The Happinest

All we can do is offer them up! 🤲🏼
.and try with just one suggestion at a time. No need to go into overdrive when our child is behaving in a way that’s loud and ‘violent’. Reinforce that the emotion and the feeling behind the behavior is okay very normal, yet the behavior is not. There are healthy ways to express every emotion, share those with them! 😊😡😖🥰

The other night at 9:30pm when my son was on his 80th round of “I’m not tired”, I literally walked the whole of point nepean and back in my mind. By the time I had visualized every detail of my favorite walk and the effects it has on my whole mind and body when I am out there doing it, rudi’s distant murmur died down to silence. 😏

Which one will you try next time you find yourself triggered in the midst of a meltdown? 1-4?

At the beginning of the week I had the privilege of introducing over 20 ten year old girl’s to their inner roommate.

We all have an inner voice that speaks all day, everyday, making judgements about every given experience.

After you become aware of this, your thoughts, memories and plans and begin to develop a deep understanding about the way your mind individually works, you have a really special advantage of weaving an amazing life experience.

Introduce and explore our inner roommate with your older children starting this evening.

🗣️”Let the golden sun warm and melt each part of your body into the ground beneath you. Allow the iridescent light to soften the point between your brows, spreading over and soothing both eyebrows….

Breathe amongst the trees, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Share the same breath.

….”

take it from the cavemen 🛖

Have a kid full of beans?! Blare those beats, it’s time for a mindful way to channel hyperactivity! 🎶

🕺🏼Freeze Dance can strengthen the pre frontal cortex of our brain (which is responsible focus amongst many other things), whilst providing a source of energy release and a fun time. It also helps to develop your child’s impulse control skills. Have the whole family join in to.

Add fun elements by having each person choose what to freeze like each time the music stops. E.g Freeze like a…. FROG 🐸!

ever notice that your child is acting a ‘out of whack’? circumstances even such as mild as the common cold can also throw your child into a bit of a spin, jeopardizing their sense of security. ramp up the support and love by following some of these practices and before you know it your child will be back out there vibing away!

‘How was your day’ ain’t working!! Change it up to help your child reflect and process the day with fun family prompts.

🔢 Internal Count Meditation

Intention: Using a count to help provide a focus to anchor the wandering mind

Meditation: Choose a number that you aim to count to without a distraction. A distraction includes, a thought, a sound, anything that takes you away from the count. Close your eyes and begin to count internally count. When you reach that number, start the count again. The next time you do this meditation, increase your goal.

Nothing like a solo break with bring you back feeling present, refreshed and far more tolerant 🙌🏼

Especially with a baby, it has been one of the hardest learnings for me (and I know many of you) to get comfortable with having time away. My first reaction would always be that they needed me and that I needed to be with them around the clock.

Being physically present at all times can strip away at your ability to be present, receptive and joyous with your children. Schedule in those recharges.

Or skip the first three steps and go straight for the 📱🤷🏼‍♀️

or skip all three steps and head straight to 📱🤷🏼‍♀️?

5 Senses Meditation 🧖 read below👇🏼
Intention: Using our 5 senses to become present, alert and calm.
When to use: Practice at all/any time of the day. Can also use at night in bed.

👀First Use your sense of sight to scan the room (you could select a color and pick objects around the room with this color, or count how many lights etc)
👂Then use your sense of hearing by imagining your ears growing to the size of your whole head, or even larger. Listen to the sounds inside your body, can you hear your breath, heartbeat? Listen to the sounds of the room. finally listen to the sounds you can hear outside the room, even further?
👃Use your sense of smell, can you smell anything in the room around you. You can use an essential oil and ask what images this brings to mind.
👅Using your sense of taste, can you swallow a few times and make a chewing action with your mouth. Can you taste any flowers in your mouth? Toothpaste perhaps?
🫱Lastly using your sense of touch, feel the weight of your body against the mat, feel the texture beneath your head/skin. Begin to rub your fingers together and feel the sensations on your fingertips etc

Does your child ever yell a little toooo loud?!🔊🤪
Show your child that they are in control of the volume and expression of their voice at all times, with these two voice manipulation games 🎚️

👋🏼I always recommend spending those first few minutes upon picking up your child to recognize the state they are in. Perhaps they appear grumpy, or hyper, on the verge of a meltdown, ennui..

If I have ruled out some of the more fundamental contributors such as hunger and exhaustion I usually dabble into some sensory practices to help set the afternoon and evening off with more ease.

