Deb and Jai launch into the discussion about one of the core elements of raising emotionally healthy kids - attachment. Here, they discuss the importance of shifting from seeing parenting as a role to fulfill to seeing it as a dynamic relationship to inhabit. They also talk about the important distinction between Attachment Theory, which a developmental explanation of relationship and bonding, and Attachment Parenting, which is a set of specific parenting strategies. Tune in by watching the video below or reading the transcript below that.

​Deb Blum (00:00):
There was a study that was done. It was the Minnesota longitudinal study of a risk and adaptation. It was a 35 year study. And what they showed was that kids who have a secure attachment history ended up that they were more likely to develop a greater sense of agency, better emotional regulation, higher. Self-Esteem better coping under stress, closer friendships in middle school, better coordination of friendships and social groups and adolescents, more trusting and positive romantic relationships in adulthood, greater social competence, more leadership qualities, happier and better relationships with parents and siblings. It sounds to me, right? Like those are some great things

Jai Flicker (00:50):
For most of human history. People have parented the way their parents and grandparents did with culture, providing the cues. We call this Parenting 1.0

Deb Blum (01:01):
For various reasons, parents began to question these approaches and we started turning more and more to so-called experts to learn to parent. This was the beginning of Parenting 2.0 This allowed for some real advances, but also a lot of confusion as we got further and further away from our natural parenting instincts

Jai Flicker (01:20):
Parenting 3.0 is about reclaiming those instincts and integrating them with our current understanding of child development. It brings together the wisdom of the past with the best scientific and psychological research of the present

Deb Blum (01:35):
Parenting 3.0, isn't a fad or a quick fix. It's a set of principles that allows us to engage with our kids and life from an informed and empowered place.

Jai Flicker (01:46):
I'm Jai flicker, and I'm Deb Blum. Welcome to Parenting 3.0.

Deb Blum (01:57):
So today we're talking about attachment theory and you know, that's going to be a pretty big topic that we're going to talk about over many, many episodes, but today we want to do an introduction, right? That's the plan. Yeah. And before we even get started on exactly what attachment theory is we will maybe just start off with just talking about why attachment is important, is that a good starting place? Yeah.

Jai Flicker (02:26):
Yeah. I mean, I'm imagining that different people will have very different levels of familiarity with the concept of attachment and have heard about it from different sources. And so just try trying to start from the ground up here, I think will be really useful. And and, and I think one simple way to get at the importance and value of learning about attachment is to look at it from the child's side and on the one hand and on from the parent perspective on the other, and as we'll talk about in depth on this episode and in future episodes, attachment is a fundamental human need. It's maybe arguably the preeminent fundamental human need. And and as such, it fuels human development. So from the child perspective, having a secure attachment will help the child grow and mature and develop as a, as a individual on, on, on a number of different levels starting with the neurological and all the way to the behavioral.

Jai Flicker (03:50):
So that's the child side on the parent side. It turns out that the way nature has designed the parent child relationship is, is that, and you can see this in human relationships as well as in animal relationships that when there is a secure functioning attachment connection the, the offspring are more willing and likely to follow the lead of the parent. So if you imagine, you know mama polar bear walking through the snow and the little Cubs following along behind that's that's attachment at work. And and so from the parent perspective, attachment a strong, healthy, functional attachment relationship makes it easier to parent. It also makes it more enjoyable because there's an an emotional component to when attachment is happening, that feels good. It's sort of where we are evolutionarily wired for it and therefore sort of rewarded for it. And so it makes parenting easier and more enjoyable and it makes us more effective, which also feels good. So very simply the two sort of sides of, of attachment and why I think it's so useful and so helpful.

Deb Blum (05:25):
Yeah, that's really great. And because it's so in line with nature with, for both the child and for the parent, it is, you know, you talk about it being easier. And I think that's one of the big pieces in one of our big goals, right. Is to try to make, take away from this idea that you need to have like a prescriptive approach to how you handle every situation. That it's more, that it, it does actually foster this ability for the parent to know what to do in situations because they are, it's more natural. It's more, yeah.

Jai Flicker (06:00):
Yes. I'll give one quick example with my two year old. So understanding how attachment works gives me more confidence to lean into it when, when I'm feeling frustrated or something's not going smoothly. So for example, getting her socks on this morning or other other mornings if she's sort of not being cooperative I, I w let me, let me, let me say it this way. I noticed that she is a lot more cooperative once she's filled with attachment energy, when she's feeling really, I can tell that she's had she feels relaxed and connected and we've had time to hang out. So if she's not feeling cooperative, it's a reminder or a signal to me that she might not have gotten those needs met yet. And so I will I will lean into attachment and sort of spend a little time connecting with her bonding instead of trying to get into, you know, F you know, force that conflict that, that power struggle I'll back off connect with her.

Jai Flicker (07:12):
And then once she's, it's almost like once she's finished that emotional meal and she feels satisfied, then I'm like, okay, let's get your socks on. And then she hands me her foot. So it's not like she's consciously withholding until, you know, it's not a, it's not a strategy it's on her part. It's just, there is a, a instinct for cooperation that gets activated when our attachment needs are being met. Yeah. So that's, that's obviously a very sort of small mundane example, but it, I think it, it scales across all the different ages and all the different situations.

Deb Blum (07:52):
Well, especially because it's one of the most challenging pieces for most parents is the, I mean, I know when my kids were little, like getting out of the door out the door in the morning, it was one of the hardest things. And to know that it might not just be them being difficult and it might actually be something else and having another possible way. I mean, I think what we're trying to say is like, if you, if we come from this way, sort of at the undercurrent of everything, then we actually can tap into that. That becomes available to us all the time. It's not a strategy so much as a way of being like, you just knew that that's what, like, Oh, this is something that I would want to give a try, you know, right now. And it, and it ends up probably more times than not being exactly what she needed.

Jai Flicker (08:34):
Yeah. Yeah. And I think just as I'm even talking this out right now, I'm realizing that for me, that the, it, at times it is hard for me to like, not get sucked into the, the frustration. But, but the easy, the ease part comes when, after I've kind of held back and resisted that temptation to kind of just force the issue. Cause I'm getting impatient and I've made sure her needs are met. I then when I come back and I'm, I, you know, I'm like, okay, let's see if this works here, let the time to get your socks on. And then she just puts her foot up. Here you go. I'm like, ah, that's how it should be in a sense. Maybe not how it should be, but that's how it can be. And that, and so there, so it's not like it was even easy the whole time, but the actual thing that was really hard before it became easy. Yeah. Yeah. I just want to try to paint as realistic, a picture as possible here at the outset.

