Authentic Moments ||parenting | Emotions | Trauma | Mindfulness

Christina Fletcher joins me for the December special episode. She is a returning guest and you can find her first episode here. Push The Reset Button Highlights: how Christina navigates her teenage daughter’s social media experience, her daughter just launched her blog why setting limits is hard how to get rid of fear in parenting because it does show up quite often:) what to do when your own triggers get turned on also, why you shouldn't over explain yourself to your child knowing your why when it comes to limits can be helpful  We also share what helps us in the moment to stay present, feel grounded and respond instead of reacting.  In our Second Segment we answer two of your questions. One is about a 1st grader whose teacher expressed a concern because he doesn’t finish his work on time and mom is looking for tips on getting kids to focus on finishing schoolwork? Will this pattern affect his budding independence?   Second is a question about a 5 year old boy who followed his older brother and joined a sp

Are you caught up in the frenzy of day to day modern life? Are you busy, rushed, hurried and lacking time? How much time do you spend with your kids? How much time do your children spend away from you? As the year 2017 is coming to an end, I invite you to rethink your priorities. This is a good time to pause and set new intentions for the coming year. How do you want to spend your days? Where does your attention go? We move through scenes like ghosts, without fully experiencing the moments and the events. We are rushing from place to place, constantly doing something... Children are overbooked and over scheduled. But the truth of the matter is we need to rethink our priorities, we need to change our lifestyle, we need to slow down, we need to have ample time for for children to play freely. We need to provide time and space for our children to decompress, experience downtime and just be bored.  Bored is the gateway to creativity. Not only our children do not have time and space to be bored but they not have t

Do you want to be part of the final episode of the year?  Send me your voice message now!  Here is the question: What's your definition of authenticity? What does it mean to live an authentic life?  Resources and Links: Grief Dreams Podcast Here is the episode with Joshua Black on my podcast. Joshua's website  Do you need an ongoing parenting support for free? I invite you to join my closed Facebook group-Authentic Parenting Community-a supportive and positive space for moms and dads who want to learn and grow. What’s so special about this group? There I offer exclusive FREE content- you won’t get anywhere else-bi-monthly free support calls, Q+A sessions, free training, and self improvement challenges. I strongly believe that social and emotional support if vital for modern parents. Find yours today! Don’t be alone with the challenges of parenting. JOIN NOW. Visit my web site www.authenticparenting.com to schedule a 30 min. complimentary session today and get answers to your burning parenting questions. No

Description This is our monthly special episode where I co-host the show with another colleague. For now, I have a Mystery Seat for each month and I invite passionate coaches or parent educators to host the show with me. This should be fun. For the monthly special episodes the show has a different format. We have 4 segments. Examples from Our Home What’s Up with You? Answering listener parenting questions Favorite Finds ---------------- In the first segment I tell a story that happens very commonly in many households. My daughter one morning before going to school stated that she didn’t have shoes. How did I answer? Did I avoid power struggles successfully, was I able to listen and validate? Listen to find out. The same day I received a call from a client who said that his son woke up and said, “I do not want to go to school…” Sound familiar? Laura has two daughters: a 2,5 year old one and a 5 year old one. She shares a sibling rivalry story.   For this month Laura Froyen, PhD takes the mystery seat.   About

Communication is big part of any relationship. When we become parents our relationship with our parenting partner gains a whole new layer of complexity. Are you a good communicator? Is your relationship a challenging one? Do you keep having the same old argument? Are you in touch with your needs? Can you communicate them safely in your relationship to get them met? Highlights: -why marriage mediation -don’t relay on your partner to read your mind -6 steps to effectively communicating your needs -interdependent needs -why you don’t want to win a fight in a marriage -how to avoid moralistic judgments   About my guest Max Rivers is the lead mediator at TheMarriageMediator.net where he pioneered using mediation to save marriages instead of to assist in divorce. He has developed a six-session process to help couples learn how to use NVC, Nonviolent Communication to navigate their difficult conversations. He is available at his office in Philadelphia, or worldwide over video conferencing. He is the author of a book

Do you get triggered and hijacked by your emotions quite often?   Do you ever find yourself frustrated, disappointed, insulted, angry or annoyed in your house? Does your spouse or children do things that just bother you beyond measure? Do you carry those emotions with you throughout your day? In other words do you get stuck? Today, we will be learning a simple yet powerful 5 step self-help technique that will help you in those stuck situations. Ready to unlock the secrets to emotional well-being? Highlights: -it’s all about taking responsibility for our own emotions -why identifying and naming your feeling is so key, name it to tame it -how NOT to identify yourself with your emotions, you are NOT your anger!  -most of Shira's stuck moments involve her husband, huh? :)    About My guest I am speaking with  Shira Taylor Gura, the creator of the unSTUCK method. It’s a self-help technique that you can practice – anytime and anywhere ,  so you can stop being hijacked by your emotions and take better care of yourse

