Eps 171: Solo Show – Being the calm INSIDE the storm

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Today is a solo show all about being the calm inside the storm.  That is the dream, isn’t it?? Listen in as I tease apart what this means and offer ideas and strategies around how to get there more often.

 

·      Parenting class

·      Summit

·      Podcast conversations

·      E+R=O

·      Events and experiences….  3 Bs


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·      What if nothing changes?

·      What if all we have is how we feel inside of the experience?

·      What do we want to BE/FEEL/CREATE??

·      Feedback matters – internal vs external validation

·      Parenting is a PART of our life that can feel like our WHOLE life

·      Energy of emotion

·      Personal work, small steps with Sid, ACES with Sarah – unlearning supermom

·      Stuck in what it should look like

·      What about acceptance of what is? What about surrender to not knowing the outcome?

·      Influence yes. Hard work and practice, yes.

·      AND you decide how to respond from life — worry fear, that is the present moment experience you create. Openness, love, that is the present moment experience you create.

·      Think about, bring about – energetically we are always influencing our life, our experience

 

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–       One week of real conversations

–       PD trainers who have already been through it

–       The launch starts January 1st

–       Summit will run January 28th – February 1st

 

REGISTER NOWwww.joyfulcourage.com/teensummit

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Transcription

Casey O'Roarty 0:04
Hey, what is up podcast, listeners, I am so glad that you have found yourself at the joyful courage podcast. This is a place where we celebrate real and raw conversations about raising kids with conscious parenting and positive discipline. I'm your host. Casey o'rourdy, I'm a facilitator. I'm a parent coach. Most importantly, I am a mom of two teenagers, and I am walking the path of more mindful, intentional parenting right alongside of you. Please know that this podcast is created for you. I create it for you and for our community. And if you love it, feel free to share it with all of your family and friends over social media. Let's spread the word. Let's get as many people as possible listening to this show. Please write a review on Apple's podcast, formerly known as iTunes, and join the Patreon community, where parents, just like you are contributing just a small little amount each month to the show and enjoying perks like monthly webinars and community conversations about the content you hear on this podcast. Check the show notes for links and more details on all of that. I am so, so grateful that you are here and now. Enjoy the show. Hey. Hey everybody. Welcome to a solo show. It's just you and me. It's just you and me, my friend. We're gonna be chatting it up today, just the two of us. Just the two of us. Don't worry, I'm just gonna sing that one song. Okay, hi, how are you? How are you? What did you think about last week's show with Sarah? Did you listen the energy of emotion I heard from a few of you that you really appreciated it a lot, and that it was useful in relationships that weren't even with your kids, with partners and colleagues. That makes me so happy. I love, love, love hearing about that. So keep sharing with me what you think. And one of the ways, one of the places that you can share what you think about podcast is going directly into iTunes and leaving a review. My first show of the year, I read a couple reviews, and now I'm going to read a couple more. So I'm going back. I'm going back to October. October. Steph cleaves left a review of the show. She wrote so blessed. Gave it five stars. I love, love. Love your podcast. It brings me so much joy and inspiration when listening. Thank you for sharing so much of your life. You're welcome. You're welcome. I don't know how else to do it. I don't know how to talk about parenting without being really transparent and authentic about my own experience. So Steph, I'm just super stoked that you listen and find it useful. Yay. Also from October, there is a review titled Super advice, five stars. And this is by Asian biker. Asian biker left the review. And what Asian bikers review states is, I stumbled onto Casey's parenting podcast when I was in a bad place of non stop yelling