Deb Blum (09:37):
And, but I just want to say something too. I think about even as an adult, like I'm highly, I'm far more motivated to cooperate if you want to use that word. But someone, when I feel connected to them, then when I'm feeling like if someone just comes in and demand something of me and I have no context and no, you know, no relationship, I'm like, yeah, no, it's not going to happen. But with someone, like, if you ask me to do something, I, you know, I have a connection with you and even more. So if we've actually spent some time together before you ask me, there's a much greater likelihood that I'm just, you know, wanting to do something to that would be, you know, cooperative, if you will. And so it's not a kid thing.

Jai Flicker (10:15):
Yes. For sure. It's inherent in the attachment dynamic or, or bond across all ages. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah.

Deb Blum (10:25):
I want to just share real quick, the, some of the things just on the level of look, why is attachment

Jai Flicker (10:33):
Important and what it maybe

Deb Blum (10:35):
Provides if you want to, I hate to use that word, but there was a study that was done. It was the Minnesota longitudinal study of a risk and adaptation. Where did they come up with that name? M L S R a. It was a 35 year study. And it was about the other quality of early attachment. And then like what it, how it, what are the implications later in life? And what they showed was that kids who have a secure attachment history ended up that they were more likely to develop a greater sense of agency, better emotional regulation, higher. Self-Esteem better coping under stress, closer friendships in middle school, better coordination of friendships and social groups and adolescents, more trusting and positive romantic relationships in adulthood, greater social competence, more leadership qualities, happier and better relationships with parents and siblings sounds to me, right? Like those are some great things.

Jai Flicker (11:36):
Yeah. It's it's so it's almost like I would imagine if I was listening to this and hearing this for the very first time, and I had maybe heard of attachment theory or the concept of attachment that that might be hard to believe. And I think for me, it was in the beginning and kind of like hard to I, I'm a pretty, like, I think healthily skeptical ingester of new information. And so I wanted to understand how that could be true, not just that it was so if somebody hears this and just goes, Oh my God, that's awesome. Great. But if, if, if you're more, a little bit more skeptical, I think that's awesome too. And our, my, my, my goal is to over time. Cause it takes time to lay this all out even more than just one episode to present the information clearly enough and with enough comprehensiveness that it, it actually answers the question, like, how has that, how does it do that? Why does it lead to that? How does it really lead to that? And to get to the point where it makes sense to everyone, like, Oh, I can see how even it could possibly do that. Yeah.

Deb Blum (12:57):
You know, one of the other things I can imagine, I know that I have thought, and I'll actually explain a little bit about my experience on this. Is that the question of like, is there like a person might also be thinking my kid's 17 years old. It's too late. I already, you know, I already, first of all, probably this is not true, but that you might in your head might be thinking like, Oh man, I already messed this up. And I just want to say that I don't, I know that that's not true. I don't just think it's not true. I've watched many people, grandparents and, and parents reconcile relationships with their children after they learn more about attachment theory. They're able to put in place new, you know, take responsibility for things that they did in repair. Because actually, I don't even think I understood as much as I do now that it's not necessarily about getting it right all the time.

Deb Blum (13:49):
It's, you know, in fact, I I'm surprised I've seen, I've seen this several times, but I read it again recently that in healthy, securely attached relationships misattunement happened something like 70% of the time and that so it was not like, you know, you need to get it right a hundred percent of the time in order to nail this. This is about being in relationship with a person, which means that sometimes you're also going to make mistakes and that repair is part of it. Like repairing relationships is actually a big piece of how we end up with secure attachment.

Jai Flicker (14:26):
Yes, for sure. And the repair process deepens attachment. And it also, it's like a really vital life skill to learn is to, is that that conflict and disconnection is, is inevitable in any relationship. And so that's part of a real human relationship. It's not even getting it wrong. It's, it's just part of real life. And so having that cycle of like connection and then conflict or disconnection, and then repair and reconnection and, and having, having that be just a like really healthy part of family life is that's, that's going to build resilience and social and emotional intelligence. I mean, it's, it's really good. And I, and I even want to add one thing it's like it turns out that this stuff is so fundamental. So instinctive in that lots of parents are, you don't have to be taught about attachment theory to be doing it already, big time.

Jai Flicker (15:32):
So for me and I think we've talked about this, so I, I think it's true for you as well. You can obviously speak to that, but that learning about this has confirmed things that I already felt to be true has encouraged me to stay the course with things that I already felt were working and has helped refine some things that were already working very well or maybe working somewhat well, but could be better. And then also filled in gaps where I, I just had blind spots or I had, you know, kind of underdeveloped aspects of myself that I realized, Oh, I really need to I really need to work on this. So it's, it's I think it would be a rare, rare, rare exception that someone would hear all about attachment and go - I'm not doing any of that already.

Deb Blum (16:30):
Right. Right. And, and even if a person thinks they're not, they probably still are. I agree. You know,

Jai Flicker (16:36):
I don't know if, I don't know. I think you would really have to be like a literal, absolute sociopath to not be doing any of any of this. Like, so if you are, maybe if you're a serial killer out there and have kids, then that could be the situation, but yeah, everyone else, that that's not the case

Deb Blum (17:04):
People tend to be. I think people tend to be tough on themselves. And sometimes there's a way we might look at what we do and not give ourselves credit for what we do. And even when I said like, you know, like you might get it wrong. I think one of the challenges in parenting is how often we feel we got it wrong. You know, even if it really is just a normal product of being a human being in messy relationships. Yes. But there's a way that we feel like we got it wrong. And it's nice to know that if we have that feeling that we got it wrong, it doesn't mean that you actually have to sit in that space. That there's a lot of opportunity for repair. And it's probably even worthy for us to do an entire episode on repair because I think people, when people think repair, I think a lot of people think just an apology and while that can be worthy, there's so many ways that we can repair, you know?

