Eps 185: How to be fiercely committed, and lovingly detached

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Today is solo show – woohoo!!  I’ve been missing you all.

 

I am so excited to have been interviewed by some amazing gals out there in the Podcast world. Anna Seewald of the Authentic Parenting Podcast – www.authenticparenting.com/podcast had me on and we talked about building trust – both in ourselves and our kids. Loved every minute of it and can’t WAIT to meet Anna in person at her conference in May, the Authentic Parenting Conference – www.authenticparenting.com/conference.

 

I was also a guest on the TILT parenting podcast. Long time listeners of JC will know Debbie Reber from episodes 54 and 145. Debbie is the founder of TILT parenting and host of the TILT parenting podcast – http://www.tiltparenting.com/. Debbie and I talk about my book, Joyful Courage: Calming the Drama and Taking Control of Your Parenting Journey, and connect the dots around how doing our own work around self control and centering is useful for all parents, whether their children are typically or differently wired. Check out those shows!!!

 


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Today I want to talk about a mantra that I have found useful time and time again. I learned it from a friend and mentor of mine – shout out to Denise Yost! – we saw each other for the first time in a while and when I asked her how she was, she responded with “fiercely committed, and lovingly detached”

 

Fiercely committed, lovingly detached.

 

It’s this a powerful come from for parenting?

 

What it means to be fiercely committed?

–       Creating the environment

–       Meeting their needs

–       Advocating for them

–       Being kind and firm

–       Encouraging them

 

What does it mean to be lovingly detached?

–       Allowing them to be who they are

–       Allowing for them to build resiliency through navigating natural consequences

–       Allowing them to be uncomfortable

–       Trusting that they are on THEIR journey

–       Letting go

–       Giving them responsibility over their lives

 

What gets in the way?

–       Our dreams/vision for them

–       Our past/failures/mistakes

–       Our assumptions

–       Our addiction to what other people think

–       Our insecurity about “doing it wrong”

–       Our emotional regulation (or lack of)

–       Our lens of the “right/wrong” way

 

What will help us move towards “fiercely committed, lovingly detached”?

 

Two list exercise.

–       Challenges

o   Everyone probably has a really similar list – YAY!

–       Gifts

o   Doubt that you have any particular job description…

o   What about “happy”?

§  Can we hope for content?

§  Can we hope for healthy coping skills and resiliency?

§  Can we hope for grounded and empowered?

–       Remember the challenges are at the tip of the iceberg – and anything we “do” with the challenges should somehow, someway, teach/model/or allow our kids to PRACTICE the life skills we want them to embody.

3 Bs grounding meditations – www.joyfulcourage.com/3bs

 

A bit about DO.

–       So often parents want to know WHAT DO I DO??

–       In the moment tools

o   This is a narrow mindset

–       PD is a broader lens than in the moment.

o   TRUST in developing relationship

o   TRUST that kids do better when they feel batter

o   TRUST that all humans what to be connected and know that they matter and have influence

–       In the moment?

o   Keep everyone SAFE

o   Acknowledge your child’s experience

o   Look for solutions and/or ways of making things right

 

They are doing the best they can with the tools they have in the moment.

–       Just because they can tell you what they will do better next time during a calm moment does NOT mean they will access that when they are flipped

–       Not about being naughty/bad – its about relationship, tools and practice

 

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Joyful Courage: Calming the drama and taking control of your parenting journey

 

This book is all about how to show up as a Joyful Courage parent so that you have better access to the tools you need in hot parenting moments – tools that are helpful and maintain connection with your child.

 

Presale is OPEN– as many of you as possible buying presale would be FABULOUS.  Go to www.joyfulcourage.com/book

 

Official launch date is May 20th – OMG – so so exciting!!!

 

The best way to stay up to date on the book news is to join my newsletter list, if you haven’t already.  Sign up at www.https://besproutable.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=5e11377e68a482c341b78ff6d&id=d25c237449

 

Thank you to everyone that has been so encouraging on this journey!!!  I appreciate you and we are ALMOST THERE!!!!

 

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Authentic Parenting Conference

Anna Seewald, host of the Authentic Parenting Podcast, and parent coach, has put together a steller day of learning and growing together in New Brunswick, NJ. I am so excited about it that I decided that I WANTED TO GO TOO!!

 

I am going to be there, Dr. Laura Markham will be delivering a keynote (ah-maze-ing), and the whole thing just looks like super soul care on fire.

 

If you are interested, click here https://authenticparenting.com/conference and use the discount code JOYFUL25 for $25 off the registration fee!!

 

Come play with me!!

