I’ll level with you: I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions. I somehow feel like it’s a set-up for failure at whatever it is I’m attempting to succeed at.
Then I came to learn about the power of beginnings, and it has informed how I approach New Year’s. For one thing, these simple tips will help you avoid NYRE (New Year’s Resolution Extinction) Syndrome!
Interested? Read on at mothering.com.
Whether your kids have been back in school for weeks (the days of rebelling about school starting before Labor Day seem a distant, quaint memory), or went back this week… let’s be honest — the summer-to-school transition can be stressful!
One of the most helpful definitions of stress is simply “wanting something to be different than it is.” So, let’s embrace what is, and explore ways to ease and elevate the transition of back-to-school time! {Read how at mothering.com}
When I attended a screening of the ground-breaking documentary What the Bleep Do We Know?, there was a Q&A with the filmmakers afterward. I loved the fact that one of the producers, Betsy Chasse, had a babe in arms then. That babe is now 12, has a younger brother, and Betsy is turning her energies toward something so many of us share — a deep desire to find, and make, something meaningful through our motherhood.
In honor of Betsy’s new “Meaningful Mom” initiative, I contribute a rarely-offered nutshell of Parenting for Peace. Think of it as a sort of CliffsNotes to my not-so-slim book!! Read more here:
My life explorations as an adopted person and my studies of the foundations of human wellbeing have consistently turned up this fact: a key element of health is the experience of and capacity for connection.
Birth presents a unique, unrepeatable opportunity to foster connection. It is also important to understand the human costs when a mother and newborn cannot stay connected after birth — whether it is due to adoption, NICU confinement, health issues in the mother, or other circumstances requiring they be separated.
This is not about guilt or blame, but the empowerment that comes with understanding what happens with neonatal separation… and more importantly, what you can do to protect it and how you can help your baby heal when connection must be disrupted. {Read the rest of this post at mothering.com}
Image:
footloosiety, Flickr | Creative Commons
…I want to reassure you that I’m not. It may seem like you’re hearing (reading??) crickets from me these days, so I’d like to offer a bit of explanation.
The past several months have put every molecule of me to the test — preparing and then putting on two webinars launching the new “5 Parenting for Peace Tools” program in October; traveling and teaching a huge 3-day intensive course in Brazil in November; losing use of my computer mid-December for a month; and ending the year in bed with the horrenza-flu, which soon after New Years morphed into — egads, it’s so cliché! — pneumonia.
All that, together with a milestone birthday approaching next month, has led me to choose to take some time to step back from everything** that has become my professional routine for the past four years since Parenting for Peace was published. For this big birthday, I’m giving myself the gift of time.
Time to reassess, to contemplate, to vision and reenvision: What really matters, and how can I be of most use? What is it I’m truly here on this planet to do? And how can I do it in such a way that (at least most of the time) makes my soul rise with joy & meaning?
I’m a big fan of a principle I call “emergent novelty,” something very cool I discovered when studying how consciousness studies and quantum theory relate. I’ve witnessed how amazing original ideas, impulses and clarity can arise IF a person (or group of people) is daring enough to sit fully, deeply and trustfully in the foggy NOT-knowing space as long as is needed.
In this never-miss-a-blog-or-a-status-update-or-a-tweet-or-comment climate, that can feel a bit scary. But I’m venturing in, with the heart of an adventuress. I’m finding a space in the fog where I can sit and let the shape of my so-called “Act 3” begin to reveal itself to me.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not dropping off the edge of the earth and not even completely off the edge of social media. You’ll see a tweet or update from me on occasion.
I’m also going to use the time to work on a couple substantive pieces of writing that I’ve been putting off for (literally!) years — including an in-depth series on lesser-explored aspects of waterbirth.
[**And of course I will still be serving my Coaching & Care Circle members with live calls every other week and feedback on the private FB group. That always makes my soul rise!]