Deb Blum (17:47):
And so it feels like it might be a good time for me to just talk a little bit about you, as you said, that, you know, like how it's been for you around attachment. And I'll tell a little bit about what's happened for me. So I've had some like humbling experiences recently, which is really great. And I always like to be humbled, but I am so I have been a student as have you of Gordon Neufeld for a long time. I read his book, hold on to your kids. I don't know. I mean, it had to have been at least 10 years ago, but let's just say even more than that, I want to say it was when my oldest was about five and I read it and I thought it was a hard read, hard read, but I did read it. And I,

Jai Flicker (18:37):
And just, just for context, for anyone who's never heard of them, which might be everyone. He is a Canadian psychologist and developmental theorist and who, who, and a huge part of like a huge part of the area of development that he focuses on is attachment. Right. Yeah. So, and hold onto your kids is all a lot of it's it's centers on attachment and some issues relating to it.

Deb Blum (19:08):
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for doing, for saying that. And so when I learned about this, I've been I've since then tried to put it into practice in my life even more. But so I'll say I'll work from most recent to the past for a moment here. So recently, because I wanted to better understand some of the terminology. I decided to take a Gordon Neufeld class called the attachment puzzle, and it was about 16 hours and it was so great. And I can't now I feel even more excited to share about attachment. So, you know, before that I was thinking, Oh, I'm going to share about attachment based on my experience, which is helpful. But I was finding that I didn't have some of the language that I wanted even having read the book. First of all, I read it a long time ago.

Deb Blum (19:58):
Second of all, it was not exactly. It wasn't as it just, it just didn't penetrate me the way that this did somehow being able to have seen now that my kids are 15 and 17, it's almost like I can see when I'm listening to them. I can see it play out in their lives in a different way. So, so what was humbling for me was, first of all, just, I guess I felt a little bit humbled by like nature just by nature and just by like how amazing we are as humans and how, if we can really rely on human nature and actually go there that we can see that like all this stuff that we do, this efforting that we do around parenting and like trying to try strategies and all this stuff, when actually, you know, it's the relationship, that's the fundamental key and that if we can shift away from role of being a parent and into the relationship between a parent and child, that that is like the ticket and

Jai Flicker (20:53):
Wait, can you say that last part again? Because I feel like it is a key insight and I just want, yeah. I wanna like really pause on that.

Deb Blum (21:04):
The shifting yes. From the role of being a parent into the relationship that is between the parent and the child. And so it's really shifting from role to relationship.

Jai Flicker (21:16):
Can you, and can you maybe just say one or, I mean, we'll come back to it again, but one or two things about that. Cause I've just, I mean, I just think that's so key.

Deb Blum (21:25):
I always said from the, probably from the beginning of time with my kids, but I don't, but I know I can remember more than, you know, more recently is in my head. I would always just recite the relationship comes first. I would just over and over and over again, say the relationship comes first. So I would actually try to ask myself as quickly as possible and believe me, it didn't, it wasn't perfect. But I would ask myself as quickly as possible, is this in service of a better relationship with my child or is this going to degrade my relationship with my child? And it was kind of the way that I handled situations. So it would be what would stop me from sometimes doing things that I knew could be hurting them, hurting me, hurting us,

Jai Flicker (22:04):
Just a very simple kind of universal heuristic or, you know, question to, to, to check, to see if you were aligned with your core value or not.

Deb Blum (22:20):
Yeah. Right. And so then it became kind of relationship first is what I would just say. It'd be like Deb, sometimes I'd be like, Deb, like don't say anything right now, relationship first like, Oh, I know you want to say this thing right now, but like, this is not going to be helpful for your relationship at this moment. And that if you go back and you actually process it a little bit more, you might be able to come back and say this in a way that's more like relationship preserving. So it was, was it attachment? Not exactly. And I think we, it will be helpful for us to talk a little bit more about how we can, how the words or the words might, there can be some semantics that could benefit from a little bit, but I think right now some nuance, but right now for the purposes of, yeah,

Jai Flicker (23:00):
Because, because, because I think what you're hinting or at, or alluding to is that all too often, people who have a very kind of introductory sense of that, or just have heard the term, it just sounds like attachment just sounds like just cuddling and just like, you know, being warm and fuzzy all the time and that that's going to solve all these problems. And, and that is a very I think a very limited view and actually maybe confusing or such a partial view that it would it would confuse more than it would inform.

Deb Blum (23:46):
Because it's not permissiveness and it's also not right. I mean, it's not, and it's not, and it's not like sweetie voice. It's like kind of, you know, there's so much to attachment, but I think that I didn't, this is, this is actually me going back to when they were little because when I, I didn't think so first of all, when they were very, very little, I think I did learn about attachment in certain ways. But mostly what I learned about was attachment parenting, but I don't think I fully even understood. And you know, and I'll let you share in a moment how you see the difference, but I don't think I fully even knew what was going on for me. So I was I had a preemie my first baby, and so he was five and a half weeks early. I was not ready. I had no idea that this was going to be happening on that very day.

Deb Blum (24:34):
And so it wasn't like, I, I don't even think I was I mean, I hate to say this, but I think people are so much more conscious about how they want to be as a parent. Now I was just more like I'm having a baby, this is exciting. And then he's five weeks early and it's a C-section. So, you know, nothing was what I was expecting. And, but I had read enough before that of just, you know, like the, what to expect when you're expecting. And I did have like my idea of a birth plan and I was gonna, you know, I was, I was going to be at the hospital, but I still wanted it as natural as possible. And lo and behold, I ended up with an emergency C-section and, and not only that, but he can't nurse. So we had to syringe feed him in the beginning, like a little bird.

Deb Blum (25:16):
And he is you know, he's immature, he's just got an immature digestive system, there, all kinds of things happening. And so when we're leaving the hospital, the doctor says to us, and luckily we had a doctor who was attachment oriented because this is a bit so we're talking 17 years ago, 17 and a half almost years ago. The doctor says kangaroo care, which I didn't know at the time what that was, but I figured it out, which is skin to skin contact as much skin to skin contact as you can possibly have. And this was even before really babywearing was like Vogue, like, you know, yes, people were babywearing, there were baby Bjorn's and I wore one, but it wasn't quite the same as it is now. So you have to kind of think about that, you know, 17 years ago it was actually kind of a long time ago, but they also told me to nurse on demand, you know, so I was like, okay.

