Jiovann Carrasco Talks Mindfulness and Parenting

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Casey O'Roarty 0:00
Episode 43 of the podcast is coming to you with support from joyful courage. If you appreciate the opportunity of raising your children while growing yourself, check out the [email protected] you will see blog posts, e courses, podcasts and live workshops, all geared towards supporting parents and strengthening their relationships and teaching life skills to their kids. Joyful courage also offers one on one parent coaching, allowing you to dig deeper into your own personal challenges that are showing up in your practice. Go to joyfulcourage.com or email [email protected] for more information.

Hey everybody. Casey here, welcome back to the podcast. I am so glad that you are here, so I'm really excited for today's show. I always say that, don't I? Well, I am. I love podcasting, and I love the people that I get to bring to you all. So back on episode 40, I had a guy named Ryan Hamilton come on the show talking about the life of dad website. And the day that that show came out, I got this really nice message on the joyful courage Facebook page from a dad just saying how much he appreciated hearing a dad's voice on the podcast. So I responded and said, hey, yeah, I'm totally into it. If you have anyone else to recommend to have on the show, you know, I'm all ears. So then I get a private message from this nice man, and he said, I do have a recommendation me. So today you are going to hear from Javon Carrasco, and he is a therapist and meditation expert. I don't know if he'll be excited about me calling him an expert. Well, he's a meditator, and he runs the Austin Center for mindfulness, and I thought I'd have him on the show to talk about how meditation and mindfulness is helpful and a powerful tool on the journey of parenting. So we had, we immediately connected. You'll hear it in the conversation. We immediately connected, you know, kindred spirits, like minded and had this great conversation about not only how to create a meditation practice and a mindfulness practice, but also we talked about like, what does that even really mean? So Javon is full of really great insights and information and tips and tools that you can take away immediately after listening to this podcast and put into place, into practice in your life right now. So I am really excited to have him on the show and to introduce you to him. So let's meet him. Let's meet Javon. Javon Carrasco is a psychotherapist in Austin, Texas and the owner of the Austin mindfulness Center. He is a meditator and the author of a six week online mindfulness training program, follow your breath. Javon is an engaged and connected father of two kids, and was a stay at home dad for three years. He is here today on the joyful courage podcast to talk about how mindfulness has informed his parenting. Jevon, welcome to the podcast. Thanks. Casey,

Jiovann Carrasco 3:30
it's great to be here.

Casey O'Roarty 3:31
Please tell the listeners a little bit more about your journey and about what you do. When did mindfulness and meditation become a part of your life?

Jiovann Carrasco 3:40
So I started meditating in 2008 I was working in residential treatment. I was the therapist supervisor at a group home, and it was very, my very first job as a therapist, and felt, for the most part, in over my head through a lot of that and and started developing a lot of anxiety. And about five years in, I had my first panic attack, which was really scary, just when the panic attacks were scary, but I was, I mean, it was more that I really wanted to do well in that job. And five years into a career is not a great time to have a burnout. So I knew sure I needed, you know, to get that under control. And I had read a little bit about mindfulness. And so I sought out a meditation teacher who worked with me for about 10 weeks and taught me Zen meditation and and so I just developed a daily practice with that.

Casey O'Roarty 4:42
Yeah, I can imagine that first job in as a psychotherapist at a recovery center would be high stress. I know that even like for me, I was a teacher, I was a school teacher prior to. To becoming the parent educator that I am today, and that was stressful, and those were children. So how great that you recognized where you were at and found a tool that helped you navigate the stress and anxiety that exists, I think, exists inherently, in that kind of situation, right?

Jiovann Carrasco 5:21
Well, yeah. I mean, there was a lot, you know, there was a lot of safety related incidents that occurred fairly regularly, I would say, Yeah. And I'm kind of a slow thinker, you know, I kind of mull things over, and I like to collaborate with, bounce things off of other people. And the demands of that job really required some, you know, like quick thinking and quick decision making and so all of that really just kind of shot my anxiety up. But, I mean, so I meditated, and it really, I mean, within, within maybe a few months, I noticed, I noticed changes, and I noticed that I was, you know, it was getting under control, and but I also noticed, not only did it do what I expected it to do, but I it allowed me to really connect with myself in a way that I'd never really done before. And I'd always wanted to have a private practice of my own, and I had dreams about that, and that's one of the reasons that I wanted to become a therapist. I could just kind of have that in my mind, but my mind, but my mind would always tell me, you know, you don't have any business background, you don't know what you know. What do you know you're you know you're barely you know you don't have enough experience all those things that your mind, oh yeah, self critic, you know, jumps in. And so what mindfulness really allowed me to do is reconnect with the with that passion, and to be able to see those thoughts, self limiting thoughts, for what they are, yeah, and just to kind of be able to move past them, yes, I ended up. I stayed with them, and for another couple of years after that, and then started my private practice, and in 2011 established the Austin mindfulness center.

