Back from 5 nights away from the family. In the spirit of mindful awareness, I came to the Mindful Schools annual retreat at the Garrison Institute in the Hudson Valley (across the river from West Point!) with a playful curiosity. I was interested in the content of the two seminar days, but not totally sure what the first 2 days OF SILENCE really…
Category: Blog
Two Days of Silence, Two Months of Silence | Nurture: Family Education and Guidance
Next week I am going away on a 5 day mindfulness retreat through an amazing organization called Mindful Schools. I took their Mindfulness Fundamentals course and their Mindfulness Educator Essentials courses last fall/winter and loved them. They were 100% online, self-guided courses with weekly practice and reflections and were the perfect combination of information and guided practice to start a…
Nurture: Family Education and Guidance
Back from 5 nights away from the family. In the spirit of mindful awareness, I came to the Mindful Schools annual retreat at the Garrison Institute in the Hudson Valley (across the river from West Point!) with a playful curiosity. I was interested in the content of the two seminar days, but not totally sure what the first 2 days OF SILENCE really…
10 Thoughts on Bringing Mindfulness Into Your Home | Nurture: Family Education and Guidance
The other night my 6 year-old son was having trouble sleeping. I got up to his bedroom and he just couldn’t calm himself down. “Honey, do you want to try some mindfulness?” I asked and waited for him to laugh and say no-way. But he didn’t. I had taught him some basic skills (mindfulness of breath) a few weeks earlier…
Archaeology of Parenting
Your essence is the most authentic, honest, real version of you. Over years of development it often gets built over with other’s stories of who you are (or who they want/need you to be)–good or bad–but not essential truths of who you are on the most elemental level. Eroding those stories we were told were your identity is a difficult but…
How Automatic Thoughts Almost Ruined the Day | Nurture: Family Education and Guidance
This past weekend my husband and I decided to go to our local ski mountain and teach our kids how to ski. We are not frequent skiers, in fact this was the first time we had skied together in countless years. But we decided we needed to get out of town and this was the perfect opportunity to do so.…
Parenting Your Triggers | Nurture: Family Education and Guidance
No, your triggers are not your children. Or even their behaviors. Your triggers are yours and only yours. They are activated when your inner child is scared, vulnerable, or uncomfortable in some other way. When a parent is particularly triggered (emotionally upset) by an undesirable behavior in their child (typical examples: rude behavior, messy room, sibling rivalry) they may want…
Practicing Mindfulness With Your Kids- Part 1: Breath | Nurture: Family Education and Guidance
*If you haven’t yet added your name to our mailing list, do so now for a FREE PDF of “10 Techniques to Bring Mindfulness into Your Home”. So we parents are convinced that we want more time and space in our lives. To do this, we have chosen to integrate a mindfulness practice in our lives. This may be a…
Helping Little Kids Through Big Emotions | Nurture: Family Education and Guidance
“It’s just ice cream! We’ll get you another! Stop crying!” “Your hair is a disaster, stop screaming and let me brush it. Now!” “Are you seriously crying over Legos? You have so many! Stop throwing them, or else!” “No, for the 10th time, you are not getting that toy with behavior like that.” All parents are faced, at some point,…
Picky Eating: What Do We Do?
Question: Today my 4 year old was given his dinner and refused to eat it. He ate this meal (chicken, broccoli, and bread) last week. We don’t know what to do when this happens so we usually end up sending him to his room, but this doesn’t feel right. We also don’t want to get in the habit of making…