and irritation. Casey's positive parenting advice and tips about mindful parenting really helped me make a change in how I parent. My son has ADHD and is a handful. If you're struggling with the same thing, I really recommend you take time to listen to this podcast, because there's so much great advice on how to reset you and your child's mood when you go over the edge. Oh yeah. Thank you Asian biker. Thanks for writing in and hey, guess what, peeps, if you write in a review to iTunes about the podcast. One, you're doing me a great service, because the more reviews I get, the more likely it is that the show will be presented to more parents and the more listeners there are. And ultimately, that's a win for society, right? Because if we were all on the joyful courage slash positive parenting Party Express, well, then the world would just be a better place if we were all working on our own personal growth and development. That's like my dream, right? That's not everybody's dream, but, oh man, it just gets me real excited to think that we could all. Be on the path of growth together, right? And what a generation of kids we'd be raising so and you know, I might read your review, so jump on over to iTunes, rate and review. If you're not into the public display of love, that's okay. Shoot me an email, or you can leave a post. If you listen to the podcast through the website, there's always a place for leaving comments down at the bottom of the actual post. So there's lots of ways to give feedback or give feedback on social media, whatever works for you. But thank you. Thank you. Thank you, because I do it for you, man, and for myself. Not gonna lie, this is a win, win, but ultimately, knowing that what I have to say is landing for others and useful and making you laugh and making you think and making you just really step into practicing being a better version of yourself. I mean, yay. That is exactly what I do this for. So thank you for letting me know. Today, today, I want to talk a little bit about being the calm inside the storm. On February, no, sorry, January 28 I will be in Ballard. The Ballard is an area in Seattle, for those of you that are like, we have no idea what Ballard is. It's a part of Seattle, Washington, and I have the Pacific Northwest parent group has hired me to come out and talk and speak, and it's free. There'll be a link in the show notes on how you can get in on that. If you are local and would like to come see me speak. And it took me a long time to decide on the title of the presentation and what I wanted to bring. Most of the parents are parents with kids that are young, and so they started to promote the talk. And I was like, you know, I don't really know what, where I'm going here, but I'll be there and I'll speak, and it'll be great. Yay for self confidence. And then finally, it just kind of landed for me through a few different experiences that I've been having and conversations that I've been having. So, you know, being the calm inside the storm, right? Being the common side. The storm last night, I had a night one of a seven week parenting class. Last night was the first night here locally in my town, at the local Montessori School, I have six couples. Shout out to all of you. I hope you're listening. Super fun group, really excited. You know, the connection in the community that I felt night one is really encouraging for the rest of the class. And we focused mostly last night on the kindness and firmness pillar of positive discipline, right? Being kind and firm at the same time, most of us are really good at kind alone, and we're really good at firm alone, but putting those two things together is where it feels really wobbly, right, especially because typically, when we need kind and firm the most is when we're inside that storm, right? We're in overwhelm. There's too many things going on, too many people that need us. Perhaps there's some auditory clutter, right, which is like screaming, yelling, fighting the things, and, you know, kind and firm in that moment. That is the moment, usually when we snap or just completely withdraw and go into the fetal position. No, I'm not. I'm guessing most of you don't do that. Typically, where we move to is that's when we snap, that's when we yell, that's when we blame or shame. That's when we pull those tools I'm doing air quotes, tools that are actually more hurtful than they are helpful tools like sending them to their room, taking away beloved devices or toys,