Deb Blum (26:05):
Oh, wow, okay. Like, wow, this is different than what I thought was gonna happen. And so my husband and I get home and, you know, I'm on medication, I'm on like Percocet and, you know, and I'm in pain and we're trying to figure this whole baby thing out. And literally we have to wake up in the middle of the night. I have to pump and we have to, my husband has to syringe feed for the first week until finally things get sorted out. But so you can imagine like, there's massive pressure on me that I have to, you know, he has to be in the little, I have this little bed next to the bed and all this stuff and, and he is, and finally, you know, things start to get a bit sorted out. I'm going through all kinds of stuff. I remember, I literally, I literally remember my husband leaving, but one day to like maybe like a two weeks after, and I'm standing in the garage and I'm holding my baby and I'm crying.

Deb Blum (26:57):
I don't know if I can do this without you, you know, like I have no idea how I can do this and I can just remember that moment. And, you know, and so all of this stuff, like, you know, I'm we're, we're trying to be the best parents we can be. And I, am looking at books, trying to understand what's going on and I'm reading attachment parenting, and this is the beginning. Now I can see how different attachment parenting is from attachment theory. But at the time that this was what was present in like mainstream books, I think, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong on that, but it just seems like that's what was available to me and attachment parenting. It turns out that I didn't even realize this at the time. It was so strict with these like seven Bs, but like, you know, breastfeeding and, you know, bonding.

Deb Blum (27:42):
And, you know, I don't even remember what they were, but there there's all bunch of bees. And those bees were things that I put a lot of pressure on myself to do. I mean, I, it was like you know, babywearing breastfeeding birth bonding balance and boundaries be where baby trainers, I don't think those existed. I mainly think that at that time, Dr. Sears was saying basically sleep with your baby. I think these were some of the things sleep with your baby breastfeed on demand anytime all the time. And that you had to be incredibly responsive. Like you had to be like, just constant, like always responsive. What happened is that I was, I burned myself out. So that's all I can just say is that it was about five years later or four years later that I started to realize that, you know, I really, really did burn myself out the second, my second child came along and I, and he wasn't quite as demanding, but he still had his own set of demands.

Deb Blum (28:36):
And I wanted to, I felt like, well, if I gave it to Jake and I need to give it, you know, like I need to give it to her. So anyway, so we so I did, and, but it was a lot because I put massive pressure that I thought that I had to be this idealized version of a parent that met every single need that. And by the way, both of my kids had milk and tolerance and both of my kids had reflux. And when we finally got it in order, they were amazing. They like were like, so just like the most amazing children. But before that, they cried a lot because they were uncomfortable. And and you know what, I was not going to stop breastfeeding. I'm like, I'm going to figure this out. And, but that was like pressure.

Deb Blum (29:23):
There was so much pressure. And, you know, and, and I remember recently reading something that said that a mother who breastfeeds, but is anxious and like stressed out is actually, if you really are talking about secure attachment, that's actually worse in many ways than if you just said, okay, no, we're going to bottle feed, but you did it with a lot like care and attunement and love, you know? And, and, and not to say that there isn't love. I mean, so I may have been more stressed out forcing kind of this whole nursing thing. And so I, so that was also what was humbling is I had this like humbling thing that occurred to me, which was that, you know, like I really could have been easier on myself if I had learned attachment theory instead and realized that it's not about being a perfect mother. It's not about having to do everything exactly the way that I'm supposed to. And by the way, I wasn't even, it's not even that I was because no one can

Jai Flicker (30:17):
Be, but you were trying,

Deb Blum (30:20):
But I felt the pressure on that, right. I mean, no one can be a perfect parent. You're still human. You still have needs. I had to go to the bathroom. Sometimes I had to, he cried while I went to the bathroom or took a shower. So it's not like I

Jai Flicker (30:31):
You're sitting there thinking, and this is the problem with any sort of parenting strategy. That's not presented with a, you know, a certain minimum level of theoretical background. It's just like, you know, be responsive. Like, I agree with those three, like if you can breastfeed, that's an ideal, right. If you can and, and, you know, you obviously want to bond with your child and and you want to be responsive. I mean, I totally agree with that, but, but you can see how, you know, in just in your case alone, if you're going, and if you're taking a shower and you hear your baby crying and you just think, Oh my God, I'm not being responsive. I'm not being responsive without the theoretical background to understand that some separation is going to be just fine and babies are resilient. And that they just, that when then when you do come back and reestablish that attachment, it actually teaches them that, Oh, I can trust that we can be a part. And then we'll, you know, we'll re unite that that's not only okay, it's actually helpful. It's a necessary part of, of, of the growing up process. And so, so, so yeah, so, so just parenting strategies sort of that are floating out there, even if they're good without the background can be problematic. Yeah.

Deb Blum (32:02):
Right. So, yeah. And a lot of times what ends up happening is because it's also like were attachment theory, as an example, is so rooted in human nature. It is, it does really feel good when you're doing it. You know? And when, and when I was with attachment parenting, I didn't really have the basis, except for that. If you don't do this, it will be bad. You know, like that, wasn't what I really held in my head. Like if I, you know,

Jai Flicker (32:30):
Theoretical framework, that's just a belief / fear,

Deb Blum (32:34):
Right, right. And they've gone back like, so I think people have gone back home, like people who study attachment theory now can go back and look at, you know, the great intentions and, and the Sears, you know, doctor there. I think it's a doctor and a nurse that are married, who, who coined the term attachment parenting. Their intention was great. They raised eight kids. They probably, you know, it's probably really awesome, like, you know, and beautiful there, but, but to come to the depth of attachment theory and understand that there's a lot more room and being a human being, and like, I think you, you had just said to me before that, you know, their kid babies are more sensitive and also more resilient than we put, like kind of on both ends of the spectrum. And I think that resilience is important. And I think I was definitely buying into the idea that like, if I didn't take care of every need, then I was not doing it right.

Deb Blum (33:25):
Luckily I did begin to, I also believed in, which is really good. I also am a big believer in cultivating resilience and in preparing our kids for the future. So the good news was that as they started to get older, I already had shifted into wanting to you know, I didn't need to fulfill every single need every single second anymore. You know, if they could make themselves a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, then I let them make themselves a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And so luckily I think, and then I started to learn and read, hold on to your kids. And that was the moment I think, where I started to see that I could take a deep breath and that there was a little bit more room for me to exist in the, in the relationship. It wasn't a hundred percent that like, I, you know, that I had to be focused on them.

