The Heartful Parent Podcast

Could you use a couple more tools in your toolbox for managing and reducing stress or shifting the energy around your parenting? My guest on this episode of The Heartful Parent Podcast is Rosalyn Acosta, an Energy Healer and Eco-Wellness Travel Planner, who is also the founder of Live, Heal, Travel. 

Rosalyn and I dive into the practice of reiki, which I know we’ve maybe heard of, but possibly don't know much about. It is the practice of using the energy in the body to heal and cleanse your chakras. She explains some mindfulness methods and demonstrates some breathing techniques that can not only help you reduce stress, but get out of a constant state of fight or flight. 

If you are interested in learning more or even booking a reiki session with Rosalyn, you can reach out to her through her website or Instagram @livehealtravel. If you mention The Heartful Parent Podcast, she has some special offers for you on reiki sessions, shamanic energy healing services, crystal reading, and help you plan an eco-wellness trip.

And if you are in need of parenting support, please reach out to me at christy@theheartfulparent.com or find me at theheartfulparent.com.

Resources:

livehealtravel.com

Rosalyn on IG - @livehealtravel

Rosalyn on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/rosalynsalters

Welcome to the Podcast, Jonas Keating! I’m so thrilled to have my husband, one of my very favorite people, on The Heartful Parent Podcast for this episode. He is such a good sport and truly a great podcast guest! He not only answers all my questions, we even have one from our six year old, which turned out to be the hardest question for both of us. 

Jonas shares with us how parenting is different than he expected, his perspective on what makes our family work well, and what it is like being married to someone in the parenting space. He also shares his true north, what guides him as a dad and what he has learned about himself. Tiny spoiler, it’s his Harry Potter house, which also turns out to be his true north!

This is a special episode for me. It’s a little vulnerable to put my family out there this way, but it all comes from my true belief that we are not meant to do this alone. By sharing my parenting partner with you, I hope you get a glimpse into my support system. I’m here to support you, whether you have a parenting partner or not. You (& your partner) do not have to navigate your parenting journey alone. 

Reach out to me! christy@theheartfulparent.com. And if you are ready to give The Heartful Parent Academy a try, use code PODCAST to get your first month for just $7. I would love to see you there. 

Resources:

The Heartful Parent Academy

You’ve heard me say it at the start of every episode: we were never meant to do this alone. Parenting, that is. Finding the support she needed was what saved this week’s guest’s relationship with her daughters and got her on a much better path in parenting. Providencia Lopez is a former client that I had the pleasure of working with when she found herself newly sober and in a very tough spot with parenting. She knew she needed help, and she did the right thing by reaching out to find it.

Providencia and I dig into the importance of true self-care, not just getting your nails done, but going deeper into what fills your cup so you’re able to show up for your kids. We also touch on how to build connection with your kids (and your partner if you have one) and how to truly repair when we’ve screwed up with our kids, our partner, or even the employee at Forever 21.

Providencia gets real and vulnerable in this episode, and I appreciate her willingness to share her journey so we can really share the message that we all need support. It is truly my pleasure that I got to be part of her parenting journey. She has come leaps and bounds since I first assigned her to hug her daughter as homework in her first coaching session. 

If you need some support, reach out to me! I would love to hear from you christy@theheartfulparent.com or see you in The Heartful Parent Academy. It might just be the community of support that makes the difference for you in your parenting, partnering, or even your professional life.

Resources:

Healing Your Providence on IG - @healingyourprovidence

Providencia on IG - @provi3010

First of all, I’m so grateful to all of you, Listeners, for being on the podcast journey with me for one full year of episodes! I’m proud of the episodes I’ve been able to bring you and have so much more to offer. Today’s guest is no exception. I am thrilled to have Lori Sugarman-Li, a fellow Certified Fair Play Facilitator and Family Coach, join me for a great conversation today.

We dig into the value of unpaid work. And if you are a parent, you are doing unpaid work. Even if parenting is not your only job. Not only is Lori a great advocate for starting the conversation around the value of this work, she has great ideas for how to get into Family Flow. This means making the invisible work more visible, getting your kids involved in “chores” in a way that makes sense to them, and shifting the energy around these undesirable tasks. 