Casey O'Roarty 7:04
Awesome. Well, and I think that what you're saying is so powerful, and those limiting beliefs and limiting thoughts, I think, especially on the parenting journey, show up continuously for many of us, right? And, you know, I'm not good enough. I'm making mistakes. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Why does she hate me? Why doesn't anybody care about all that I do all day long? Oh my gosh. And we can just spin into this pit of despair, and then all of a sudden, a challenge shows up with our kid, and we're coming from this place of like, you don't care about me. Screw you. You know I'm gonna meet you where you're at and react in a way that isn't helpful or forwarding, which then fuels that same conversation around, oh my gosh, I suck as a parent, totally. So back to mindfulness. Mindfulness is a word that we hear. We're hearing more and more about, which I love. And we talk. I work with teachers as well, and we talk about it with teachers. Tell the listeners and me more about what mindfulness means to you. Make that distinction for us.

Jiovann Carrasco 8:14
So basically, mindfulness is attending to whatever arises in the present moment as it unfolds and without judgment. That's key. So it's an intentional moving toward your experience as it is, not and not what you think that it should be, and without trying to change it. So like a basic definition, and you can really apply that to anything that you do, whether it's your emotional life or your relationships or your work, right?

Casey O'Roarty 8:42
So mindfulness in action might be, I'm at the sink doing yet another load of dishes, and everybody is not being helpful, and I'm grumbling about it. Mindfulness would be me saying like, Oh, look, I have arrived at my own pity party. Here I am not judging, not coming down on myself, just noticing this is where I'm at, right here, right now and then, from that place.

Jiovann Carrasco 9:10
What? From that place? You know, I think that, though, awareness is the first step and so, so noticing that, because our minds are going to be quick to to blame, you know, because our we have, we create these stories when, when we start to feel ways that we don't want to feel, you know, our mind jumps in and gives us a script. And so a lot of times that's externalizing, you know, the problem, or blaming, blaming it on your kids or your husband or what, or whatever. Yeah, my husband gets a lot of that it is. And then when you can notice it, then it's kind of, you're kind of outside of it. Do you know what I mean? Like, totally, it's not, like you're not, you are not your thoughts. And so when you can notice your thoughts, then there's this space where. Between you as an observer of your experience, and then the content of your experience and so and so that in that space, we can skillfully respond the way that you know according to how we want to be in that moment. Yes,

Casey O'Roarty 10:18
I love that. And I when I work with parents, I talk about, you know, lifting out of an experience, right? Being able to look at something versus being in it, and the perspective and the possibility and the opportunity that exists once we step out and look in, that just isn't available when we're actively in the experience. I also this has come up on the podcast before, but my son and I talk about the emotional freight train, and the emotional freight train is leading us to crazy town, and sometimes we don't know that we're on it, but once we can say, Whoa, hey, I'm on the train right now, and we recognize we're there, we have a choice either I'm going to stay here, which happens sometimes, right? Because, man, there is adrenaline there, and there is some really powerful emotion there, and sometimes that's what we choose, but we also have the opportunity to choose, like I'm going to get off this train. And I think that what I'm hearing you say about your experience with meditation is that the meditation is the piece that then allows you, in that moment of awareness, to choose into something different.

Jiovann Carrasco 11:36
Yeah, it creates, like a capacity for you to be able to make, you know, to to create that separation, yeah, or you know more readily, yeah,

Casey O'Roarty 11:45
yeah. So where do you see or feel the connection between meditation? Talk more about the connection between meditation and parenting, and how you see it as a way to support us with everyday challenges of raising kids. And I didn't mention this in your bio, but you're also a positive discipline parent, educator. I am. You are own it

Jiovann Carrasco 12:08
selfishly, using that knowledge, you know, for my own family, it was I had taken a positive discipline just class from, I don't know if you know Laura Ferguson,

Casey O'Roarty 12:24
I sure do.