Jai Flicker (34:18):
Yeah. Well, and I, and what I'm hearing you say too, and I think this is a super important point is, is, is that if you just hear, again, this is the problem with just hearing parenting advice versus understanding, you know, how humans bond is. That is that if you hear the advice and we'll talk more about this like that, it's important to be responsive to your baby's needs. There's a lot of room for interpretation and maybe, maybe my child needs a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Now, maybe my child needs a Turkey and ham sandwich. Now maybe my ch you know, it's like, we can, we can end up trying to fulfill all these external demands or, or preferences. And when, when the actual need is, is much more simple and internal it's it's it's to feel secure. So, so, so you, you can, you, a parent can make, can, can support attachment and secure a secure, a sense of deep security without having to jump through every little hoop that their child is throwing at them. In fact, it's probably better it's, it's in many ways, it's, it's, it's actually can be detrimental to the dynamic to be just like, you know, doing that.

Deb Blum (35:44):
That's such a good point because that's what I think I could have seen going the path going to had I not had an another, like - and I think this goes to your point before that I a hundred percent agree with, which is that innately. I think we do know so much more and that the more the more we can peel away the layers of external pressure of who we are supposed to be, the more we'll find the natural place of knowing how to bond with our child and how to be connected. And then in fact, what I found was that the more that I found that the less that I felt I had to do all the other, like, kind of superficial things, and I was trusting in my relationship with my child. So then I started to realize like, Oh, well, this isn't really, I mean, yeah, like they want this need met, but like, this isn't really what we're really talking about here.

Deb Blum (36:34):
You know, we're talking about more on the emotional level, like the psychological level. And so I, luckily I think I got that because I can see how being responsive. Couldn't be really like, over interpreted, interpreted that like, it's literally, I meet your, every demand, not just your literal need. Yeah. So thank you for clarifying that, because actually, I don't even think I had thought about when that shifted for me as clearly, but that really did shift for me. And I think that it's attachment theory that helped me to it freed me, freed me from some of this pressure that I was feeling. Yeah.

Jai Flicker (37:14):
Yeah. And, and I think one other thing, just listening to you talk I'm imagining hearing this for the first time and it's like, you know, you would almost think like, well, if I learn attachment theory and I really like value it, and then I go and do some, and then I integrated into my parenting, wouldn't that just be sort of naturally kind of me doing attachment parenting. And I would say on the one hand. Yes. but, but, but on the other hand, no, and the no comes from the fact that like attachment parenting is like a trademarked brand of, and, and, and, you know, w whatever your opinion of attachment parenting is, or if you don't even have one it's, that's just a fact that a, that, so, and that's, so that's like a, it's now kind of has some associations and some prescriptions that, that are associated with it.

Jai Flicker (38:10):
So we could, it could be confusing to talk about attachment parenting TM on the one hand and just attachment parenting, not the Sears version of it. And I think the, the good news is you kind of don't need the, the qualifier attachment because all parenting involves attachment. So, so if you learn attachment theory, and then you, you integrate it into consciously integrated into how you're relating to and raising your children, you're going to be doing attachment parenting, AKA parenting. So what we're really talking about is parenting, and even, you know, the idea of parenting 3.0 is not, again, it's not like we've talked about before. It's not a set of prescriptions. That's why we're avoiding giving prescriptions. And we're focusing more on principles to apply, because that I think helps us to connect to that, that natural way of, of relating rather than coming up with this, again, reinforcing this role of I'm S I'm a parent and I, and a parent does these things. And so I'm going to do these things, check, check, check.

Deb Blum (39:23):
Yeah. Yeah. Especially because just to reiterate this, that the, it is for me, for sure, the more that I became externally oriented on these ideas of like what I was expecting and the check, check, check, and I need to do these things. Cause I did that, you know, I was really like, I, I remember a time when I was like looking around at people and like, how do I need to be as a parent? What's the best parent, like amalgamation of all parents and I'm going to be that parent. And the more I did it, the more it took it away, took me away from myself and then took me away from my natural intuitive sense of how to be a parent. Yeah. So it's really as much as you, as much as, like you're saying that kind of like, you know, just in contrast to like what we're doing versus not doing. I mean, I honestly think that those strategies are what take us away from that natural ability. I also understand it's hard because there's a lot of strategy out there and there's a lot of pressure that people are feeling to do that. So, you know, I acknowledge the pressure I was in it too. And I also say, wow, like, isn't it so nice though, that there is another way

Speaker 3 (40:39):
So I would love for you to talk more about attachment theory.

Jai Flicker (40:51):
We've talked a lot about what is sort of not, I mean, we've hinted at what it is and why it's important, but, but let's talk about that Attachment theory. Yes.

Deb Blum (41:08):
Thanks everyone. That does it for part one. And we're excited to bring to you the next episode, which will be diving a lot deeper into attachment theory. We're going to be talking about something strange, very strange, but actually it's literally the strange situation. Yes. So that'll be part two of this little series that we're doing here on attachment and attachment. Right. And so we invite you to subscribe, to like, to share, share for sure. Share if you like it, please do share with other people and also to leave a comment rate, review us. That would be really helpful.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
Very helpful. Yes. So we'll see you next week. All right. Thanks everyone. Thanks. Bye-bye.

Most of us struggle with the very real and painful condition of never feeling good enough. And it got created in childhood with the best of intentions - the desire all parents have to help our kids make friends, be good people, grow into successful adults and thrive in life. 

I know you love your kids. Unconditionally. 

The real question isn’t whether we love our kids, but rather – do they FEEL loved unconditionally.

You may be thinking, “Of course they do!” But so often I find that we make love and acceptance conditional—without even realizing it. Or should I say, kids come to believe that their parents' love and acceptance have strings attached. That they must behave and act in certain ways in order to feel that love and acceptance from us.

It's a tricky little dilemma - how do we show them we love them for who they are and set high standards. How do show them we love them for who they are and also push them a little bit? How do we show them we love them for who they are and also expect them to do things they have to do?

​This is really “up” for me right now. My older son is off to high school next year, and I'm really curious how we’ll be able to ensure he feels loved no matter what he does and who he is, while still setting high standards for him to live up to his potential.

You see, while I've always loved my kids, my own actions haven’t always shown my love unconditionally. By realizing this, I hope to do better. Wouldn’t you like to show your kids unconditional love too?

Let’s agree on this starting point: Everything we do is well-intentioned and totally comes from the place of love.

Now stick with me when we dissect where our intentions and our kids’ perceptions differ.