This is not easy work, and if you find yourself in need of support, I would love to see you in The Heartful Parent Academy! You can use code PODCAST to get your first month for just $7.

And finally, in the interest of keeping The Heartful Parent Podcast going strong, please share this episode with someone who might also need to feel valued in the unpaid work they are doing. A 5 star rating along with a review is also helpful, and greatly appreciated!

Resources:

Our Home: The Love, Work, and Heart of Family by Lori Sugarman-Li

ourhomeourpride.com

Lori on IG - @ourhomeourpride

I don’t get paid. So what am I Worth? by Lori Sugarman-Li [LinkedIn. April 5th, 2021]

Want Great Women Leaders? Help Men Be Better Fathers. by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox [Forbes. June 15, 2021]

The Heartful Parent Academy

Do you know any narcissists? If you do, I’m sure just reading or hearing that word triggers a reaction in you. Did you know there is actually healthy narcissism? Now, before you skip past this episode because of the word narcissism, please hear me when I say you will find the conversation in this episode more fascinating and applicable than you probably expect. I sure did. 

Dr. Mary Ann Little is my guest for this episode, and she is a clinical psychologist with years of experience in private practice and has written books about parenting and children including the book we’re talking about today, Childhood Narcissism: Strategies to Raise Unselfish, Unentitled, Empathetic Children.  Who doesn’t want their children to be generous, well-rounded, and empathetic?! 

Dr. Little and I dig into successfully developing the four structures in parenting that will protect against narcissism in your child. She also describes how to find moderation in your parenting with your child’s concept of self, emotional regulation, ability to accurately perceive, and positive modeling of love and relationships. So many good gems in this conversation. 

If you would like to connect with Dr. Mary Ann Little, you can visit her website, drmaryannlittle.com, or find her on Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

If you find yourself nodding along at any point in this episode, please share it with another parent who might find it useful. Then drop a rating and review so we can reach even more parents who might need support.

Resources:

Childhood Narcissism by Dr. Mary Ann Little

drmaryannlittle.com

Dr. Little on Twitter - twitter.com/drmaryannlittle

Dr. Little on Facebook - Dr. Mary Ann Little, author

Dr. Little on Instagram - @drmaryannlittle

Did you know that feng shui is the art of creating a harmonious and healthy home? You might be a skeptic, and that is okay. But if you stop and think about it, your relationship with your space (home, office, bedroom, etc) impacts everything.

Maybe it’s hard to relax with a lot of clutter. Maybe you can’t unwind in your bedroom because it’s also your office. Maybe your kitchen table is full of kids’ homework and papers to look over. All of this is impacting the energy of your day to day routines. 

Feng Shui Expert Patricia Lohan is my guest today and she is sharing how to bring harmony into our homes and enhance our relationships by embracing a few new techniques within your spaces. In this episode, Patricia and I dig into how the flow of your home impacts your overall energy and atmosphere. 

Patricia gives us a few practical recommendations for how to begin to feng shui your kids’ room, your main living areas, and your bedroom. And she gives three very doable suggestions for how to truly shift the energy in your home right away. If you are as intrigued as me after you listen, check out Patricia’s $9 mini course that you can access from her website. 

I would love to hear from you about this episode or if you find yourself in need of support along your parenting journey. Email me christy@theheartfulparent.com or visit theheartfulparent.com to find out about more. 

Resources:

patricialohan.com

Feng Shui 101 - $9 mini course

Patricia on YouTube - @PatriciaLohan

Patricia on IG - @powerhousefengshui

Patricia on FB - PatriciaLohan.RestoringYouBack.ToHarmony

Most of us wonder what we can do to raise happy, successful kids; the answers aren’t always obvious or easy! 

In this solo episode, we are digging into what the research shows about raising securely attached kiddos who thrive socially, emotionally, and cognitively from preschool through adulthood.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, the answer starts with us: how we show up is key. 

To help parents do that well, we’re talking today about the 4 S’s, which were developed through the brilliant work of Drs. Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson . 

The 4 S’s are a beautiful framework for thinking about what’s important and how we show up,  and provides parents with some clear, concrete strategies for ensuring that we are parenting with presence and connection. 