 

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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 friends, what is up? I feel like it's been forever since I was sitting in front of this microphone. I batched a bunch of shows and haven't had to record in a few weeks, and I went to Mexico on a women's retreat, which I highly recommend to everyone out there. It was amazing. It was amazing, and I'm super grateful that I had the resources to make it happen. Shout out to all of my sacred bliss sisters who may or may not be listening to my podcast right now, also in the last couple of weeks, I was super excited to have had some interviews go out on other people's podcasts, some Amazing hosts from the podcast world. Anna cwald of the authentic parenting podcast had me on, and we talked all about building trust, both in ourselves and in our kids. I loved every minute of it. Anna's a really good interviewer. I can't wait to meet her in person at the authentic parenting conference later in May, links to both her podcast and the conference will be in the show notes. Today I also was a guest on the tilt parenting podcast, a return guest long time listeners of joyful courage will know Debbie Reber, the host of tilt parenting podcast from episodes 54 and 145 she's been on the joyful courage show a few times. She is the founder of tilt parenting and the host of the tilt parenting podcast. She wrote the book differently wired Debbie and I talk about my new book that so many of you have already bought, oh my gosh, joyful courage, calming the drama and taking control of your parenting journey, and we connected the dots around how doing our work as parents, around our own self control and our own centering is useful for all of us, whether our kids are typically developing kids or differently wired kids, or if they're toddlers or if they're teenagers, it's helpful all around so check out those interviews on those shows. They were loads of fun, and I just really appreciate both Anna and Debbie for taking time to have me on sharing me with their audience. So today is a solo show, as you can tell, because, yes, I am talking to you from the closet. Really glad to get some special time in your ears. Today I want to talk about a mantra that just keeps coming up and is so useful time and time again. I think I've probably mentioned it before on the podcast, but today we are going to tease it apart and talk about what it means, what gets in the way of following it, and what will support us. I learned this useful little mantra from a friend of mine, shout out to Denise Yost. We see each other periodically throughout the year, and I think it was last year I saw her, and I happened to say, Hey, how's it going? And she's one of those people, and the environment was one of those environments where when you say. How's it going? Like or how are you? It isn't it isn't typical that somebody just throws out a quick and easy fine. So I said, Hey, how are you? And she paused for a moment and looked me square in the eye and and said, You know, I am fiercely committed and lovingly detached. Oh my gosh, fiercely committed and lovingly detached. She said those for those four words, and I was totally floored by the depth of that as a mantra as a way of being in the world. And of course, this was last year, so I was in the throes of my own stuff. Well, I mean, as if last year was the only time that I was in the throes of my own stuff. But you know, it was kind of a peak experience for me, and hearing those words fiercely committed, lovingly detached, just was like a super, super punch to my soul. Not a punch that's kind of aggressive, but like a super embrace to my soul. It's powerful. And when we look at parenting through the lens of fiercely committed and lovingly detached, I think that things just blow up, right? I mean, I feel like this is the utopia of parenting, right? We want to be fiercely committed and we want to be lovingly detached. But what does this actually mean? So we're going to tease it apart, okay, starting where with fiercely committed. So what it means to be fiercely committed? And this is all, of course, in my opinion, fiercely committed to me, and I think, in the context of joyful courage, in the context of positive discipline and positive parenting, is, yes, creating An environment that is based on love and connection and responsibility. I think when we're fiercely committed to parenting to our families, we are meeting their needs, and remember that needs are different than wants. We are meeting our people's needs. We're advocating for them. We're being both kind and firm, so that, again, in the context of positive discipline, is what mutual respect is right. Being firm is having expectations, having boundaries, respecting ourselves, right, respecting ourselves and the situation, while also respecting the person in front of us, the child in front of us, also being fiercely committed. Committed is looking for opportunities to encourage, encourage ourselves, encourage our family members. I think being fiercely committed is also about choosing in to our practice. I had a beautiful conversation today with a client, and she was talking about really wanting to uplevel her parenting like she had kind of the basic foundation, the bottom of the scaffolding. She felt really good about it, but she was really looking to uplevel, to elevate, right? And we talked about what that means, and I really think what it means is to come back time and time again to our commitment of showing up in a way that puts relationship first, while also holds our kids and holds the people that we love to a really high standard and not a high standard, like you have to get all A's and be the top scoring Soccer player on your team. I just mean holding space and really encouraging them to be the best version of themselves. Right, being fiercely committed and then this lovingly detached piece, this is the money part. I think right, being lovingly Detached means that our kids are allowed to be who they are, allowing them to be who they are, accepting them for who they are, whether it's their temperament, whether it's their interests, you know,