you know, punishment or we bribe. We can show up in bribery, right there as well. Now I'm calling these tools because they are tools, right? You've heard me talk about this before. They are short term tools. They might be tools to create silence, but is the tactic the tool itself and how we feel after using the tool? Is that really what we want? I'm going to tell you, No, it's not, because I know this to be true based on how many people come to me, email me and reach out to me who say, I just don't want to yell anymore, right? I don't want to yell anymore. And also, you know, I'm doing this teen parenting Summit. It parenting teens with positive discipline summit that starts January 28 that's completely free for parents for that week 15 interviews. It's going to be fantastic if you haven't signed up and you have a teenager, or if you have friends with teens and you haven't told them about it, please do so. It's just joyful courage.com/teen Summit. That's the link you need. But one of the themes that rises up in the in almost every conversation is that the teen years are messy, right? There's all sorts of things happening. It's a transitional period between our kids being kids and really needing us to being adults and leaving us so they have this weird period of time where they have to, like, leave, come back, leave, come back, practice, come back right. They have to make mistakes and feel the consequences of their mistakes, the natural consequences of their mistakes. They have to be uncomfortable and stretch and grow and trust and they need us to support them along the way, and supporting them, meaning being present and available and loving right, not supporting them in smoothing everything out in front of them so that they don't feel the discomfort we get to be witness to them and love them and encourage them. And the messiness of it all is not an indication of us being bad parents, just like a toddler who has temper tantrums. That is not an indication of bad parenting. Toddlers have tantrums. They're fully in their bodies, right? They're having these highly emotional experiences. Disappointment shows up to a toddler like a bonfire under his feet, right? Not literally, but, you know, disappointment, fear, anger, all of those emotions show up like a rogue wave to young kids, right? They show up like rogue waves for us, and we've had, how many years I've had 45 years of life experience, and I still get caught off guard. And so we can be with that overwhelm. We can be with we can be inside of what's happening for our kids, and we can be responsible for how we experience it, right? It's also come up a bunch in some of the podcast interviews that are coming up down the line where the conversation is about parenting. Actually, the conversation is about our own self regulation so that we can be the parent our kid needs when they're having the hardest time. And isn't that? Isn't that, that place that is the trickiest for all of us? 100% so some of you who have worked with me before, I'm sure I've talked about it on the podcast too. I love this formula, and I've learned it from my dear friend Krista petty Ramer, who is a master coach and facilitator. She runs a company with her team called boldly embody life. I'm on the team. I get to coach for one of her programs, and she talks about this formula, e plus r equals o, e plus r equals O. What the E stands for is events or experiences. So there's events and experiences in our life, right? That just happen. Somebody cuts us off, somebody throws us a birthday party, our child melts down at the grocery store, our teenager rolls their eyes at us, right? We're misunderstood by someone. We're fired. All sorts of things fall under the events and experiences, right? So events and experiences plus R. R stands for response. So an event or an experience happens, then plus we respond, our response, and those two things together create an outcome, a possible outcome, right? So let's take, for instance, the melting down child at the grocery store. So you run in there, you just got to get a couple things, right your kids, like, I don't want to, I know, I know. I'm sorry. Let's go though. We're just gonna be really quick. And you're doing your thing. You know how it is. You've got your list, your short list, if you're smart. Yeah, and you're on a mission, grab those things, get out, because you probably got dinner to cook later. Maybe you have to pick up another kid from another event, like Time is of the essence.