Focus practices like the 4 listed above can be so useful in quite quickly regulating your child. This doesn’t have to be a whole sing and dance, organized thing. You can literally find any old way to balance or skip and hop into your home from the car.

The Human Wheelbarrow involves holding your child by the ankles as they walk along the floor on their hands.

by deepening exploration into anger and other uncomfortable emotions, you can change the way you feel and respond to it.

try these prompts with your children to facilitate in the relationship they have with themselves and the way they express their emotions!

when your child is familiar with this way of thinking and understanding their emotions, try asking them in the midst of an angry storm to help process and work through the discomfort.

STOP telling your child “you’re so brave” in response to running into the haunted houses and claiming “i’m not scared!”. Although this displays confidence, real bravery should be acknowledged when your child is able to identify their limits and state their boundaries. this Halloween 🎃, try telling your child how brave they are when they tell you “that’s too scary for me!”. “you were able to tell that that wasn’t going to be the fun type of scary. you know your scary limits, you are so brave to tell me that!”

I mean… I know I’m quite horrified at the moment 😱🤡👻💀 think about your child, and respond mindfully!

share with those who need to read this before the big event 🧙🏼‍♀️

in the current world, it is harder than ever to confidently run our family the way we want (or expect ourselves) to. in this challenge, we can often get stuck in the isolated and resentful mindset (I find myself dipping in here a lot). “It is impossible”. “I am so ill supported” “where is this f*ckin village?!”
“I am solely responsible for the raising of my children and it’s too hard!”

sure, allow yourself to feel all those very warranted feelings. but, when you are ready, to help you resurface to a more comfortable level where you can make positive adaptations to your schedule, your well-being, your stability:

spend a moment thinking about those that do support, and that do greatly impact your family! they are out there!

tag or send this to those special people & places and get ready to watch how many more of them come through when you recognize and appreciate them 🙏🏼

do you have an inconsistent, erratic work & parental schedule? perhaps you too work in the entertainment industry? here are some things to look for in the support you seek for your family!

join me in a family friendly meditation this friday to connect for all who are affected by war 🙏🏼

PST 3:30pm Friday Oct 20th
EST 6:30pm Friday Oct 20th
AEDT 9:30am Saturday Oct 21st

PSA 🔊 we do NOT need to be yelled and screamed at in order to raise expressive, confident and healthy children!

I believe there has been a slight mix up. It seems that in this endeavor to raise emotionally expressive and responsive children, many of us are under the impression we have to keep calm, cool and collected while we get yelled at by our angry child! This is certainly not the case. We are guiding our children to accept and express all emotions whether uncomfortable or comfortable, we are not accepting all behaviors that come with it. Show your children that it is not okay to yell their anger out at you.

"It is okay to feel angry. I would be feeling pretty angry too if you turned off my favorite show when I was happy watching it. It is not okay to yell at me like that. I will help you express your anger and we can get through it. Let's stomp it out, yell it out into the outside air, squeeze the anger out in a cuddle". (keep following this account for more mindful ways!)

Comment 😡🙌🏼 if you agree or let me know if you have a different opinion!!

have you ever let children direct their own puppet show? do it!

rock decorating 🎨

what better place to get messy than out here.

first we collected rocks and studied our unique rock. we added them into a collection and closed our eyes. I removed one, everyone opened their eyes, whose rock was removed?

this encourages you to observe the unique details on what originally seems to be the same object.

then of course, we made them very clearly stand out from one another!

Jo transforming into the animal she feels most like in the moment - can you guess what animal she was?

the dreamy space 🌳

that post class feeling 🙌🏼

mindful sensory activities are set up on the beautiful terrace to greet the children as they arrive. while they are interacting in the first 30 or so minutes, all energies, communications and behaviors are taken into account to shape the remainder of the afternoon.

each afternoon we begin with a mindful eating exercise.

each child has a turn of instructing the group to close down their eyes while they take a bite of their healthy snack.

they take note of the smell, the texture, the flavor, the sound it makes when they chew, and once they have swallowed the last bit, inform the group to reopen their eyes.

they reveal a clue at a time until someone guesses the correct answer 😊

Ft Manna (3) & Rudi (3)

nestled in the magic that is the Harper's heath, located in Silver Lake LA. cofounder Jac Harper dreams of this being where children grow and flourish with the nature surrounding them.