Feeling Together Podcast

EMOTIONAL WELLNESS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

Allowing Children to Have Influence Over Parents [FT #3]

Jul 10, 2019 | Feeling Together Podcast, Parenting

In Episode 3, Dr. Emily Keller discusses the importance of allowing children to have influence over parents.

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4 Basic Emotions: Helping Children Identify Feelings [FT #2]

Jul 8, 2019 | Feeling Together Podcast, Parenting

In this episode, Dr. Keller describes the four basic feelings and how to identify them.

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Introduction to the Feeling Together Podcast [FT#1]

Jun 17, 2019 | Feeling Together Podcast, Wonder

Dr. Keller discusses her reasons for starting the podcast and what it means to “feel together” both as an individual and a family.

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Wonder on Instagram

Current situation: Falling in love with this littl

Current situation: Falling in love with this little guy.

Slow afternoons are for contemplation, exploration

Slow afternoons are for contemplation, exploration, and discovery.

It has been a while since I have posted. Our lates

It has been a while since I have posted. Our latest backyard discovery came when we hired an arborist to clean up our trees and vines. He revealed this.

Fort and army play after a rough day of online lea

Fort and army play after a rough day of online learning. Trust children to play the way they are needing to deal with the difficulties at hand.

This is the first time in days I can see the sun i

This is the first time in days I can see the sun in the morning. I took this picture with the sun behind the trees because it is a hazy blur otherwise. Our air quality is still extremely unhealthy. It will be days before it is clear enough to let the children play outside (assuming the models are correct). Children in the West are deprived of both social and outdoor play. Play is the foundation of learning. This is a slow-boil situation for many children. Many are already suffering. As a mental health professional, I find it hard to sleep at night. When I was asleep last night, my dream narrator said, “It is time to face the debt of our decisions.” I hope we come through this time with clear priorities including children, public health, mental health, spiritual health, our environment, and each other.

A rambling vine ... and mind ... The sky was ora

A rambling vine ... and mind ...

The sky was orange. Then gray. Today I see the hazy, almost-hidden circle of the sun.

School is online. Homework too. Friendships as well. Normal routines have been squelched into a chair in front of a screen. From 8:30 am to 11 pm, one child sat for school and homework and quizzes. Our children are squeezed. Anxious. They push us away and then come running into our arms. They say “no!” Then clasp our hands and ask us to wrap our arms around them. Tighter.

Let them go back and forth.

They will oscillate as they seek to regulate their bodies and minds in a world that feels much smaller than it once was, trying to contain feelings that feel much bigger.

Their world is occupied and led by dysregulated adults trying to hold and contain their own feelings of fear, sadness, grief, and anger. Oh the anger. Children don’t always get that it is usually a cover for another feeling, a more vulnerable one. Adults don’t either. It is confusing for children (until it becomes protective ... the way it is for adults).

And then there is the pandemic. It seems so simple to them, “ Wear a mask,” they say. “Why aren’t they wearing masks?” they ask. “Don’t they know we need to go back to school?”

Sometimes, the answers are hard. Children can handle the truth. No matter what, the truth is less scary than imagination. So tell them the truth. It will help them regulate their emotions. Lies increase the dysregulation. For adults too.

Not sure what is true? Your feelings can guide you, but that is another story ... and another reason we are having trouble ... too many grownups were told to “be strong” and “don’t cry” rather than held, in the discomfort of their emotion, until they knew exactly what it was telling them. Too many people cut off the connection to themselves ... and to others.

Every garden has a story. Every child is a garden.

Every garden has a story. Every child is a garden.

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