Episodes

If you know me, you know I’m obsessed with ChapStick. It’s my FAVORITE lip balm. My dad used it all the time, I use it all the time, it’s great. (I promise there’s a point to this.) I recently discovered Graham Cracker flavor, which is my new favorite — but my family doesn’t get my obsession with ChapStick, and in fact, Grady is grossed out by the smell of Graham Cracker. But that doesn’t change how much I love it. They just don’t understand! Now, I want you to think of someone that you love an...

Do you ever start doing something different because there’s a possibility you’re being watched? I know I have. Recently I was thinking about an event early on in my conscious parenting journey. I was at a restaurant with my family and I saw an acquaintance (let’s call her Margaret). I impulsively began to play with Lily’s hair. Why did I do it? Was it to show off how connected I was to my daughter? And why did I care so much about the opinion of this woman who barely knew me? It’s interesting t...

You may be thinking, what’s with this title? I know “boomerang judgement” may sound weird to you, but hear me out! This is an important principle. Within Byron Katie’s coaching and healing regimen, which she calls The Work, she has a worksheet called “Judge Your Neighbor” where the coachee would describe a bothersome, annoying, or otherwise disturbing aspect of a close associate. For example, a coachee might write “Paul never listens” on their worksheet. (Paul may be their colleague, their stud...

As a follow-up to last week’s episode regarding imago theory and therapy, I wanted to talk a little bit about what Brooke Castillo calls “emotional childhood.” It’s the stage we’re in before we arrive at “emotional adulthood,” which is balanced, rational, guided by the prefrontal cortex and the conscious mind at all times. Incidentally, it’s also the state we will revert to given negative stimuli, if we are not practicing conscious thought. When I was teaching elementary school, I might sometim...

This week I thought I’d touch very briefly on a concept that helped me understand a LOT of things about my romantic relationships and my marriage to David. The “imago” relationship theory developed by Dr. Harville Hendrix and Dr. Helen LaKelly Hunt appears in their joint-authored book “Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples,” and it’s been formally codified as IRT, Imago Relationship Therapy. The word “imago” is derived from the Latin for “image,” referring to the unconscious image of “...

Today marks our ONE-HUNDREDTH EPISODE! WOOOOOOOO! Parenting is an incredibly difficult task even under the best circumstances. I’m blessed to have the support of my husband David. Together, as we’ve adopted the conscious parenting model, we’ve been able to give more to parenting where it matters. We’re learning to accept the inevitable truth of our children eventually leaving home to be adults. We’re learning that our responsibility is to give them grace and compassion while their brains are d...

Is it bad to fail at something? Does it mean anything about us or about or worthiness or good-enough-ness? The answer to these questions is a resounding NO, and I want to talk about how failure is an important process you should be undergoing on the regular. As children in our natural developmental process, we try to walk, talk, eat, play sports or musical instruments, and so on. We generally fail the first few times — the first MANY times, actually. But eventually, with careful guidance from o...

Do you ever feel like you don’t measure up to the ideal? What can you do about that? The axiom “comparison is the thief of joy” is attributed to Theodore Roosevelt. Regardless of its origin, it rings true for me and many other parents struggling to cultivate harmony in the home. When I was just beginning my parent journey, I compared my circumstances and my children to those of other parents far too often. I often used others’ successes in home and family life as a measuring stick. When I didn’...

text Last week, we talked about how other people’s opinions of you are basically always their opinions about themselves, projected onto you. This episode is the natural follow-up to that one. We all know at least one “people-pleaser” in our life: somebody who’s spread themselves just a little too thin between work, their kids’ extracurricular activities, the PTA, their church and community groups, and so on. Maybe YOU’RE the people-pleaser in your circle. The condition of people-pleasing is a ...

How important is an opinion? Specifically, how important is an opinion about YOU? Some questions that come up a lot with my clients include: what do other people think about me? Am I good enough? Am I worthy? So this brings up an excellent question: why the fixation on other people’s opinions? Now, before we even begin, let’s get one thing clear: the vast majority of people are not silently judging you. They are worried about what YOU think of THEM. That’s just how everybody is. So WHY is that ...

What’s in a friend? On social media I asked you about what attributes you look for in a friend. The biggest responses were LOYAL and HONEST. That’s no surprise. We have a natural instinct to surround ourselves with people who value us and tell the truth. In this episode, I want to encourage you to cultivate just such a friendship with your body. Now, Byron Katie’s concept of loving “what is” applies here: as you come to love and accept your body, any changes you choose to make for your mental ...

In 2013, things were not great in Kelly land. I felt like I had lost my mojo. I felt stuck at the time. To be fair, there were a lot of stressors in my life: we were living in a house with a mold problem - we’re talking so much mold that living there was unsafe! - we were briefly homeless because of it, David didn’t like his job, my mom had a 15-pound tumor. Anyway, it was not great. As I began to sink into despair for our family’s woes, I started to get very out of shape. I’m not just saying t...