We want our kids to be accepted by their friends so we encourage tweaks and adjustments to their personality (toughen up, kiddo). We want them to be acceptable in society, so we urge changes in behaviors (stop chewing with your mouth open). We want them to be successful and do great things, so we set a high bar (all A's and you’ll get that new iPhone) and rationalize that it’s our job to stretch them and ensure their success and financial independence. We want them to be responsible so we nag them about their laundry, homework, and the toilet seat.

We're trying to protect them.

But what if … to a child … those minor adjustments, pressures, and nudges are heard as you aren’t enough or I’d love you more if you… or I don’t love you as you are. Especially when we deliver them with a harsh tone or insensitivity to their tender heart.

MY HEART BREAKS A LITTLE AS I THINK ABOUT HOW MANY TIMES I’VE BEEN CRITICAL OF MY KIDS.

It’s tricky territory. We want them to be socially conditioned enough so they’ll have friends and be likable. We want them to be accepted by their peers. There’s a pretty widely held belief out there that it’s our obligation to shape them into “something better.” And, that if we don’t, our kids would surely miss the mark, end up a mess, and become homeless or live forever in our basement.

BUT, WHAT MESSAGES ARE WE REALLY SENDING?

Ironically and regretfully, in order to make them into this “better” person that will be more “acceptable” to others, I fear we actually might be creating a situation where our kids don’t feel acceptable … to us! (and then in the future, where they don't feel good enough, don't love themselves)

When we were little, the same thing happened to us. We were taught that there are parts of us that aren’t acceptable (you’re too silly, too shy, too geeky, too quirky, too bold, sing too loud, aren’t grateful, want too much, are too much . . .).

We learned to reject parts of ourselves to be accepted by our primary caregivers—we learned that in order to feel that love, we need to act the way that makes us most lovable. And that was what created our "not good enough" story in our head.

Even if you would never, ever in a million years stop loving your child no matter what he or she does, it’s possible that little messages you send are being perceived by your little one as conditional love: “I'll love you more if you stop doing x or start doing y.” Or worse, they may feel afraid that they will lose your love, affection, attention or acceptance if they don't change who they are or do what you suggest (or demand). 

Ultimately, we create disconnection in our relationship. Which is the opposite of what we want.

So how do we show unconditional love? How do we rebuild the connection?

TODAY TRY THESE 8 THINGS:

1 – Bite your tongue. When you want to criticize, stop and find something you love about your child to focus on. Spend time really connecting with why this bothers you so much.

2 - Rather than criticize, try to relate to them, offer an invitation and show a path for growth. Perhaps they're struggling to make friends and you know it's because they do a few very annoying things. You want to just tell him how he can be better and do better. Perhaps instead, you could share a story about when it was hard for you to make friends. And then ask if they'd be open to some things you learned. Then maybe you can add in a few lessons that would be helpful to your child. Invite them to give it a try. Be in it WITH THEM. Ask them to report back to see if it helps. Caution: try not to encourage your child to be someone they aren't.

3 – Separate the behavior from the child. Instead of: “You’re such a slob. Why can’t you put your clothes in the hamper?” - talk neutrally only about the behavior ("the clothes belong in the hamper" or "please put your clothes in the hamper"). I know it’s tough, especially when you feel like you are constantly reminding your child about something. But try. Stop, get calm, say what you need to say about the behavior. And get over the idea that they "should" know this by now. 

4 – Avoid labeling. Labels (slob, shy, lazy, athletic, funny, soooo kind, an “A student”, forgetful, too loud, too quiet, genius, wild, quiet, chatty) can stick and potentially keep our kids from becoming who they really are. And sometimes they aren’t really accurate – perhaps based on our interpretations and fears. If it’s a “negative” trait, get curious about why this trait bothers you, what are you worried about? If it’s a more positive trait, get curious why it’s so important to you that your child be [trait]. Labels limit us from seeing the real and unique child in front of us – their complex, contradictory, multidimensional little selves.

5 – Make time to be present. Our kids want time with us more than they say they do. This week, find 5 minutes free from distractions. In this time, put aside your preconceived notions of who your child is and pretend you are just meeting him or her. Each time see if you can learn something new about him or her. Perhaps sit down while they are watching a video and ask them what kind of videos they most like on YouTube. Ask them to teach you to play a game. Jump on the trampoline. Walk the dog. Eat ice cream.

6 - Be clear and explicit that your suggestions having nothing to do with your love and acceptance. While you may feel you need to discipline your child, tell her what you expect and help her to be better, you can do this with love. Never withdraw love as a strategy for compliance. Always remind them that you love them and you are there with them and for them as they learn how to grow up, relate to others and be a good citizen of the home and world. 

7 - Cultivate Autonomy. Everyone wants to feel like they have volition, or control over their lives. Whenever possible, have a conversation and ask questions. Help them to come up with their own solutions and ideas for their challenges in life.  

8 - Model the Behavior You Want. This is probably the most effective way to raise kids. They learn more from who we are and how we show up in the world than what we say to them. Focus more on you being the type of person you want your kids to become, than trying to tweak and adjust them. Be in it WITH them. Often we want our kids to avoid the challenges we went through so we try to protect them, or tell them how to be, think and act.  Live your values and they will learn it through living with you.

And if you’re thinking, but it’s my job to teach my children how to survive in this world - I completely agree! And, I think we can love our children unconditionally, help them grow and become their best selves and guide them to thrive in a sometimes really challenging world. 

WANT TO GO DEEPER?

Here’s a bigger stretch goal – accept and love yourself unconditionally. This does NOT mean that we don’t expect more from ourselves. But we don’t do better because we beat ourselves up. Face it, we’re all imperfect humans. If we can practice accepting the things about ourselves that we don’t like, it will naturally get easier to accept those things in our kids. I know this is edgy. Let’s say they’re lying. I’m not suggesting that we accept that they are “liars.” Rather, I’d like us to really examine our relationship with lying and not condemn them. The truth is that most people lie (even you). Can we honor the impulse to lie? Who hasn’t felt that impulse to defend ourselves with a lie? And then talk about why we must practice being honest so that we can have a good relationship based on trust? That’s the nuance. We don’t make our kids “wrong” for feeling the impulse to lie...we help them see the benefits of not lying and guide them to making better choices. It’s not that we don’t expect more – we just bring more conscious awareness to the discussion. We stop reacting with judgment and instead start guiding with mindfulness and compassion.