being in Full, unconditional love around who our kids are today, allowing for them to build resiliency through navigating just the natural consequences that show up with life right? Being lovingly Detached means that we don't swoop in and fix everything it means, and I love this too. It's making me. Think of another client that I have, and on our most recent call, we really kind of uncovered this discomfort around other people's discomfort, and that she had been a longtime people pleaser, and how that, you know, developed over time from really early years and now here she is with her kids, who are doing what kids do, and having the emotions that kids have, and melting down and and she wants to fix it. She wants everyone to be happy, right? And there's something really powerful that happens when we allow for space for our kids to be in their discomfort, right? This is where resiliency is birthed. This is where resilience, the resiliency muscles, are worked out. Now again, please don't hear this wrong. Lovingly detached is not like hands in the air. Good luck with life. I'll see you on the other side. It's not about ignoring our kids or being negligent, it's about loving them no matter what it is that they are navigating right, it's about loving them through their struggles, and I think it's really about trusting that they're going to get to the other side, trusting and knowing and bringing that energy to them, because they, you know, I don't think that energy is something that we can really we can't measure it really well. Well, maybe we can. I'm not a scientist. Maybe they're working on this. But we communicate in words. We communicate, you know, in facial expression and body language, but I also think there is a vibrational, energetic connection and communication that happens between people. And I think that because of how attached and connected we are to our children, because they came from us. They are of us. There is this really strong, solid, vibrational connection that we have with them. And what this means is it's not about only the words we use or the facial expression or the tone, it's really about who we be and the energy that we're using in communication with our kids. If we're gonna say, You know what, I trust that you can get to the other side of this, and inside we're like, oh God, across my fingers. I don't really know, right? That's sending an energetic message, like, I think you can get through this, but I'm not really sure what happens when we really practice bringing a different energy, right? We get to be lovingly detached, because we also get to trust that no matter what the outcome is for our kids, they're going to learn, they're going to grow, they're going to be okay, right? We get to allow them to be in their discomfort. Allow them to be uncomfortable. Now, this doesn't mean that, you know, they've got a, you know, a splinter, and we're like, man, good luck with that. You know, live with it, right? We're going to help them. We're going to support them in taking the splinter out, but if it comes time to apply for college, and we let them know, you know what our support is going to look like, what the deadlines are, and then we hand it over to them. We make it really clear. Here's the structure, lovingly Detached means that if they miss the deadline and don't follow through, we get to trust that they're going to be okay and that they're going to learn from that, right? They're going to be okay and they're going to learn a valuable lesson from that. Or, you know, our younger kids, right? They want to try out for some select sports team. This is actually a story of mine. I think I talked about it on the podcast, where my son wanted to sign up for this pretty elite basketball program, and there was tryouts, and there were a lot of kids at tryouts, and, you know, he showed up well. He showed up well. And you know, he's tall, especially for our little community, he's one of the taller kids. Well, in a larger pool, he wasn't. There were a lot of tall kids with a lot of skills, and in the end, he didn't make a team. And it was really painful for him, and I'm so grateful that he got that experience of really feeling the disappointment. And it was, I mean, he was on the floor. This wasn't that long ago. This was last year, and he was really bowled over with disappointment, and he was okay, and he got to live through it, and he got to look for the positive. Is, right? I didn't need to swoop in and fix it and say, Well, don't worry. You're You're so great and this and this. I mean, I had a few things to say, right? But really, I wanted him to have his experience. Does that make sense? We get to trust that they are on their journey. They are on their journey, just like we were on our journeys, right? Our parents did their best to keep us out of mischief and to encourage us to do the right thing, and, you know, to various degrees, depending on who your parents were. But ultimately, we made our own decisions, and we were on our journey. And all of those decisions. You know, all of those decisions, good, bad, otherwise, are the tapestry of who we are. Right,

