In a Safe, Healthy New Year…
The Start of the Year Offers the Ideal Chance to Set Our Mind On the Present…
Back to school in-person? Remote? Hybrid? Staff and students missing, out sick due to the latest COVID variant. The frenzy of our one week back after winter break may have struck your household like a polar plunge into freezing cold water. Whereas the holiday season may have been renewing and connecting, stepping back into the fray feels like a shocking jolt. But our mindset in beginning this new year matters greatly. How we perceive our now and intend our coming weeks and months will help determine our experience.
Though our educational and health care systems are stressed right now (I realize this might be an understatement), if you are reading this, it’s likely you are safe (and if you are sick right now, check out this article on Parenting and Dealing with Illness. Our hearts go out to you as you focus on getting better!). You may even be perfectly healthy. You may be protected from serious illness by the vaccine and your family members may be protected as well.
A fundamental teaching in Aikido is focusing on all of the areas, spaces and parts of life that are healthy and safe. Where focus goes, energy grows. The Aikido master teaches that if a sword is pointed at you, there’s only one small centimeter of the point of the sword that poses danger. If you focus on moving into the spaces that are safe, you remain safe. How can we focus on how we are healthy and safe right now? How can we move toward greater safety by focusing our where we are healthy and safe?
We are not even close to being in the same place as last year. We have learned so very much. How can we begin our year with the mindsets that will help us in continuing to learn and grow? Where do we find wisdom? How can we pursue those sources of wisdom to help us remain in a place of reflective choice-making?
With those thoughts in mind, we are sharing some helpful articles that might assist you in focusing on your health and safety to thrive as we enter this new year of opportunities.
Routine Reboot
Routines add to a sense of safety and stability for ourselves and our children. Yet we don’t have to micromanage the process when there are ways to help each family member take responsibility for the key roles they play. Rebooting the routine in January just makes sense when the harsher weather adds to our time and tasks as we wrestle with winter clothing. Gather with your family to talk through and make a plan that works for all. Learn more…
Feelings Ritual
In the roller coaster ride of the past few years, one more lesson we’ve learned is that we have to share our feelings in family life if we are to manage them, support one another and remain intimately connected. Those daily connections can make all the difference in making your family a respite from storms that may exist just beyond your home’s threshold. How can you create a ritual of sharing feelings whether positive or challenging each day? Here are ideas…
Daily Feelings Temperature Checks
Family Investments in Wellness
We can create regular opportunities to invest in our families’ mental wellness by creating flow opportunities, or chances to dive into play, joy or wonder together in which you lose track of time. Those nourishing moments will heal you now together and will create more positive well-being outcomes for the future. Learn more!
Cultivating Family Flow in the New Year
Hoping and Dreaming in our Roles as Parents
How can we take some time out in the start of the year to ask what our hopes and dreams are for our children? And when we ask that, then we also need to ask what we intend to do – even in small ways – to work toward those hopes and dreams. Learning about how to support children and teen’s social and emotional development may just be part of your intention. Here’s more…
Hoping and Dreaming for a Brand New Year
Strategies for Anxiety
And when anxiety arises, and we know it will, we have options that will help us feel better. Work on those as a family so that your coping strategies are at the ready. If you do, you won’t worry yourself about hurting others in a moment of fear or anger because you have a plan in place and you’ve practiced your plan. You’ll be ready and all will remain safe. In addition, you’ll be teaching invaluable self-management skills to your children. Here are our best tools to help you with this!
Body Check Five; A Tool for Lowering Anxiety
Big Worries, Small Experiments
May this new year bring newfound health, safety, peace of mind, and thriving for you and your family.
Very nice