Jiovann Carrasco 12:24
Do you really awesome? She's here and at Austin family counseling, Austin family therapy, I forget, but she's an amazing, amazing teacher and and so I I took her course, and then immediately wanted more. And so I decided to just go ahead and get certified as a as a parent educator, just to get that extra, you know, those extra tools. And I haven't really used it as I haven't really, you know, been put that's not my, you know, it's not on my shingle, sure, sure. But I definitely work with a lot of parents in my practice, and so it comes in handy. Yeah,

Casey O'Roarty 13:03
so how do you when you're talking about meditation and mindfulness with those clients that are parents? How do you how do you help them in using those as tools for their journey in parenting?

Jiovann Carrasco 13:20
Well, so children are like little Zen masters, and that they, you know, they really know how to push our buttons and show us the parts of ourselves that we might not want to look at. So a lot of the challenges that we have with raising kids is really more about the way that we relate to ourselves, you know. And so that's where I mean meditation is kind of, it's one of those, I kind of make this comparison a lot, and it's kind of like going to the gym, you know, like, if what you wanted to be was, you know, have fitness in your life, you know, you would, you would carve out time to go to the gym, you know, three or four times a week for a certain amount of time. And over over time, you start to develop these, these, you know, strength and endurance and flexibility, but you don't do that so that you can have those capacities at the gym, right, right, right, right. So you you develop that, so that in your life, you know, you can go hiking and paddleboarding and just keep up with your kids, not get winded when you get to the top of the stairs and that sort of thing, you know. And So meditation is a lot like that, you know, that it's, it's time that we kind of carve out, you know, so that over time, it's, it's developing these capacities, so that in our, in our in our in our daily routines, in our lives, with our kids or coworkers or whatever we have that capacity available to us. Yeah, and

Casey O'Roarty 14:47
I encourage my clients, similar to what you're saying and listeners, to develop a practice of meditation. I have no background in like teaching meditation, but I have used it in my life. And at a very simple level, and find that it's such a great opportunity for us to teach our body what it feels like to be centered, to be calm, to be like I was just talking earlier today, doing a live stream talking about being neutral and what it means in the body to be in that place and and what I've learned about the body is that our body goes to what's familiar, right? And if what's familiar is shoulders up tension in the chest and belly, fight or flight mode, then that's when we get triggered emotionally. That's where we're going to go. So for me, the reason that I'm always telling my people to practice stillness, practice calm, notice what it feels like to drop the shoulders and open the chest and release the tension is because when we notice we're in that fight or fight, it's going to be ever more easy to then move to this, like, oh look, I'm here, right? Oh yeah, I'm ready for a fight. Okay, this is not what I want to be able to jump off that train, exactly, getting off the train, and not just getting off the train, but knowing where to land, right? So, practicing the landing, practicing what it feels like to be in confrontation with somebody else, but being well, maybe it's not in confrontation, but to be confronted by someone else, but being able to hold your own calm center right. But it takes practice, like you said about working out, like it takes practice, and we have to practice it over and over and over and over, and sometimes we're gonna have that calm, centered landing, and sometimes we're not, and it's all just part of the human experience, right?

Jiovann Carrasco 16:55
Yeah, and it doesn't even have to be, I mean, you know, I talk about, you know, meditation, specifically as as an exercise, but, but it's not mind. You can do anything mindfully, you know what I mean. And so you can mindfully. You can meditate mindfully, or you can, you know, find other ways to bring your full attention to whatever is rising in the present moment, you know. And there's all kinds of ways to do that, even if you don't have, you know, like a regular sitting practice, right?

Casey O'Roarty 17:27
Talk about that. Give us some give us some little teasers. What are some tips for doing that?

Jiovann Carrasco 17:34
Well, okay, so I, so I had been meditating, had a formal practice for four years before our daughter was born, and

Casey O'Roarty 17:40
what does that look like? A formal practice.