We help them to understand that life can be hard, but we are always by their side, figuring it out together.

You love your kids. Make sure they know—and feel—your unconditional love to keep your connection strong.

What's your experience around this? How have you navigated this path without being too permissive nor too strict?

:: Context - I broke my Greater Trochanter / Upper Femur in a skiing accident 12 days ago :: 

​Lying in bed last night I got caught in the swirl of thought and fear: I can't handle it anymore. How can I do this for months? Will I ever fully recover? Can I handle the rehab? How much longer do I have to sleep in this position? Will I ever get a good nights' sleep again? I felt trapped and hopeless.

Somehow, even while lying mostly still, I found myself writhing.

In the dark of the night, things feel more intense for me. It's the only time I really experience what I may call anxiety. Not just now that I'm forced to lie only on my back and dealing with discomfort and pain. But it's surely worse.

I've struggled with claustrophobia and fear of being trapped for as long as I can remember.

It took every ounce of my discipline to keep coming back to my breath. I kept forgetting, getting caught up in the downward spiral.

At times, I couldn't even complete one cycle of "Gentle in breath. Elongated out breath." I knew that the work for me was to keep coming back to the present moment. I actually felt the invitation, almost hovering above me. Asking me to love my body as it is. To accept and love all of it - even the agitation and anxiety. To be in this moment - even in the midst of increasing levels of discomfort - physically, emotionally, mentally. To breathe.

Can I stay with this moment?

Can I be present to everything happening inside of me? Around me?

I'm not gonna lie - it was an inner battle. This is a whole new level of practice for me and I'm not sure which part of me "won".

I wanted to escape. I just wanted it all to go away. I just wanted to fall asleep and wake up feeling better. I begged for help from God, the Archangels, my guides - anyone!

But I also know that I experienced a few micro-moments of touching into the present moment and my felt experience in those moments. And I know that's a huge accomplishment.

My natural impulse is to resist, run away, avoid discomfort, find a way out. I seek to skip to a future time in my head when it's better. Power through the bad to get to the good.

For the past decade, I've been inviting myself to lean in, feel more, experience all of life even when it doesn't feel good, surrender to what life is offering to me rather than what I think I want. And I've been teaching other women how to do this.

Here I am, being asked to reeeaaallly walk my talk. 

Last night felt like advanced training and it was not fun at all. But mindfulness is a muscle that needs to be exercised. A practice. And the rewards come from the micro-moments of present moment awareness.

It would be easy to just complain and vent about last night, and I've done a little bit of that this morning, but I know that all of this - all of life- at some level - is happening FOR me. For my own journey to connect to myself and be with my experience. To be present in my life. To not need life to be a certain way to enjoy it. To accept life as it is FIRST. Anything else is arguing with reality.

AND the truth is, I'm still "in it" - feeling some resistance and fear. So today I get to love the part of me that's resisting. To love the part of me that wishes my leg wasn't broken. To love the part of me that feels a little scared for the future.

I'll move through it. I'm actually REALLY okay. I love life - I love it all. And I'm open to learning what life is teaching me today.

My, oh my, this journey can be a humbling experience.

What's your experience with being mindful and staying the present moment?

Are you change agent? Maybe you see things differently. You’ve got the courage to disrupt the status quo and break through the barriers into a new way. A new future.

But we all know that change doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Change happens in communion with your community, family, loved ones, business partners, the organization.

That’s the beauty of change.

A ripple effect.

Change yourself and you’ll change the world around you.

Some people say that we literally cannot change the world any other way than by changing ourselves first. 

This is radical activism - or what I call Inside-Out Activism. 

We get clear on what’s important to us by looking at what we wish to change in others or in the world.

We get clear on what’s not integrated within us by looking at what we judge.

We get clear on what we want to contribute to the world by following our inner nudges.

Often we think that what we do personally, our healing work, how we raise our kids and how we “be” in the world is not enough. Inside-Out Activists know that this work is, quite possibly, the most impactful work we can do.

Inside-Out Activists also may be doing outside activism, building businesses and contributing in many other ways, but they're aware that these other “inside-out” ways make them more effective in everything they do.

Using the smallest microcosm of the Universe – YOU – the one thing you have control over – to heal the planet, bring unity consciousness, repair relationships and suffer less. Each one of us can heal and be the change we wish to see. We're free thinkers – curious, seeking truth, busting fear-based belief systems, and trailblazing together – finding a new way forward.

And when we do this work, we come into deeper acceptance of ourselves, others and life itself. When we're in flow with life, aligned with our true nature and showing up as our true selves, we live into what life wants for us – to be us.

So how do we do this?

FIRST, WE NEED TO WAKE UP

…and see ourselves as the captain of our ship, the one in charge of our lives and the impact we have in the world. This requires us to shift from the belief that life is happening TO me to life happening FOR me. The world needs us to heal our traumas, regulate our nervous systems and become whole again.

SECOND, WE NEED TO SHIFT

…away from the idea that someone is going to save us (like a president, partner or parent) to becoming our own savior. We need to see how powerful we are and stop complaining that anything outside of us is the problem. We need to see that any judgment we have that something is wrong out “there’ is really just for us to explore internally.

THIRD, WE NEED TO TURN

…our inner work into outer expression. We need to alchemize all of our healing work into the power to show up in the world as our most authentic selves. The world is waiting for the exact unique YOU to show up. How do we want the world to improve? Find the tiniest ways that you can be that in the world, how can you be the change?

FOURTH, WE ARE ALL

…in this together. We can help one another see what we are not able to see within us. Also, we support one another. What we all need most is to have psychological safety so we can feel safe enough to explore our inner terrain. When we have done our healing work, we can provide that for others. That’s where the biggest ripple effect comes into play.

Are you ready to take responsibility for your projections, judgments and triggers and use them as the breadcrumbs to heal your own childhood wounding? 

Do you agree that the outside world is a projection of our (collective) inside worlds therefore you're ready to do your own shadow work and accept all of yourself in order to clean up the collective shadow? 

Are you with me that when we keep our “dark parts” in the dark, they erupt in the world stage as they are now?

And if we keep playing out those shadows through moves and countermoves, us vs. them mentality, we'll stay in a drama cycle?

Are you ready to take responsibility for your own shadows, trauma and projections so you can clean up your part which has a ripple effect in the world?

Comment below about what you're doing to be the change you wish to see in the world!