Would you like to help your kids stay clear of the dreaded red zone? Would you like to spend less time there yourself? Try HALTing! People in addiction recovery learn the acronym H. A. L. T. to identify four triggers that exacerbate their cravings: hungry, angry, lonely, tired. The word “halt” literally means “to come to an abrupt stop,” and taking a quick personal H. A. L. T. inventory does just that: with practice, it can be used to derail your child’s temper tantrum train. The ingenuity of ...

When I was unconscious — I mean, before I began my inner work of mind management and conscious parenting — the kindness (or lack thereof) of my kids was a big trigger for me. David and I decided to find ways to quietly, anonymously do service to others in the outside world and even within the walls of our home in order to teach them how to have an attitude of kindness. Now, don’t get me wrong, kindness is still very important to me! But I had an exacting standard of behavior for my kids that ev...

I’ve noticed that there are two main groups into which all people fall in terms of handling tricky emotions: calzone people and Coke people. Allow me to explain. First, there are calzone people, who hold in their emotions and suffer their grievances in silence until at last, all their metaphorical cheese and tomato sauce comes running out in a flood of tears. Then there are Coke people, who are like bottles of soda that keep getting shaken. Their fizzy agitation and anger is easily visible, and...

Everybody knows this phrase: “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” We push this idea for children to say in order to not cede emotional control to a bully, but the simple truth is that words DO hurt. When I was an elementary school teacher and counselor, I did an exercise I call “toothpaste words” to demonstrate this principle. The origin escapes me, but I have used it many times. It goes something like this: I had a funny-looking puppet and a paper heart represe...

Before I dive in, a little thing that’s been on my mind recently. I’ve noticed that when I have a question or am looking for a solution to an issue in my life, it helps to sit in on a coaching session where a coach is assisting another parent with a similar difficulty. I’m thinking about setting up an online space where we can all meet together and learn from each other, and I’ll mention that in this episode. Let me know what you think! Now, on to the main event: I often refer to various levels...

Last week, I asked you all over social media: what are some traits of a toxic friendship or relationship? I got answers from “feeling drained all the time” to “feeling anxiety” to “thinking about the relationship takes away from family time.” A toxic interpersonal relationship in any form is a massive drain on body and spirit, and it’s often necessary to set boundaries for your own sanity. This episode is about breaking up with a very specific toxic friend that almost all of us have. This frien...

Last week, we discussed what happens when our kids have big emotions. This week, we’ll talk about some examples from my life (that I share with my children’s permission) about how David and I helped our children work through strongly emotional moments. As you develop grace and compassion for your child, you will be easier on yourself, and vice-versa. When your child feels a big emotion with a cause that seems inconsequential or petty to you, remember that they have to experience the whole range...

How do we help our children manage big emotions? I recently helped Grady with homework. This boy is multiplying triple-digit numbers by triple digit numbers. I marveled at his skill with multiplication. It didn't come naturally to him; he had to learn by trial and error, and nobody got mad at him when he didn't know how to multiply big numbers. Now, here's the parallel. Our children experience the exact same ENORMOUS gamut of human emotions we experience, and they don't have any strategies for...

This episode is a doozy. I want to start off by letting you know that I know how hard you are on yourself — because I used to be super hard on myself. I always said “I’m not good enough,” first with infertility and then with my struggles raising my kids. That translated into being super hard on them, and pretty hard on David as well. Not so good! I discuss parents being hard on themselves as I do all approaches in parenting, with the sage words of Dr. Phil: “how is that working for you?” Chance...

Looking back on my teaching experience, one thing that really worked well in the classroom was giving thoughtful compliments to the students. When I complimented my students, I always tried to make it about the character trait that I wanted to see more of from them. I also made a point of helping them recognize that doing good made them feel good on the inside. Tony Robbins says, “energy flows where focus goes.” This is the key to observing and reacting to your children’s behavior. I have what ...

Why would you want to understand your parents? I often say that you get two phases of participating in the parent-child relationship dynamic: once as the child, and once as the parent. On the first time around, we have a very simple view of the world and we soak up information and experiences, and that informs our experience the second time around. As we become conscious of our behavior as parents, we become conscious of the experiences that formed our parents, and vice versa. Parents have an ...

Our dog Maggie is incredibly protective! When she detects a strange person (like the Amazon delivery person, for example), she goes on high alert. THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG! This is (sometimes) endearing with pets, but less so when our own brain does this. Let me explain. The ego is part of the inner Self. It’s usually formed at a young age. It carries around a lot of weight. Sometimes our perception of our person-ness, our worthiness, is not great. This distorted version of reality might’ve come...