Use Protection (It’s Not What You Think)
Happy Thursday! You made it!
You may have heard that the key to juggling many balls is to know which ones are made of plastic and which are made of glass. The plastic ones can take a little wear and tear. Drop one, and it probably won’t shatter. The glass ones? Not so much. These are the ones you have to handle with care, sometimes at the expense of other things.
When it comes to not losing your mind as a parent, the verdict is in– self-care is a glass ball. If you let it slip, the whole system crashes.
Hot baths and massages are my favorite, but that’s not the kind of self-care I mean. What I’m talking about is a powerful set of eight Protective Factors that help us not lose our ever-loving minds. Each is critical in its own right, but together, they can inoculate us against the overwhelm and despair that many parents feel, especially when parenting complicated kids.
💥Real World Strategy
Handle these Protective Factors with care:
Sleep– Adults need 7+ hours/night. When we aren’t well-rested, our risk factors for mental health challenges increase.
Nutrition— As Michael Pollan teaches, “Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”
Exercise— Move your body every day to release trapped emotions, increase energy, and stay strong.
Focused Time—Focus on what you’re doing while you’re doing it. Multi-tasking is a lie. Distractions are killing us.
Play—Be silly. Laugh. Make art (even if it’s ridiculous). Being playful increases cognitive and emotional flexibility.
Connection— Connect to real, live people, the earth, and animals. Make eye contact. Notice body language. We are wired for genuine connection.
Time Out/Time In- Pause. Reflect. Think. Experience sensations. Recognize thoughts and feelings to avoid being secretly ruled by them.
Meaning- Humans have a primal drive to find or create meaning in our lives. Without this, we are adrift.
I made a PDF of the Protective Factors for you to download as a friendly reminder when life gets busy. (Feel free to print out several and use them as wallpaper.)
🔋Resource of the Week
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is 180 pages of pure brilliance. You’ll read it in one afternoon and be impacted for life.
🌊Use Your Membership to Dive Deeper
For information about why we are the way we are, check out Parenting in the Real World: Dissect the Nervous System (Level 1, Course 3, Section 2).
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✨Need More Support?
I leave time in my schedule every week for current clients who need some extra TLC. Grab a time on my calendar. (If you don’t see something that works, email me at cari@carinewmancoaching.com, and I’ll do my best to work some calendar magic.) Parenting doesn’t have to be this hard, and you don’t have to do it alone.
You’ve got this.
🩵Cari
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