We can all help our children feel Safe, Seen, Soothed, and Secure; I’m sharing why it’s important, how to do it, and some successes and learning moments for me as a mom. 

As always, I would love to support you. If you need help with the 4 S’s or anything else in parenting, please reach out christy@theheartfulparent.com or come see how The Heartful Parent Academy can give you the support and sense of community you might need. 

Resources:
The Power of Showing Up by Dr. Dan Siegel and Dr. Tina Bryson

Can you relate to feeling angry, exhausted, overwhelmed? I’m betting every parent has! And maybe you’ve even lost it on your kids or your partner. Cue the shame spiral. We’ve truly all been there, but we can’t let our shame get the best of us!

On this episode, I have the pleasure of talking about all things overwhelmed, angry, and exhausted with Emily Hughes, a Conscious Parent Coach, Somatic Therapist, and mom of two. She and I both share pretty vulnerable stories about times we’ve had all-out-rage just take over. Again, cue shame spiral. Like I said, we’ve ALL been there!

Here is the good part! Emily and I dig into not only when this happens, but why. She shares all about the role of shame and how it could be contributing to anger and reactivity in your parenting. And she also shares how we can get back into our bodies in these moments to begin to break that cycle. Emily also explains how getting clear on your values might explain some of the anger you are experiencing. 

This is a great conversion for anyone who feels stuck in their angry, exhausted, and overwhelmed state and wants to get unstuck. And I walked away feeling so much more seen and understood, and much less alone in some of those tough emotions.

You can connect with Emily for more support or you can reach out to me! I would love to hear from you christy@theheartfulparent.com. If you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll get great resources and tips delivered right to your inbox each week! Sign up HERE.

Resources:

findingflowparenting.coach

Emily on IG - @findingflowparenting

Emily on Facebook - facebook.com/FindingFlowParenting

FREE Masterclass - Stop Yelling and Start Thriving

Sugar Dating?? Have you heard of this? If you have a teen, tween, young adult, or someone who is going to grow into one, you’ll want to hear this! My good friends and colleagues, Amy Lang and Casey O’Roarty, and I are talking about something just a little disturbing today, and that is the concept of Sugar Dating. 

We dig into what it is exactly, how it is being facilitated through the internet, why adolescent brains are NOT equipped to really understand the reality of this, and finally how and when to talk to your kids about these types of topics. Even if it’s not sugar dating, we can’t wait until our kids hit their late teen years to begin these conversations.  We have to start framing how they think about sex and relationships much earlier. 

We cannot control (unfortunately) what they think and the actions they will ultimately take, but we CAN ask the right questions in order to help start framing how they think about sex and relationships. Casey, Amy, and myself are telling you what questions to ask and when to start asking them so you can pave the way for your teen/tweens’ underdeveloped brains to THINK about things like how sugar dating fits into the picture of a healthy relationship. 

Quick disclaimer: This is an episode that aired on Casey O’Roarty’s Joyful Courage Podcast in December of 2023. It is such an important topic and great conversation, I decided to share it here too. 

To learn more about all the fabulous work that Casey and Amy do, you can catch their podcasts or visit each of their websites (links are listed below). 

And if you are in a place where you could use some parenting support or are part of an organization that could use some parenting education around brain or body safety, please reach out to me christy@theheartfulparent.com or visit my website: theheartfulparent.com.

Resources:

Casey O’Roarty

Joyful Courage Podcast

besproutable.com/teens

www.facebook.com/joyfulcourage

IG - @joyful_courage

Amy Lang

Birds+Bees+Kids Podcast

birdsandbeesandkids.com

www.facebook.com/birdsbeeskids

IG - @birdsandbeeskids

Parenting is hard, and I strongly believe we are not meant to do it alone. In this episode of The Heartful Parent Podcast, Mara Berrios and Mayna McVey join me for a powerful conversation about the reality and challenges that come with parenting a child with a rare condition and/or with special needs. 

Mayna’s nine year old daughter is diagnosed with Chronic Recurrent Multifocal Osteomyelitis (CRMO) and Mara’s four year old son is diagnosed with Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS) and also, more recently, has been identified on the autism spectrum. 

