Mindful & Responsive Parenting: Communication That Works

understand what mindful and responsive parenting is and why experts agree that no matter what your parenting philosophy is, THIS is the foundation it must be based on for the happiness and success of your child

Have a fuller picture of just how much influence this foundation of good parenting has in terms of outcomes for your child

Maintaining this kind of connection with your child required that you look after your own health and well-being. Look at what the research shows!

This lecture brings your attention to the Practical Exercises throughout the course, designed to:

1. improve your well-being and happiness - a huge pre-requisite for mindful and responsive parenting!
2. help you resource yourself for the parenting journey
3. and develop the core skills of Mindful and Responsive Parenting.

These exercises are like your "tool kit" and can be done again and again, not just when they appear in the course.

The good news and bad news of how our brain is wired and why we need to get into the drivers seat to manage our own well-being to be there for our children

Understanding

1. how our brains are wired
2. the link between our happiness and our children's

A Practical Exercise of Self Discovery: Print out your own Well-Being Plate and review your resources for the parenting journey. You can take notes on this worksheet as you work though this section of the course and at the end you will have a good sense of what's working for you and what you want to invest in.

We now identify where to draw energy, resources and the capacity to deliver what our children most need from us

In this lecture we move from what you as an individual can do to resource yourself for Mindful and Responsive Parenting to what you as a couple can do. In the resources section you will find a short video from the biggest powerhouses of research on relationships showing the 4 things that most undermine happy couples. In the lecture we go through how you can come together around parenting even if your relationship is a little rocky right now (so often is in early days of parenting!)

Clarify what mindfulness is in simple terms, hear what it looks like in every day life and make the connection to responsive parenting

In this lecture we will unpack what mindfulness in parenting actually looks like, how it supports your relationship with your child and what the benefits are to both you and your child.

A simple mindfulness technique that you can do anywhere, anytime as you go about your day, which will build the skill of mindfulness and transform your day.

Another simple mindfulness exercise for busy parents that solidly builds mindfulness into your parenting and your life!

When you are stressed, your body speeds up because usually stress means that the body has detected a threat and is preparing for action. We are now going to explore a short mindfulness exercise as a way to begin to relax, unwind, and soothe ourselves - to give our brain a chance to recuperate. A natural entry into mindfulness is through the body and senses.

We are going to look at letting tension go, trying not to see tension as a bad thing or our enemy and something that we have to get rid of but rather as an understandable way that our body tries to protect us (by making our body ready for action). We can gently help the body understand that it does not need to be like this right now. As we let go of our tension it is like giving the body permission to relax. You can do this practice any time when you have a bit of quiet and privacy, either sitting or lying down and it is a great one to do just before going to sleep

In this lecture we will clarify what self compassion is and help you see the value of this core skill for mindful and responsive parenting. "We're all carrying a load, including tasks, challenges, worries, inner criticism, physical and emotional pain, loss and illness, and everyday stresses and frustrations.

Take a moment to get a sense of your own load. It's very real, isn't it?

Recognizing it is just honesty and self-compassion, not exaggeration or self-pity. There's a fundamental model in the health sciences that how you feel and function is based on just three factors: your load, the personal vulnerabilities it wears upon, and the resources you have.

As a law of nature, if your load or vulnerabilities increase, so must your resources. Otherwise, inevitably, you will get strained, depleted, and ground down." Rick Hanson (guest on Mindfulness 4 Mothers here on Udemy). As parents, we need to develop self compassion as a core skill of Mindful and Responsive Parenting - our load is very real and we need to resource ourselves - self compassion lets this in. Find out how.

A short but important self compassion practice that will help you build this into your responsive parenting and make the whole process become second nature.

A simple practice of self compassion that I learned from one of the experts in my mindfulness 4 mothers program. One that is easy to do anywhere, anytime and brings you right back to the core of responsive parenting.

Explore how you view the emotions of your children and understand the enormous effect this an have on their ability to manage their own emotions

Find out more about Emotion Coaching and why it is a core parenting skill with outcomes like these:

Outcomes for Children of Emotion-Coaching Parents

• They had higher reading and math scores at age 8, even controlling statistically for IQ differences at age 4.
• Coached children had better abilities with focusing attention, sustaining attention, and shifting attention.
• Coached children had greater self-soothing ability even when upset during a parent-child interaction.
• Coached children self-soothed better, delayed gratification better, and had better impulse control.
• Parents didn’t have to calm children's negativity as much.
• Coached children don’t whine very much.
• Coached children had fewer behavior problems of all kinds (aggression and depression).
• Coached children had better relations with other children.
• Coached children had fewer infectious illnesses.

Let's start practicing: This exercise will help you tune in to your emotions and how you experience them, raising your awareness and developing greater emotional intelligence

This exercise will further build your emotional awareness and literacy - and in the resources section you can find a fuller compilation of emotion labels that you can download to support this (thanks to fellow student Jacqueline Seidel for sharing this fabulous resource)

Now translate that learning into a step by step process that will transform your child's experience of their difficult emotions

Hear about Self Regulation and how all the other core skills build on each other to equip you to be the best parent your child could hope for!

In this lecture the following questions will be answered

What is Self Regulation?

What effect does our parenting have on our children's self regulation capabilities?

Practice applying the skills you have learned so far in a common parenting challenge and grow your self awareness and self regulation

Ok - so we are going to jump right in with an example from your own life - a time recently when your child was upset, so you can recreate what you would do from a mindful and responsive parenting perspective.

We are going to draw on all the skills you have been practicing so you can see what it might be like "in the moment” as we say!

I will share discount coupons for my other programs here on Udemy which can further resource you for your parenting journey. I will show you how to stay in touch and be the first to know when Part 2 of this course is published, along with other courses planned.