Jiovann Carrasco 17:43
It's just, you know, having a, you know, like, where it's part of your routine, okay, where you you have a sitting meditation practice where, you know, you set aside, you know, 10 or 20 minutes or so to meditate every day at the same time. Got it. But when you're a new parent for the first few months. Like your your sleep deprived, you know, your schedule is just completely effed up, yeah, you know. And so you're just discombobulated, and all of that just kind of went out the window. And so I invented bottle washing meditation. Oh, nice. And it's just some, you know, I found myself, I'm doing I'm washing all these bottles like all day long at different times of the day. And it was just another opportunity to, well, this is an opportunity to bring mindfulness to the because we we do so many mundane things every day that that we know after a while, it's kind of just been, been there, done that, and we don't pay a lot of attention to it. Well, those are, those are opportunities because you're already doing them. It doesn't take any extra time, you know, to brush your teeth or put on your socks or, you know, all of those things that we don't necessarily have to be present for. You can turn that into a meditation. And so with a bottle washing, you know, I would just bring my all of my senses. Well, maybe not my taste, four out of five senses, experience and just be present with the warm water washing over my hands, the color of the soap and the light reflecting reflecting through the bubbles, the sound of the water, the smell of the soap and the feeling of the the weight of the bottle and the brush strokes, you know. And so just bringing your full attention to those moments, you know. And then, of course, when you've got this new baby, they're eating, like, every two hours, right? And so you have these moments where you have, there's all these opportunities. They're only that little for not very long. Yeah, blink and so. But it can be really easy to get really bored, to be honest. I mean, you do it so often. I mean, you're just two hours. Here we go again. And it could be really easy just to turn on the TV or to, you know, scroll through your Facebook feed with a baby in one hand and your phone in the other. And those are, those are really missed opportunities. Entities, where you can turn that into a meditation as well, and just to be completely present with the smell of the baby's head, you know the sound, the little sucking sounds that they make with their mouth when they're drinking their bottle and gazing into their eyes? And those can be really powerful and precious moments that you're never going to get

Casey O'Roarty 20:22
back. Yeah, well, and what just was sparked too. And listening that phone in the hand, I feel like, and I know I'm having my own experience with it as well. And I have a 13 year old, so the whole technology thing is a whole nother podcast. But what I noticed that's really easy that begins to happen is downtime. As your kids get older, it's, there's this little list, this, like, little level of anxiety. Like, anytime I sit down, it's just almost automatic, like, Okay, where's my phone? What can I check real quick? I got a minute? Versus, like, I have a minute, I have two minutes like I want to drop in and notice the world around me, notice how my body's feeling, notice the sun shimmering on the leaves. Like everything that you're talking about really speaks to me, and I think, and I know I'm not the only one, and I'm again, appreciating my awareness of it, right? Because, like you said, that's the first place to start. As far as, is this the life I want to live? Do I want to feel antsy every time I have an extra three minutes if my phone's not available? No, the answer is, No, I don't Well

Jiovann Carrasco 21:33
speaking of the phone. So I had this, this was about a year ago, a little over a year ago, where I that was just kind of a habit for me that, you know, you know, I have breakfast with my kids every morning and and at the time, that was kind of an opportunity for me to check my work email, just to kind of get prepared for what was going to be going on that day. And so I'm, I'm looking, I'm looking at my phone, and I'm looking through the email and my daughter, Sophie, she was three at the time, she starts banging her spoon on the table, just like repetitively banging her spoon. And I don't even look up from my phone. I say, Sophie, can you please stop? And she doesn't stop, and she keeps going and still, still looking at my phone, Sophie, please stop. And she doesn't stop. So finally I put my phone down and I said, Sophie, Why are you ignoring me? I've asked you three times to stop banging your spoon. And she looks at me, and she can be snarky if she wants to, but I swear to God, she was. It was just a completely innocent matter of fact statement. And she said, Well, Daddy, you're ignoring us. Those

Casey O'Roarty 22:41
are the moments, right? And I really appreciate you sharing that story. And it's the same reason, you know, for the same reason I always share my own stories and struggles, is, I think it's really important for people who are listening to recognize that they're not the only ones that that are, that are finding themselves in these places, right? We find ourselves in these places. And what a great opportunity, what a great insight. I

Jiovann Carrasco 23:09
didn't, you know, it's not something that I noticed until she brought it up, like I wasn't aware that that's what was happening, but she just made it so obvious.

Casey O'Roarty 23:18
Yeah, yeah, I had an experience with my son at bedtime, similar kind of thing, but no technology, and he just wasn't moving along fast enough. And finally, I said, I am feeling ignored and dismissed. And he kind of sat there and looked at me, and I took a deep breath and said, Do I ever make you feel like that? And he said, Yeah, alive, yeah. So hey, they take us, right? They pick us to teach us. That's right, little Zen masters, little Jedis. So what does your meditation practice look like now?