Mara and Mayna share their journeys to diagnoses for these conditions with their kiddos. They also talk about all the emotions that need a place and some space in parenthood, including loneliness, grief, joy at odd times, and rage.

I have had the absolute pleasure of working with both these moms in The Heartful Parent Academy, and I am so grateful they are sharing their stories and how they build their village to be able to move through each of their difficult parenting journeys. 

If you are in a place where building a village could help you with some of your challenges as a parent, with your partner, or in your professional life, I would love to see you in the Academy! Use code PODCAST to get your first month for only $7 

Resources:

tiltparenting.com/tilt-parenting-roadmap

www.seattlechildrens.org/clinics/biofeedback/patient-family-resources

neurodivergentinsights.com/resources

www.understood.org/articles/adhd-explained-a-28-minute-primer

theheartfulparent.com/heartful-parent-academy

Bardet-Biedl Syndrome: 

www.marshfieldclinic.org/services/bardet-biedl-syndrome

www.bardetbiedl.org

Autism:

tacanow.org

CRMO:

www.seattlechildrens.org/clinics/chronic-recurrent-multifocal-osteomyelitis-program

give.seattlechildrens.org/campaign/crmo-warriors-guild/c467210

Helpful Episodes:

Episode 5: Unpacking the Emotions of Parenthood with Wendy Sloneker

Episode 6: Heartful Parenting Practice: Family Meetings

New Year's resolutions are not really my thing, but I do like a reset around this time of year. So as we start 2024, I’m asking these questions (for myself and for you):

What do you want for yourself, as a parent, professional, a friend, a human?

What do you want for your partnership (if you’re parenting with a partner)?

What will make 2024 feel like a success to you? 

And what are you willing to do to get the things you want? 

With these questions in mind, I offer you my ingredients that make up my Recipe for a Good Life.  Some of these are my own gems of wisdom and some I got from other people who have positively impacted my own life. Just like with any new recipes you try, you might make some tweaks or changes, but this is a good place to start.

Happy New Year! 

If you are finding yourself struggling with how to build a Recipe for a Good Life, I would love to support you. Reach out to me christy@theheartfulparen.com or consider joining The Heartful Parent Academy. It can be a great place to find the support that will help you have that good life.

Did you know that emotional intelligence, over IQ, is more predictive of success in careers and relationships? There are four important elements of emotional intelligence, and my guest today, Dr. Joanne Light, is going to dig into each of them.

Joanne is an Parent Empowerment coach along with being a mother and grandmother. She is also a retired college administrator and counselor with experience in education, counseling, and life coaching. She has a lot of insight and a great perspective on reframing how we’re thinking about and incorporating emotional intelligence with our kids and teens. 

My conversation with Joanne centers around what we mean, exactly, when we say ‘emotional intelligence’, what the four elements of emotional intelligence are, and how to use what we know about emotional intelligence to raise competent, contributing, compassionate children into adults. The theme of wanting something versus being willing to do it also runs throughout our conversation.  

Dr. Joanne Light can be found on her website joannehlight.com where you can download her FREE guide, 5 Tips to Overcoming Parent Burnout.

Resources:

No Problem Parenting: Raising Your Kids with More Confidence and Less Fear

FREE Download: 5 Tips to Overcoming Parent Burnout

It’s Not About the Nail - video

IG - @light_joanne_empathy

Facebook - Joanne H Light Coaching

Do your kids listen?! I’m guessing you’ve had moments where you feel so frustrated that they just aren’t listening! My guest for this episode is Tehmina Fahad, who is a fellow parent coach and mom, focuses her work on overcoming challenging behaviors to feel more calm and connected to our kids. 

Tehmina and I explore the fact that no matter where we live and are parenting from, we are all trying to accomplish the same thing with our kids. Today she shares insight into why kids don’t really listen and techniques to help make it better for you and your kids. 

Her acronym, (and I love a good acronym) D.E.A.L., will be one that sticks with you because it’s easy and simple, and it will make a big difference. And you can start using it right away, TODAY, with your kids!