We have made it! Yay! 100 episodes under our belt. Where did the time go? This special episode is for you. I want to celebrate, you, my dear listener! Audience participation. Woohoo! Thank you so much for being part of Authentic Moments community.  Listeners who appeared on this episode: Isabelle, Angela, Katja, Carla, Tina, Ashley, Corrine, Elizabeth, Melanie. Here are some of your favorite shows mentioned in this episode. 1. How To Stop Yelling 2. Are You Stuck In The Past?  3.  Are We Over-Parenting in America?  4. How To Be A More Conscious Parent By Changing The Way You Speak 5.Why Kids Misbehave, How to Handle a Tricky Tech Issue and Ways to Deal with Nosy People [Monthly Special Episode] 6. Loss, Grief and The Mysterious Meanings of Your Dreams 7. Are You Living An Authentic Life? 8. Why You Might Be Feeling Tired, Negative and Overwhelmed 9. Listener on The Show [Isabelle] 10. It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are & How To End The Cycle  My daughter on the show

My guest for this episode is Christina Louise, The Peaceful Parenting Mentor and World's #1 Freedom Coach offers a unique understanding of what you and your child are going through right now, because she WAS a challenging child and troubled teen herself! Because her parents didn’t understand how to manage their emotions without going into fight or flight mode, she wound up experiencing years of abuse and neglect, which resulted in self-loathing, anxiety, trouble with the law, and other serious issues including severe depression. But as an adult, she knew she had a CHOICE: She could blame her upbringing and continue suffering or she could take responsibility for ending the cycle of trauma and abuse. She embarked on an enlightening road of personal and family transformation which taught me THE KEY to making life so much easier. She condensed what took her two decades (and hundreds of thousands of dollars) to learn into Programs and Retreats that are designed to show you how to experience Peace, Purpose, and Pro

Do you sometimes feel tired, negative and overwhelmed? By chatting with Dr. Corrine Seeley it became clear that there is scientific reasons why you feel that way especially when you don't get enough adequate sleep. In this episode we talk about the importance of sleep both for parents and children. Corrine started doing fertility meditation on youtube, earned her PhD at 8 months pregnant and started her business when her baby was 6 months old.    Highlights:  -how a career-oriented woman went from academia to motherhood -the challenges of new motherhood -slow parenting -juicy science sleep facts that will make you go aha!  -and so much more   About my guest:  Dr. Corrine Seeley (PHD Sleep Neuroscience), is a paediatric sleep educator and sleep consultant working out of Rebirth Wellness Centre in London Ontario. After spending almost 10 years as a researcher and course instructor in the area of sleep and brain development it wasn’t until she had a baby of her own she realized how little sleep education there w

How to find happiness and maintain it is a central question. Do you know that we have  what’s called a set point for happiness? According to Dr. Puff we can change that. We can raise our set point and what he calls become superenjoyers.  We can raise our set point of happiness. Happiness is a lot like our weight. You have to do things to maintain your healthy weight. To begin to change our happiness begins with awareness. Dr. Puff shares four steps to creating happiness. Here they are: -you know nothing -you start learning and gaining skills -with time you re going to become competent -you become a master He compares learning to be happy to learning Japanese. Regardless of your life experiences you can learn to be happy today. It’s a learned skill and you can cultivate it, just like learning a new language. We also talk about parenting. He states that there are 3 ways we affect our children. There are 3 ways we affect our children: 1. unconditional love 2. what we expose them to 3. what we model and this is t

This is the monthly special episode where I am joined by my lovely friend and colleague Sarah MacLaughlin. If you are a regular listener then you know that we have 3 main segments: Examples From Our Home in which we both share parenting fails and triumphs. What’s Up With You? in which we answer your parenting questions Favorite Finds in which we talk about what we have read, or found to be helpful, resources, podcasts and such. Anna’s story is all about a hair mask disaster. Her 9 year old daughter is into slime making and as she says some kid of chemistry lab is going on in her home. Highlights: -why our kids are so impressionable and guidable -do you filter what your child hears or sees in the media? -why shouldn’t be so hang up on the word “hate” and why it’s ok for your child to use it In this episode we answer 3 of your questions. The first one is about a mom who thinks she is helicoptering her 1 year old. The second question is from a mom who wants to know how to help her child process big feelings, tur

Should parents sacrifice their own happiness, dreams, life for their children? Highlights: -as a child Katerina wanted her mom to be happy but as a mom she repeated the same mistakes -how she went from being a supermom to a happy mom -she almost lost her marriage to infidelity   What does it mean to create your own happiness? Don't focus on one aspect of your life Will the kids be fine? Are you putting someone else’s happiness before yours? QUOTE from this episode:“Happiness is seeing everything in life as a gift regardless of the gift wrap”   Connect with Katerina Get Her Book, The Happiest Mom On The Block Resources and links: Do you need an ongoing parenting support for free? I invite you to join my closed Facebook group-Authentic Parenting Community-a supportive and positive space for moms and dads who want to learn and grow. What’s so special about this group? There I offer exclusive FREE content- you won’t get anywhere else-bi-monthly free support calls, Q+A sessions,webinars and self improvement cha

