You deserve a pep talk - but not one where someone tells you only to feel your positive or comfortable emotions. We will gain some perspective with a visualization practice which hopefully can help with some of that holiday stress. And we talk a bit about what is called: “Benefit Finding,” too.
Save the Date for the Parents’ Day of Rest which we celebrate every year on December 21st - it's a day to do what YOU want and set the kid stuff aside. Maybe you will make your favorite cookies or watch your favorite movie, whatever you do not wrap presents and use the day for a deliberate pause before the final chaos of the season.
You can find all our episodes on the blog at parentdifferently.com and read this episode as a blog post right here.
More on the “Benefit Finding” study with chronically ill children can be found here. And Kelly McGonigal's Book “The Upside of Stress” is found here. Here is her quote from the episode:
“To my ears, benefit finding sounds like the kind of positive thinking that tries to scurry away from the reality of suffering: Let’s look on the bright side so we don’t have to feel the pain or think about the loss…But despite my own allergic reaction, this research doesn't suggest that the most helpful mindset is a Pollyannish insistence on turning everything bad into something good. Rather it’s the ability to notice the good as you cope with things that are difficult. In fact, being able to see both the good and the bad is associated with better long-term outcomes than focusing purely on the upside…Looking for the good in stress helps most when you are also able to realistically acknowledge whatever suffering is also present.”
Follow along on for more gratitude and parenting:
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Parenting with gratitude is not the end goal - it's the method. 🎟 It's the means to achieving the goal of parenting differently.
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Our fantastic and giggly intro was provided by the kids of my good friend Alison Montford of Ends and Stems, a family meal planning and food waste expert. More about her here: https://endsandstems.com