Tehmina is doing great work in the parenting space. If you would like to learn more or check out her offerings, you can find her on Instagram @parentingupsanddowns, Facebook facebook.com/digitalparentng, or check out her website parentingupsanddowns.com.

I’m so grateful you’re here, and if you have found this episode or any other helpful, please take just a moment to drop a rating and review. My mission is to make sure no one parents alone, so the more we can get all these great interviews out into the world, the better off we’ll all be. 

 Resources:

parentingupsanddowns.com

Tehmina Fahad on IG @parentingupsanddowns

Tehmina Fahad on Facebook facebook.com/digitalparentng

We want our kids to follow their dreams, explore their passions, and show gratitude. But if you’ve ever tried talking to your teens about these topics, or asked questions to guide their thinking, it may not have landed as well as you’d hoped.

So how do we teach these things to our teens and make sure it sticks? Inspirational Author, and Podcast host, Ed Gerety, has some valuable insight into how to reach our teens with these life lessons. Ed is sharing some of the gems from his book Shine Your Light: Navigate Your Way to a Life You Love. 

Ed’s book frames a thought provoking conversation, gratitude, kindness, self-confidence, goal setting, and staying curious with our teens. Ed encourages us to lead by example, and shine our light on these values. By doing so, we make space to invite more of each of them into our lives, instead of getting a classic eye roll or “I don’t know” from our teens. 

Connect with Ed on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and his website. 

I hope you’ll share this episode with fellow parents. We are not meant to parent alone, and by sharing valuable information we can support each other. If you are in a place where some one-on-one coaching or The Heartful Parent Academy membership could be the support you need, please reach out! For the Academy, use the code PODCAST to get your first month for only $7. I would love to see you there!

Resources:

www.edgerety.com

Ed Gerety on Facebook

Ed Gerety on LinkedIn

Ed Gerety on Instagram

Ed Gerety on Twitter

Ed Gerety's YouTube channel

Some Good News with John Krasinski

Teri Schmidt defines leadership as “courageously using your talents as a way for others to courageously use theirs”, and I have to say that is a nice picture of leadership. Teri is a repeat guest on The Heartful Parent Podcast, and she is back to not only define servant leadership, she is here to teach us how to become strong leaders. 

Imposter syndrome is real, and the world has unfortunately conditioned us to think of leaders a certain way. Teri reframes this for us, and explains how our identities can become tied up into the “Drama Triangle”. In this representation, we can get a little bit stuck in the role of hero/rescuer, villain, and/or victim.  

Teri and I dig into misinterpretations of leadership and how to recognize and function within the role that we gravitate towards. There are so many parallels between taking a leadership role in the workplace and parenting. We want you to be able to tap into your talents to excel at both. 

If you missed Teri’s first time on the podcast, make sure to go check out Episode 8: Growing in Our Leadership at Home and at Work. 

Resources:

Episode 8: Growing in Our Leadership at Home and at Work 

Teri Schmidt LinkedIn

Serve and Thrive Leadership Assessment

www.strongertoserve.com

We are back for the second half of the ‘mealtime battles’ conversation with my good friend and colleague Christine Muenz. If you missed part on, go check it out Eliminating Mealtime Battles––Part 1. 

In this episode, I’m firing all my feeding, food, and mealtime questions at Christine. And she offers her thought provoking perspective on how mealtimes can play out on a daily basis. She shares how some of the philosophies that we use to feed our infants can transfer to feed our toddlers, children, and teens. And she talks about how we can maybe improve the choices we make around food and our bodies can keep us rooted in mutual respect with our kids and connection with our families. 

Since Christine is now officially a “Friend of the Pod”, you will definitely hear more from her in the future. In the meantime, keep track of her new offerings on her website christinemuenz.com. 

And I would love to hear from you! Drop a review or send me an email christy@thehearfulparent.com. And if you know another parent who has mealtime battles, and I’m guessing you can name a few, share part 1 and part 2 with them. We are not meant to do this alone! 

Resources:

christinemuenz.com

Follow Christine on IG - @strengthandsurrender

If you celebrate, Happy Thanksgiving! Whether or not you celebrate, I’m still glad you are all here to dig into the benefits of inviting more gratitude into your life daily, weekly, and beyond. 

