Feeling Together Blog
EMOTIONAL WELLNESS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Journaling: A Metaphor for Holding & Accepting
One of the first things I did last week when I arrived early for a yoga retreat was open my laptop and log in to a prose poetry class. I didn't want to miss the prompts and subsequent delight in something new as it appeared on the page before me. I don't always like...
Create Moments of Playful Connection
I thought about making a list: "Ten ways to create moments of playful connection with your children." "Playfully connect with your child to fortify their emotional regulation during COVID-19.” “Five ways children are reaching out to us to meet their needs without...
Play Therapy: Paper Chain Mood Rings
When my husband deployed to Afghanistan a couple of years ago, we had a rough idea of how long he would be gone. I made a chain of 220 paper rings. At the end of each day, my four boys and I broke one of the paper rings off. This helped my younger children visualize...
Learning from Home/Parenting During a Crisis
I am not homeschooling my children. I am schooling them from home. Not only that, but I am also getting my children through the first crisis in their lives, a global crisis. I am a mother first. My children are human beings first. I am balancing getting them through...
Talking to Children about Feelings amid Coronavirus
Follow a mother and her 6-year-old son as they explore their emotions amid the coronavirus outbreak. This is a fictional story based on my experiences with my son. He usually explores his feelings at night after I read to him. Lately, he has been exploring feelings of...
Benefits of Outdoor Play
Some of my favorite childhood memories were formed outdoors. Whether playing on my own or with a group of kids. Often times, my dad and I would go on nature walks. Sometimes we skipped rocks or set paper boats to sail, or simply raced sticks in the current. At the...
Let Kids Deal With Disappointment
It can be hard on parents and caretakers to be with children as they feel and deal with disappointment and other difficult emotions. Their feelings stir up our difficult emotions. We may want to alleviate their negative feelings or ours by rescuing them rather than...
Parenting: Teachable Moments from Tantrums
Parenting is hard: Even tantrums offer teachable moments for toddlers ... when we keep our cool My two-year-old son just finished what felt like an hour-long tantrum right before falling asleep for the night. I'm not sure exactly how long it lasted. I prefer not to...
Sharing Feelings with Children: An Example
Sharing feelings with children invites them to share feelings with parents: An example There's power in story-telling. Societies with a lot of stories about how life goes have less anti-social behavior among their members. I hear a lot of stories about parenting,...
How to Invite Your Children to Share Feelings with You
To encourage your child to share feelings with you, share yours Talking about feelings with your child sounds easy to many, but it's not easy for everyone. After all, many of us had parents who didn't discuss them, reacted strongly to them, acted them out, denied...