and they are NOT having it? I know I have! Over the past 20 years (!) as a school psychologist, I’ve worked with sooooo many students who are shut down to learning any new snazzy tool or idea that adults have for helping them manage their schoolwork. In this 8-minute mini-lesson you'll learn why even beloved post-its and color coded awesomeness sometimes fall flat… Download your FREE Plan-Do Tool here! Interested in more impactful videos and downloadable tools to help you TEACH the top 10 Executive Functioning Skills to children and teens? Join our Masterclass with Dr Rebecca and put the FUN in Executive FUNctioning!

This is one mama's poem about watching her boys grow from babies to young men.