Jiovann Carrasco 23:55
So I have about a 30 minute window between when my wife leaves for work and when my kids wake up, and so that's my that's my time to sit and I have it, and I just have a 20 minute sitting practice. So basically that's just, I have a floor cushion, and I sit on there, and I set my I have a meditation timer, set it for 20 minutes, and basically just you follow your breath in and out, and then whenever thoughts arise or emotions or physical sensations, you just notice that, and then gently move your awareness back to your breath. And you just do that over and over and over and over and over again. And that's meditation. It's not it's not about not having thoughts or clearing your mind or anything like that, and I think that's a big misconception, but it's just kind of doing that over and over and so, so I do that, and then I get to move into the next part of my day, which is my favorite part of the day, which is breakfast, and I get to wake up my kids and I. I'm a sort of a short order cook breakfast, and I have, I have an hour and a half to get them up, get them fed, get them changed, brush their teeth, brush their hair, and collect all their belongings for school, dance clothes or whatever, yeah, and get out the door. So I've got this, really, I mean, it's, it's an hour and a half to get all of these things done, and at the same time, I try to make that an extension of my meditation, where I'm being fully made a promise after that phone incident, and my phone stays in the bedroom, I don't even bring it out. And just really take that time to connect with them and to and to be curious about their experience and answer their questions. So you know how that goes with a four year old?

Casey O'Roarty 25:50
Yeah, how old? How old are they? How old are your kids?

Jiovann Carrasco 25:53
She's four. And then my son, gray is two and a half.

Casey O'Roarty 25:56
Oh, man, you're in it, I'm in it. Gray and Sophie, cute, well. And somebody once said to me, similar to what you just said about meditation, that it's not the, you know, you have no thoughts, but it's really that movement from recognizing you're having, recognizing that you're noticing, thought, feeling, physical sensation, and the movement back to breath. That's

Jiovann Carrasco 26:20
it. That's the That's because that's the part that in your waking life, that that's the part that you need to to have to be able to get out of whatever negative thinking, no self critical stuff, that you need to be able to turn away from and turn back to, to your, to your to your present moment experience, yeah. And so that's the, you know, if you think about going back to the gym metaphor, you know, if you think about that turning from wherever you are in the past or the future to the present moment, that's kind of like a repetition of, you know, like when you lift weights, you know, so every time you lift that weight, you're building, you're building that muscle, right, you know? And it actually does kind of work, like a muscle, your mind, your your brain. And because they've shown, you know, the the studies show the brain scan before, before meditation, an eight week meditation program, and then after. And actually, the actual structure of the brain in the middle, prefrontal cortex, structurally grows. You really do build it like a muscle.

Casey O'Roarty 27:26
Yeah, that's so great. How do you do you teach mindfulness to your kids?

Jiovann Carrasco 27:32
Yes, but you really don't. I mean, you really don't have to teach mindfulness to kids, because especially when they're really young, because they're already way more mindful than we are, you know, and so they already know how to be president. The trick is to learn mindfulness yourself so that you can encourage and nurture that innate mindfulness. Yeah. And so I think it's, it's, you know, if you're mindful, you can't teach mindfulness. If you're not mindful, it's just, it's like, it's, like, it would be like, telling kids that it's not nice to hit and then you hit them, yeah, yeah, that does it. That's just totally inconsistent. So it's really just more about, you know, they and they lose that as they, unfortunately, you know, as they, um,

you know, as they develop and learn how to live in society, they start to forego that, that natural curiosity for rule governed behavior. Yeah, for example, like I heard that somewhere, that kids ask about 40,000 on average, 40,000 questions before, before the age of four. And oh my gosh, I think that's low for my four year old, but, but then after the age of six, it dramatically drops. Can you guess why?

Casey O'Roarty 28:54
Because they've been told over time to quit asking so many questions

Jiovann Carrasco 28:59
that, and they enter the school system, yeah? Which is basically, you know, an environment that tells them to basically lift, sit down and shut up, yeah? Here, you know, and to start looking for the answers outside of yourself. That somebody that this teacher has the right answer, you know, and you're supposed to learn the right answer and then parrot it back, as opposed to looking for answers within yourself, yeah, and so part of that is, you know, and then shutting them down to by saying, you know, stop asking so many questions. You know, really sort of smothering that, that that curiosity, that fire of curiosity, and you're just smothering it. And so finding ways to to really foster their sense of curiosity and validate their emotional experience. Emotional experience, you know. And that's that's hard to do if you're not, if you I mean, if you can't do that for yourself, then it's hard to do for your kids. And they learn by watching for sure us, you know. So if you're if you're on your phone when you're answering their questions, then they learn that, you know, I don't have. To completely pay attention, or I'm not worth listening to, or what, you know, whatever they learn from that, you know, yeah. Well,

Casey O'Roarty 30:06
and by the way, one day, they'll be 13 and have their own device, if you so choose to exactly, and they're like, what you do it, yep, yep.