I recently visited Armenia with my family for the first after 12 years. Even though I was born there and know pretty much what the culture is but to my surprise things had changed. This visit was special because I was visiting as a parent and parent educator and I was very intentional to observe how the Armenian people do the parenting business. Also, I met my friends there for the first time as parents with families. For this episode I invited my dear friend Lusine to join me via Skype to discuss parenting differences and similarities between the Armenia and America. Lusine is a mother of an almost 10 years old boy. Lusine has noted that the issues are the same regardless of the geographical location. What surprised me about Lusine and most parents I talked to there, is that they have never even read a single parenting book. And this is why I pose a question: are we  over-parenting here in America? Let’s dig in. :) Some things we discuss: -dreaded screen time and setting limits, the Armenian way vs The Ameri

My 9 year old daughter shares her honest impressions, observations about our recent overseas travel to Armenia. It was her first time. She was going to meet my dad, her grandpa are you ready-for the first time. It was a big, emotional trip for me as well since I was going back after long 13 years. Many mixed feelings. If you listened to my episode with Bridgett Miller The Hardship of Uprooting and Establishing a Home in a New Place  then you know what I mean. Curious what she saw and what she has to say? Here are some of the key points: Some things she talks about The long flight, jet lag, 14 hour layover language barrier and how “nobody understood her”  Food and more food Armenian kids and their behavior and her message to Armenian parents Armenian kids and screens Bedtime, safety and on kids being unsupervised When I asked her about her expectations she stated that they were exceeded:) She loved meeting my family and friends and she kept mentioning how nice people were. She also stated that she will miss

How comfortable are you with your  uncomfortable feelings? Do you feel your emotions?  Emotions Are Not Bad Behavior Do you remember yourself at age 10? Do you think children are born authentic? How do you cultivate authenticity in your children? How has your sense of self change over time?   Also... -how much freedom should we give to our kids -why it’s hard to listen to kids big emotions -how to encourage self expression -what is acceptance and how can we fully accept our children fully -our children are not bad for having feelings -tips for listening to children's emotions   About My Guest Hunter Clarke-Fields, MSAE, RYT, is a mindfulness mama mentor. She coaches over-stressed moms on how to cultivate mindfulness in their daily lives. Hunter is a certified Parent Effectiveness Training teacher and has over 20 years of experience in yoga & mindfulness practices. She has taught thousands worldwide. Hunter is the creator of the Mindful Parenting course. She thrives on serving others through mindfulness &a

  What is authenticity? What does it mean to live an authentic life? How do traumatic childhood experiences impact the trajectory of our life? Imagine being a 10 year old and silently suffering a bullying...   In this episode: -what is trauma -early childhood experiences and their impact on our life and parenting in particular -why it’s imperative to take time off from your kids -can authenticity be cultivated?   My guest for this episode is  Guy Macpherson, PhD, is a husband, a father of two, and holds a doctorate in clinical psychology. His focus is on the study of trauma and early psychosis. In 2014, Guy founded The Trauma Therapist Project with the goals of raising the awareness of trauma and creating an educational, supportive and inspiring community for new trauma workers.   The Trauma Therapist Project has now grown to include The Trauma Therapist | Podcast, now being listened to in more than 160 countries around the world, as well as Trauma Therapist | 2.0, an online membership community dedicated

How to get kids to listen without yelling and nagging? We all want our children to cooperate easily. Many parents do struggle with challenge. That was the case for Carla who later ended up writing books on mindfulness. Why? Because it was helpful in combating the bad habit of yelling.  Yelling doesn’t have to be part of your parenting repertoire. Carla shares with us her own definition of mindfulness which I love. -how she integrated mindfulness into her family – how it has changed her life from being less reactive to yelling less…and much more -we talk about mindful listening -an exercise you can do with your kids when they go from zero to crying -how to create a calming down corner for your child. -how to handle meltdowns public places… She is witty, funny, smart and a great storyteller.. About my guest Carla Naumburg, PhD is a clinical social worker, writer, and most importantly, mother. She is the author of Ready, Set, Breathe: Practicing Mindfulness With Your Children for Fewer Meltdowns and a More Peace

Spanking or corporal punishments break the bond between parent and child. They erode the trust. It is NNOT by inflciting pain we need to teach our children. There is a different way. You'd be surprised to learn that using physical punishments to "discipline" children is still legal in the world. In the United States 19 states still use corporal punishments in their schools and homes.  In today’s episode I am talking to my lovely friend, gentle parenting advocate Lelia Wes Schott. She is from South African and mom of 6 children. Lelia raised all her children with attachment parenting-a common practice in South Africa. But attachment parenting doesn’t mean gentle discipline. Lelia also shares her story of transformation moving from corporal punishments to gentle parenting. She also talks about the feelings that rise from transitioning from having one child to baby number two -The ups and downs, the joy and challenges of raising a big family -How she finds time for herself and for each of her children -Finding s

How much time do you spend on Facebook? How often do you check your emails? Do you know that the more you check your email the less happy you feel? Do you have FOMO? The surprising findings from behavioral research may have some shocking answers for you. yes, we are talking about rats. This is a true story. I battled with it. But I have come to face the reality and take some responsible action to defeat my obsessions. I came up with 7 rules for myself and they literally saved my sanity, and I became a lot more happy. My anxiety went away and I started sleeping better.  Do you know what happens in your brain when you engage with social media?