being lovingly detached is about letting go, letting go of who we want our kids to be, letting go of, you know, what they what we want them to study, the experiences we want them to have, what we want Things to look like for them and just instead, just allow for them to be who they are, to find their way, the way that they find their way. And really, we get to give them responsibility over their lives. We get to empower them by handing over responsibility as much as we can, as often as we can so that they can feel that then it the cool thing about that is, especially once they become adolescents, when we hand over responsibility, there's this weight there that's like, oh, oh, is this something that's important to me? And if so, I have to do something about it, instead of the conversation being Ugh, this is important to my parents. I don't really care. I know they're gonna nag me until I get it done. Like it's just a different kind of energy when we say, Hey, this is yours, and I love you, and I'm here to support you. And if you want some help coming up with a plan of action, or, you know, steps for a routine, I'm happy to support, but ultimately, this is yours. That is what lovingly Detached means, fiercely committed, lovingly detached. What gets in the way? Huh? Oh, man, so much, right? So much gets in the way. We have these kids, and we have these dreams and visions for them, you know, and good on us, like, of course, of course, we want our children to have a good life, right? But sometimes those dreams and visions get so specific that they actually get in the way of us being lovingly detached, they get in the way, and when they don't start manifesting, our children's experiences sometimes lead to, oh, I'm not enough. I'm not doing the right thing. I can't please my mom. I can't please my dad. So it can get in the way our past failures, right? Our parents past mistakes, those get in the way of being fiercely committed, lovingly detached, because we have this idea, right? We know the mistakes we made, and if you're anything like me, there were plenty. We know what our mistakes were, and we just want them to avoid making the same mistakes that we made, right? And so we tell them, Oh, you don't want to do that, because it'll probably turn out this way, and you'll be really unhappy, or you'll be embarrassed, or you, you know, fill in the blank, right? So we forget that human beings actually learn through experience, not through, you know, lecturing, which isn't to say that we don't share some of our our failures and our mistakes with our kids. I think that's valuable. But we also get to step back and say, hey, guess what? You're going to make mistakes. The people around you are going to make lots of mistakes, and you get to decide what you learn from them, right? And mistakes are always positive if you learn something from them. Also, what gets in the way is our assumptions. We assume that we know. We know what they're thinking. We know what they're deciding. We know how they're feeling. How do we fix it? You know? How do we get rid of this behavior? And we forget that we actually don't know. I mean, some of our guesses might be pretty close. I was talking to clients just this morning, and, you know, I met. And like, guess what? You're the expert on your kids, like you've been the lifelong observer of your children. So yes, your insight into your children is going to be much deeper than the insight that I'm getting from listening to you talk about your challenges. And the actual expert of your child is your child. So when you notice yourself making assumptions about how they're feeling, what they're thinking, what they're deciding, how about you go to them and say, I'm really curious about how you're feeling, what you're thinking, what you're deciding, what do you believe about this? How do you feel in your relationships? What does connection look like for you? Are you feeling connected? Are you feeling loved? What are you noticing about me? You know, we get to be really curious, so that we're not just moving from our place of assumption, but we're really moving from a place of deeper understanding of our kids. I think that many of us are actually addicted to what other people think. And I use the word addicted, kind of tongue in cheek, but for real, you guys, right? I mean, social media would not be such a big deal. And it's not just the teenagers that are on social media. Let's all be real. Okay, it wouldn't be such a big deal if we didn't care about what people think. We all, to some degree, care about what people think. And, you know, I think there's a healthy light place of caring about what people think, and then there's the dark, non healthy, unhealthy place, right? Of course, we want to bring light to the world. We want to make a positive impact, right? We want people to feel good when they're around us. We want to support our friends and family and sometimes what other people think like when we get really worried about judgment, or the stories that people might be may or may not be telling about us, or what are they gonna think if I don't discipline my child right here in front of them? Right? That's where that gets really in the way of that lovingly detached, I think, and fiercely committed, we get insecure about doing it wrong. Am I doing it right? Am I doing it wrong? I do it differently than my neighbors. What if I What if I mess my kids up? Your kids are going to be okay, if you're listening to this podcast, right? If you're taking time out of your day to press play on this podcast, I'm not worried about your kids. They're going to be fine, even if you yell at them sometimes they're gonna be okay because you're already showing fierce commitment. You're looking for more education. You're looking for more information. So yeah, don't worry about doing it wrong. I think our emotional regulation, or lack thereof, also gets in the way of being fiercely committed and lovingly detached, because when we are flipped, we are absolutely attached to our children's behavior. That's what flips us right. That's what sends us over the edge. That's what brings on the emotional for a train is that attachment to our kids behavior, so working on emotional regulation, which, by the way, by my book please, and it will help you with this. And then you get to practice it over and over and over again, and you'll practice it, and it'll start to feel good, and then you'll have a total meltdown, and you'll yell at your kid, and you'll be like, gosh, I totally screwed up. I failed. Right? Okay, great. Spend five seconds there, and then, okay, now I get to make it right. I get to model what it looks like to have personal responsibility, and I get to come back to my practice, right? That's your work. So great. Those are all the barriers, right? Those get in the way of fiercely committed, lovingly detached, what would help us move towards fiercely committed, lovingly detached, what's going to help us and support us. So here's the interactive part of the podcast. And I know I've talked about this exercise before on here. If you've been to a positive discipline class, you've participated in this exercise, but I'm guessing that there's probably going to be a few of you who haven't ever heard of this. So what you're going to do is you're going to create two lists right now, and you can make them in your mind. You could think about them if you're out walking the dog or folding laundry or on a commuting it's fine don't stop and write things down. But if you want to, you can, if you want to, you can. In but the first list I want you to create is a list of current challenges. Like, what are the things that are currently alive in your home that are making you crazy, behavior, specific behaviors from your kids that are sending you to the moon? Okay, if you want to pause the podcast and jot those down you can, or just bring to mind, what are the top things that come to your mind right now that are currently alive in your family, with your kids, right? Just with your kids, that are happening on the daily, right? So take some time to create that list. And here's the beautiful thing. Even though I can't see you, I can't hear you, I know that you're out there. I know you've made a list, and guess what,

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