I am in my podcast era, where I wake up to walk my puppy Popcorn at 6:40am and pick out a new episode of my podcast rotations. I am drawn to podcasts right now that zero in on thoughts, our thinking, and how it impacts how we feel, especially anxiety.
When you keep hearing about young people in their beds all day, not going to school, not moving their bodies, I am wondering what thoughts these young people are having and how do we support parents to help their young people. It’s complex. I always say that we can run away from a town, a job, a house, a family member, we can block a friend and move countries, but we cannot get out of our bodies for a break. Our brain is a part of our bodies, and it can feel like we cannot escape from our brains and the intrusive thoughts coming in.
I’m hoping that being mindful of the thoughts that are coming in, will help me be aware of the thoughts I am having instead of just accepting and thinking every thought I have is true. The more I listen to these podcasts, I am having a greater awareness of the thoughts I am having. It's been pretty useful for me.
Parents are the #rolemodel for their kids. So, I invite you to dig into learning about your brain, brain health, thoughts, thinking, intrusive thoughts, catastrophizing and anxiety. It may be that as you go on your own journey to understand your thoughts, you’ll be able to role model and support your children to learn about their own brain and thoughts.
In all these podcasts, they have spoken about the importance of mindfulness breathing when we have intrusive thoughts to help ground us and question the thoughts coming in. Breathing is free and it feels pretty good. It creates a moment of pause and distraction from the worries/fear/anxiety to focus on breathing in, holding the breath and breathing out.
If you're keen to give mindfulness breathing a go with your kiddos, try out this resource.
Cheers,
Claire