Jiovann Carrasco 30:19
So they're, you're passively teaching them how to be in the world just by being how you are. Yeah? But to answer your question, yeah, there are, there are things that you can do to foster that mindfulness. That's that may or may not already be there, depending on age wise, that it's basically just finding ways to bring their their attention to the present moment. So we play this game where we'll be at the breakfast table and and we'll all close our eyes, and then I'll ask them, What so name all of the things that you can hear with your ears. And so they'll close their eyes really tight, and they'll, you know, have these really concentrated looks on their faces, and, you know, they'll say, I hear an airplane, or I hear a dog barking, or I hear the refrigerator, you know, and so just kind of create those that time to let, to let them feel what they, you know, feel through their senses and body awareness and that sort of thing. So there's all kinds of things like that. There's a really great book called planting seeds by tiknot Han that has a lot of really great suggestions. Love that. I

Casey O'Roarty 31:21
actually just busted out his book while you were talking about mindfulness while cleaning bottles, pieces every step. He talks about mindfulness while doing the dishes and mindfulness while eating one cookie. And I love him, yeah. Well, and there's another book, I bet you know, of it sitting still like a frog, still like a frog. That's another good one. CD

Jiovann Carrasco 31:41
with it as well that has some meditations for kids.

Casey O'Roarty 31:46
Yeah, yeah. And talk about body awareness. My, you know, I have my two kids. One of them is more receptive of my parenting, whatever strategies, than the other one. And he, you know, we'll talk about, how does your body, how did your body feel, you know, how did, what did you notice about? Because he gets really worked up and has these really big fall apart and bursts of outbursts of emotion. And afterwards, we'll talk about, you know, what did you notice before you were overwhelmed, you know, so that he can be ever more aware of what's happening, the signals and the the little hints that his body is giving him prior to him freaking out, saying things that he later has to make amends for, or, you know what, however it plays out, but he's a lot more willing to go there with me, then my lovely, sweet, sweet daughter, but that's okay, and he also, you know, he likes it. Another thing that we do around mindfulness at bedtime, because that seems to be the time when anything he's worried about or anxious about shows up, is right there before bedtime, and he wants to talk about it, and he gets a little obsessive about things, like, I can't stop thinking about that scary thing that I saw or, you know, whatever. Yeah, I'm not gonna share that. But he, um, he is, you know, and so we talk about, I kind of take him through a little guided something or other while he's sleeping, and have him feel his feet and feel his knees and just kind of come up his body so that he can release whatever it is that's spinning out in his mind, and that's helpful for him too.

Jiovann Carrasco 33:34
Yeah, there's a lot of things happening in the present moment, yeah, so you can all and so anything that you might be obsessing over is just one of those things that's really just something really compelling to pay attention to, so like a fearful thought or a worry or, you know, something that we're ruminating over. I mean, those are just, it's just, you know, your mind is going to gravitate toward anything that's threatening because it's and that's just your mind doing what it's evolved to do. Sure, survival, survival, right? And so you're naturally going to sort of gravitate to those are, that's the thing that your mind is going to is going to put in the forefront and say, you know, be you know, watch out for this. Watch out for that. Be careful here. And so that's natural. There's nothing. There's nothing wrong with that. And but, but mindfulness helps us to take the take control of the spotlight and to be able to shine it on to anything else in the present moment. So how your feet feel in your shoes right now is happening right now, you know. And so you can find, you can find ways to connect with your present moment, particularly through your senses. That's a really great way to teach kids body awareness is just having them sense through their senses.

Casey O'Roarty 34:51
Yeah, you have a six week online meditation course I hear Yeah, tell us about that.

Jiovann Carrasco 34:59
So. Follow Your breath is it's a six week course. Each week is corresponds to a letter in the word breath. So we have body, relationships, emotions, attention, attending to the present moment, thoughts and mindful habits. They don't all go in that order, but they're all there. And so you get meditation, audio, downloadables, journaling assignments, practice logs, videos, and then access to a private Facebook group where I answer all your questions along the way. So normally, that's that course goes for 299 i We just launched in February, and so I'm trying to really see that online community. And so we have it for 50% off through the end of this year. For your listeners, Casey, I'd like to offer an additional 35% off that already discounted price. So if you sign up with a promo code, Casey, then you'll get the online course for under 100 bucks.