And while you're racing around with child, small child Intel, they catch sight of something shiny, right? And they say, Ooh, can I get this? I want this. And you just quickly say, no, let's go. And for whatever reason, your child, in that moment, does not have the tools that they need to accept that no and the disappointment or the challenge or the the anger that shows up for them and they fall apart. Now that's the event or experience, right? That's where we're at now we have two choices for responding, right? We can get triggered by mirror neurons, which are real things. By watching somebody melt down, it's really hard for you not to melt down. So we can get pulled into that, and it can become something like, you get up right now, this is not okay. We got to do this thing. Come on. Let's go. What do I gotta you know, this is no, you're not going to get to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know I'm talking about right? When we're when we are irritated, we snap, we show up, right? We meet them where they're at in that we're now we're both having a meltdown, right? We slog our way through the store. We make our way through the line, we get in the car. How do we feel? Well, I'm guessing that the majority of you, after these kinds of situations, feel kind of bad, right? It feels crappy, like, damn it, why? I could have handled that differently, you know, or perhaps you feel justified, and you get in the car, and it's just more Wah wah wah from you to your kid. Then you get home and it's time to make dinner, and you got, God, that grocery store trip, and you're feeling angry. And, you know, other things show up, and it can be a snowball effect, right? Well, there is another option, way back after the events and experience, way back to when you responded to them. The response could have just simply been pause, right? I see you're having a hard time. It's really frustrating when you want something and you don't get to have it, isn't it? I know there's things that I would like to have that I can't get today at the store, but I would love for you to help me find these last two items. Let's go. I'd love to hold hands, right? So there's that response that is connected and de escalating. I was just listening to a podcast. I've become totally obsessed with DAX Shepard's armchair expert podcast. And if you look it up and listen to it and get sucked into the vortex, don't blame me. Just know going in that it's a vortex. But anyway, he was talking, he was referencing somebody else, and he was saying, you know, we're always either escalating or de escalating any situation. I wonder, could we put in we're either supporting regulation or deregulation, right? And how we respond to the events and experiences of our life that influences the outcome that we then experience, that the escalation, or the de escalation, and so, yeah, I mean, I just it's so simple, and yet it's profound. And when I think about the word response. Krista again, she pointed out in some in a workshop that I was at, response lives inside of the word responsibility, being able to respond, response, this is the place where we take responsibility. You go to bed at night and you decide, I'm not going to yell. I'm going to be more present. I'm going to keep my phone put away more of the day you wake up the next morning, it is absolutely personal responsibility that you are invited to lean into, to actually follow through with what you said. You're going to do right, being response, able, being able to respond personal responsibility. And some of you like, if you listen to the podcast all the way to the end of the episode, you hear my little outro, and what I what do I always say? I say, take a deep breath, go into your body, find the balcony seats and trust that everybody's going to be okay. So the three B's. I call those the three B's. It's what my entire book is about that comes out in March. Oh my gosh, you guys. And I just saw the some covers, some possible covers, and we made some changes, and it's really happening. Oh my god, so exciting. Anyway, the three bee. Strategies are designed to support you in tapping into that response and being personally responsible, because this is what I know to be true for myself and for others, it's all good and easy to use the tools and strategies to be the person that you want to be when everybody around you is doing what they're supposed to do. It's when the external environment starts to fall apart that we jump on that emotional freight train when we flip our lids right. And so the goal becomes either one, recognize you're about to get on the train, recognize you're about to flip your lid, so that requires us to pay attention below the neck, right? What are the indications that our body is giving us, that we're about to not be our best selves, right? What is the emotion that typically shows up? What's the story that shows up? Growing our observer of ourself is so powerful, right? And or sometimes what happens is we miss it. We miss the build up, and we realize, instead, oh, I'm, I am flipped. I am on the train. I'm I'm here now and again, simply recognizing like, Oh, this is where I am right now. That is a choice point that is a little bit of space for us to say, am I going to carry on in this direction, typically, of escalation, or am I going to make a different choice? And so the three B's really become that place where we can, okay, yes, I want to make a different choice, but first, before I can make a different choice, I need to just take a few moments and arrive again into the present moment, right? So we use our breath, bringing your attention to your breath, feeling it move in your body, feeling your belly and chest expand, right? And then, then you're in your body. Okay, great. What's the sensations that are happening? Where is there tension that you can let go of, noticing your feet on the floor? All of this breath and body work, it's all really designed for you to be in your present moment and realize that you have influence on it. You can release tension. Do you believe me? It's true. You can release tension, right? I mean, granted, you know, there's nothing like a massage. But we hold our shoulders high. We clench our butts like there's places in our face, our little muscles in our face. There's places in our body that are so tight. And shifting our experience of our physical body is often just what we need to get some perspective, and that's the balcony seat. So we use the breath to come into the body, shift the experience that we're having in the body, notice the experience that we're having in the body, so that we can then see with an a more expanded lens right, see from the balcony seat, see from the bird's eye, view from 10,000 feet. And what if nothing changes? What if? What if nothing changes? What if we do our work, and we still have kids that have meltdowns and roll their eyes at us, well, you are living a normal life, if that is your experience, right? There's no magic wand. There's no magic wand that takes away our kids response to their discomfort. They're in the learning process people, right? They are in the learning process. They are going to make mistakes. They are going to fall apart, and actually, we want them to, because falling apart and getting to the other side of it is a really important muscle building skill right, knowing that I can live through my anger and get to the other side of it, knowing that we can live through disappointment, embarrassment, sadness, grief and get to the other side of it, knowing that we can Find our courage try really hard, work really hard, take some deep breaths and step on that stage, right? All of and get to the other side of it, all of that is absolutely 100% important for our kids to experience, right? So we want them to experience that and when. So when I say, if nothing changes, you know, that's what I'm talking about. I promise you that when you start doing your own emotional regulation and getting more skilled at it and talking about it and modeling it and experiencing it, it will affect your external experience. Uh, it will. And, you know, what if and if it doesn't, well, what if all we really have is the internal experience of life. What if that's really all we have?

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