In this episode, I’m giving you the numbers of how an active gratitude practice benefits your emotional and social wellbeing and helps you get the D.O.S.E. chemicals that benefit your overall physical health. 

BUT not all gratitude practices are created equal! While even just listing things you are grateful for can benefit your overall health, today I’m sharing some ways to take your gratitude practice a little deeper. And I’m giving you some ideas of things you could do to help deepen the connection you have with your family by inviting more gratitude into your lives. 

This conversation is a great example of the deep dives I do with The Heartful Parent Academy. If you are in a place where that type of support is what you need, I would love to see you in the Academy. Use code TRIAL7 to get your first month for only $7. This will give you the chance to try out all the support I offer and dip into all the newly created content that is licensed by the Positive Discipline Association. I really hope to see you there!

Meanwhile, please drop me a line to tell me how you’re inviting more gratitude into your life, christy@theheartfulparent.com. And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode! 

Resources:

Episode 6: Heartful Parenting Practice: Family Meetings

Do you have mealtime battles in your house?  Most parents do, because there are a lot of confusing resources out there, and because most of us got some messed up ideas about food from how we were raised.  So to dig into this, I have my good friend and mentor Christine Muenz on the podcast to share her deep wisdom.  

Christine is a parenting educator, lactation educator, and an infant feeding specialist. She teaches parenting classes at hospitals in the Seattle area and lectures at conferences for professionals who work with families in the stages of pregnancy and postpartum. And she is joining me for a two-part conversation on eliminating mealtime battles. *SIGH OF RELIEF*

In this part of our conversation, Christine and I dig into the way we feed our children as infants and how this changes as kids grow and get older. And the decisions we make and the battles we pick can have unintended effects with our kids and in our families. Christine is not only the  ‘wisdom keeper’ on this topic, she offers a perspective that will truly change how mealtimes play out and help you focus on connection with your family. 

Christine is beginning to have all sorts of new offerings, so keep checking back to her website to see what’s coming! christinemuenz.com

Come back in two weeks for the second part of this conversation. And if you need support in the meantime, reach out! I would love to hear from you chrisy@theheartfulparent.com or see you in The Heartful Parent Academy (use code PODCAST to get your first month for only $7). 

Resources:

christinemuenz.com

Follow Christine on IG - @strengthandsurrender

Have you ever tried to meditate and thought to yourself, I must be doing it wrong. I know I have. But Aparna Venkataraman, founder of Beauty In Parenting, helps us all feel like we can actually benefit from meditation and breathwork practice; she makes it feel accessible for both yourself and your kids. 

Aparna has a warm and approachable nature and offers her guiding hand to help us use meditation and breathwork to empower ourselves in building healthy relationships with one another through effective communication, creating boundaries, self-care, building confidence, and lighthearted mindfulness techniques. 

You’ll walk away from this episode with 3 different breathwork practices that you can start using for yourself and your kids today. And the best part is Aparna walks us through each of them during this episode! I know I felt more centered and grounded after this episode, and I hope you will too! 

Aparna is offering a live masterclass on November 15: 

Self-Regulation Skills & Deep Breathing: beautyinparenting.com/booknow/masterclass 

(Class will be recorded.) 

Resources: 

www.beautyinparenting.com

facebook.com/beautyinparenting

IG-@beautyinparenting

Self-care & priorities download

I love Halloween! We get to dress up and pretend. It's great for building community and connecting with our neighbors. If you celebrate, it is a lighthearted, low prep holiday. And… I’m all about safety, so let’s talk about safety on Halloween. 

However, I bet my list will surprise you! I’m not going to tell you to inspect your kids' candy or follow them around the neighborhood. I’m going to explain the three main myths around Halloween safety and give a couple practical tips that will help you have fun and stay safe. 

So, let’s bust some Halloween myths and talk about what we need to do to ACTUALLY keep our kids safe on Halloween. 

Keating Family (No Kids) Pumpkin Carving: 

Resources: 

Episode 25: Heartful Parenting Practice: STOP saying “Stranger Danger”

Episode 26: Strangers Aren’t the Problem with Dr. Paul Renfro