Self Care
Journal your heart out
Perhaps it’s the fact that we’re nearing the end of the second term (aka, I’m tired), but I’ve had a real need to be creative recently. I have learned to take cognizance of the urge to create because it usually is telling me my brain needs a break from thinking and planning and just needs…
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Navigating oceans of emotions: Regulate, Relate, Reason
When our emotions are recognised, listened to and responded to with care, we are better able to regulate and then learn how to cope with our emotions. Dr. Bruce Perry writes about a sequence of engagement that is very helpful; Regulate, relate, reason. One day a child arrived home from school, went into his room…
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Duvet Days
She got in the car and started crying. She had been “off” all week; low frustration tolerance, emotional, and tired. That was it, we decided, time for a duvet day. What is a duvet day? One of those days where your child is not necessarily sick, but they may be exhausted/overwhelmed and they need a…
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The rhythm of creativity
These words from my friend struck me deeply as I realised a few things. I had lost the creative rhythm that was once established, having thought I had bought myself more time, I actually was spending less time in the ‘creative flow’. I grew up with a belief that if you were good at something,…
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Journalling to self-care
I am a journallor and have been for most of my life. Writing is a natural outlet to me. I’ve used journalling as a spiritual tool in my Christian journey, it has helped me to track with the ups and downs and roundabouts of learning and growing in my faith. Journalling has no doubt helped…
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Permission to rest
I feel that one of the most helpful lessons I have learned in the past 10 years is how to attune to my needs for rest and reflection at the right time for me. Rest is not necessarily about completely stopping all activity and taking a duvet day (although sometimes that is entirely appropriate and…
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Friendship: because parent sneed play dates too
Cultivating friendship in the adult years can be surprisingly tricky. But parents need play dates too. How many play dates have you made for your child in the past year? Probably not as many as in a usual year, granted. But I am willing to bet for most of us we’ve spent a good deal…
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R.E.S.T.
Receive. Exhale. Sleep. Time to play. Be like this cat. Rest. Feel free to use my handy little acronym for some ideas of how to rest. Rest, by the way, isn’t always about stopping activity completely because most of the time we have to work and live and parent. Rest is about learning how to…
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It’s been a week
It’s hard to parent nicely when things are hard. It’s hard to think about extending grace and patience when you yourself are hard-pressed in several different ways. Some of the things that have happened this week: Two full on shouting matches with one child who has dragged heals about a big school work project and…
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I am most proud of myself for…
This is not a “puff myself up” type of pride, but a recognition of “hey, I can do hard things” pride. This is a celebrate me and celebrate you pride! Let’s face it, some of those little things were hard (and still are) to do in the midst of a pandemic. One year and two…
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