Casey O'Roarty 35:56
Oh, that makes me feel so special. Awesome. Thank you so much. That's so generous. I'm gonna sign up everybody else join me. That's amazing. I that is thank you. That's really wonderful and generous of you. And it's on, and we mentioned before we came on live. So it's an on demand, course, so at any time that we're able whenever the time is right for you listeners where you're feeling like, yeah, I could commit to this for the next six weeks. It's the link will be in the show notes for you to take advantage of this wonderfully generous offer from Javon. So thank you, awesome. And my last question that I ask everybody is, what does joyful courage mean to you? My friends, I've

Jiovann Carrasco 36:44
been thinking about this question for months since I started listening to the podcast. Oh, it's a no brainer for me, mindfulness is one of the most courageous things that you can do. You know, because you have to be able to open up to whatever fears might be there in the present moment. And so intent, it's intentionally moving toward toward those fears and and you know, courage, it's not the absence of fear. It's having the fear and doing it anyway, right? And so when you live your life intentionally guided by values, and being the person that you want to be in the world, being the parent that you want to be, being the business owner that you want to be, joy and happiness is a natural byproduct of that. So those things go hand in hand. Awesome.

Casey O'Roarty 37:37
I am so coming to Austin to hang out with you, just so you know, one day I'm coming, be prepared. Where can listeners find you and follow your work?

Jiovann Carrasco 37:48
Yeah, so our website is austinmindfulness.org, and we are on Facebook and Twitter Austin mindfulness. Facebook is Austin mindfulness. Twitter is Austin mindful, and Instagram is at Keep Austin mindful, and then I've got a public profile just on Facebook and Twitter. It's just my first and last name.

Casey O'Roarty 38:13
Okay, I will make sure again, listeners, you know, all those links will be in the show notes so you can find and follow our new friend, Javon, and all the amazing work that you're doing. Thank you so much for this conversation.

Jiovann Carrasco 38:25
You're welcome. Thank you for having me. Yeah,

Casey O'Roarty 38:27
well, no problemo man, you'll have to come back on and and talk more, because this was great. I feel like we just scratched the surface on some of these things, and would love to dig deeper with you. Yeah, you

Jiovann Carrasco 38:37
can call next time you're in Austin.

Casey O'Roarty 38:39
I will. I will. And you have a beautiful, beautiful day. You too. Thanks. Bye.

So good, right? I had such a great time talking to Javon. I think it comes out in the conversation, and I was totally floored when he offered that amazing discount on his meditation program, please go to the show notes. You will see a link to take advantage of that discount that he was talking about and take advantage of his meditation program. I know I'm going to do it, and I think it is such an important practice for all of us, parents who are looking to show up more calm, more centered, more connected to our families, it's a really key practice in all of that, as you heard Javon and I talking about on the podcast. So I invite all of you to take advantage of his generous, generous offer. I'm also making it clear and explicit, too that I have space in my calendar for some new one on one coaching clients. So if you are interested in dabbling and coaching with me, you can send me an email at Casey, at joyful courage.com, let me know you're interested. We will do a 15 minute intro call just to see. If it's the right fit, I'll let you know a little bit more details about what coaching can look like. I do have three month packages. I also have a one hour package that includes an email follow up. So if you're not so sure you're ready to take the big bite and really do the big three months with me, maybe we just do an hour and see what the results are. So I encourage you to check that out and get in touch and let me know if that is something that you're interested in. I love working one on one with parents, and my clients are the best clients ever. So shout out to all of you that are already taking advantage and working one on one with me, I'm looking forward to our next call and big love to each and every one of you. If you weren't listening, I wouldn't be able to make the podcast. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And if you haven't already, join us over at live in love with joyful courage Facebook group, it is a thriving community of parents supporting each other through challenges and separations and kids flipping the bird that came up recently had me cracking up, so head over there. Join the group. Also, you can like me on Facebook at the joyful courage page. Joyful courage is on Instagram and Twitter and Snapchat. So search for joyful courage. You'll find me in those places and yeah, let's play all right, have a beautiful, beautiful day. Listeners, big, huge love to each and every one of you.

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