If you find yourself having a Dr. Marcy jones, no worries. I’ve written so many blog posts on so many topics, you won’t have to go without. When you’re at my website, use the homepage tag cloud or type a term into the search window (on any page but the homepage), and you’ll find tons.
Or, if you’re on my mailing list and have saved past P4P newsletters, you might rifle back through some older issues and find stuff that didn’t spark for you then, but does now.
Would you like to contribute to my sitting-in-the-fog process? I invite you to be in touch and let me know if what you have been discovering from me through Parenting for Peace is of value to you… and if so, specifically which aspects you find most helpful… and what you might want to see more of.
I’d also be very open to hearing if you have not felt served by the P4P offerings (I promise to not take it personally… it’s one of the perks of my upcoming milestone birthday… you just don’t sweat that stuff so much!)… and what you would like to see instead!
Please know that I carry you in my heart as I take this pause, with the abiding question, How can I best serve you??
As I walk through my season of recovery, review and realignment, I also invite you, if it resonates and feels right, to join me in stepping back a bit from the din — whatever that means for you. Invite some quieter, wider-open space for emergent novelty to bloom in you!
Catch you on the flip side…
Few words strike as much terror in the hearts of parents as “teenager.” And yet we all were teens… and still have aspects of our own adolescent within.
The more we can recognize, embrace and honor the unique strengths and opportunities of this potent developmental phase of life, the more we can empower ourselves to be — and raise — peacemakers!
And I don’t know about you, but at this moment in the life of our human family, I could stand to feel a bit more empowered, and a bit less discouraged. I need to remind myself right now about the power we can have in our lives… to shape our cells, our selves, and our children who are on the cusp of adulthood. {Read more at mothering.com}
“But they’re so awful!”
This is a response I often hear from parents when I recommend Grimm’s fairy tales as basic reading fare. The idea of regaling their young children with stories of orphans and witches, kidnappings and murders — at bedtime no less — is daunting, understandably.
As parents we tend to want to present something of a Hallmark world to our children, so we naturally gravitate to soothing, sunny, children’s books, including sanitized versions of fairy tales classics. Wishing to shield them from the darker aspects of humanity, such as anger, greed, anguish, and cruelty, we wean our children on the proposition that people are all good.
The problem is that even the youngest child knows differently in her heart of hearts.
{…and that is where real fairy tales come in. Read more at Mothering…}
It seems epidemic these days: an undercurrent of stress and anxiety thrums at the heart of parenting, even for the most “conscious” parents. In fact, probably even more for the really conscious, attuned ones — ever more conscious and attuned to our shortcomings!
How about you — do you feel this parenting stress? Do you perpetually feel like you’re a just a little behind the 8-ball, probably missing some crucial enrichment opportunity so now your child will be behind? I have some thoughts on this, and an awesome FREE resource for you to turn it around. Read more at Mothering.
And / or, if you want to zip straight to the awesome free resource for you to turn it around, here you go — it’s a webinar happening this week, so save your spot!!
Thursday, October 22 | 11am OR 4pm Pacific
I thank you ten times a day for the depth and richness
yet simplicity your work has introduced into our already
thriving little family. ~ Elizabeth Bolden, mother of two sons
Past related posts:
Ease Parenting Stress Through Mastery
How A Coach Helps
AuthoritaTIVE Parenting Not AuthoritaRIAN Parenting
I have to giggle, since it seems like just a few weeks ago that I was writing about the stress that happens for some parents when school ends for summer vacation! And now here we are at that other kind of “Eek!” moment — back-to-school.
I happen to think it’s just plain un-American to have school start up before Labor Day, but hey, I’m just old-school that way. I know many of you are not only already back to school, but also back to a smooth, well-oiled school-season routine.
If that doesn’t describe you (and it sure didn’t describe me in the early weeks of oh-too-soon fall), then you might enjoy these ideas for bringing more ease, confidence and enjoyment into the whole affair. They’re right here, at mothering.com.
Free 7-Step Guide: Help Your Child Release Stuck Behaviors
Yes, tell me more about this unique parenting tool!