I spent a lot of my life with the persona of being “nice” and “a good listener” and “adaptable” and “tolerant” and “flexible”. With women in my life, I was a people pleaser, the helper, the hero. Underneath that, at times, I was angry, judgmental, resentful and lacking the connection I craved. But this persona kept me feeling safe.

Fortunately it was also exhausting, kept me separate and required me to abandon myself.

Why fortunately?

Because the pain of inauthenticity grew to be so uncomfortable, that I had to find the most real and true me.

Speaking from experience, it requires so much courage to be our most true selves, to risk not belonging to any group, to bravely step forward without the (false) protection of our masks and personas. And yet, it’s the most enlivening thing we can do.

It’s still a practice, I can still feel the allure of popping on a mask so I can fit in. I can still feel the fear that arises when I stand in the nakedness of the most real me in public ways. And yet, I can’t go back.

The groups and tribes and labels and boxes are all too confining and layer too many assumptions upon me that no longer fit.

We’re all verbs. We’re not nouns. We need the space to evolve, to grow and to keep becoming more and more of who we came here to be.

When the caterpillar becomes a butterfly, she must go through a painful transition in the chrysalis and struggle to get out. And when a baby is birthed, he must go through the dark and tight birth canal before being brought into the light.

Birthing the most true Self that we are is not without discomfort. But we can do hard stuff. And it’s worth it!

​To all of you on this path…I salute you! How’s it been for you? Please share in the comments below!

You are enough just as you are.

But you probably don’t think so. Or perhaps you think you are too much. But in some way, you probably are hiding some parts of yourself – the parts you fear are not lovable.

Over the years, you've been subjected to conditioning and comparisons. And you learned at a very young age to do whatever it takes to be loved and accepted…even if it meant being someone other than your true self. You may have learned that it was best to hide what you think and feel and who you are because it was safer that way. It was a brilliant strategy as a kid! But most of us kept on doing that well into adulthood and eventually we realize that we don’t even recognize ourselves anymore. It’s like the real you doesn’t exist in your life. Or maybe you don’t even know who the real you is.

For me, it was so painful when I realized that I was no longer sure who I was – I wanted to be accepted, loved, and validated so badly that I became someone else along the way. Deep down I knew something I was not right.

THE REAL YOU HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN THERE – IT’S JUST HIDDEN

Underneath those layers of conditioning, false (aka other people’s) beliefs, judgments, and criticisms lies the real you. We live in a society that rewards and encourages conformity. Being yourself requires courage. It might seem safer to hide that true self, but life is a million times better when you show up and shine your own light, so to speak. It’s so worth the risk!

"When we can let go of what other people think and own our story, we gain access to our worthiness—the feeling that we are enough just as we are and that we are worthy of love and belonging. When we spend a lifetime trying to distance ourselves from the parts of our lives that don’t fit with who we think we’re supposed to be, we stand outside of our story and hustle for our worthiness by constantly performing, perfecting, pleasing, and proving. Our sense of worthiness—that critically important piece that gives us access to love and belonging—lives inside of our story." ~ Brene Brown

IT WAS RISKY WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD, BUT YOU'RE SAFE NOW

Are you willing to take the risk to bring more of YOU into your life? To reveal more of yourself to your friends and family?

Your young self, the one who had to do whatever it took to be accepted is telling you not to do it – it’s WAY. TOO. RISKY. It’s the part of you that says that you must hide those “bad” things about you – the things that mommy and daddy told you to stop being or doing. It’s the part of you who believes that you won’t be loved if other people know those things about you.

You don’t want this to be true.

You know that you love other people, shortcomings and all. You know that you even find your loved one’s quirks and flaws endearing. You wonder…perhaps others could feel that way about you too?

Can you find that part of yourself that believes it’s possible that you can be yourself and still be loved? That you don’t have to constantly perform, perfect, please, and prove? That you can settle into who you really are and people will still love you?

IT’S THE HIDING THAT’S EXHAUSTING

It’s so much easier to be who you really are rather than exerting all that energy to be someone you think you SHOULD be or hiding so you can experience the illusion of safety. Believe me, as you begin to remove those masks you're hiding beneath you will feel the weight lifted off your shoulders – you'll have more energy and you will feel less burdened. It’s the trying so hard that takes all of your energy. It’s like trying to hold 5 beach balls underwater all by yourself. It’s a constant effort.

Each time you reveal more of who you really are and see that you're still accepted and you “survive,” your young self will begin to believe that it really IS safe to be yourself and live a life that is true to what you really want and believe. You'll begin to see that being yourself is much easier than trying to conform and be someone you believe others will accept and love.

You'll find that it’s easier for people to love and connect to you when you are not hiding or playing small.

THIS IS ABOUT SELF-ACCEPTANCE NOT “ACCEPT ME OR ELSE”

This slightly different than turning 50 and saying “Screw you, take me as I am because I don’t care.” I'm talking about true self-acceptance and self-love. It’s more of a surrender to the truth of who we are on a soul level and comes from the place of love. The “screw you, accept me for who I am” is more about telling the world to accept you and it usually comes from the place of fear and separation. What I'm talking about is when you learn to fully accept yourself so that the world feels that and, in turn, fully accepts you.

Self-knowledge, self-forgiveness, self-kindness, self-acceptance, and ultimately self-love have the potential to bring your life to a whole new level. It’s the true secret to having the connection and love you have always wanted in your life.

IT STARTS WITH YOU. YOU CAN ONLY BE LOVED AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF.

One of the biggest regrets people express on their deathbed is that they didn’t live a life that was true to themselves – that they hid, played small, and didn’t really fully live because they were afraid to. It’s true, it requires courage! And you have to be willing to swim upstream because most people are still hiding, performing, and conforming. But the rewards are beyond measure.

The world wants more of YOU!

​Please post below if you can relate to this. Do you want to bring more of yourself to your life? Or have you already done this and want to share how you did it or what life is like for you now? Please share!

We know that worrying doesn't help, but that never seems to stop us. 

You know how it goes: something happens (your kids are on their iPhones too much) and you tell yourself a story (this is going to be a problem) and then you feel afraid for the future. You go into fear. You play out the possibilities and by the time you are done you have become the creator of an elaborate story about how their lives are going to be ruined because of the iPhone. We get sucked into the story that our imagination has created and we believe it to be true rather than what it is…just a story based on a single thought that might not even be true (this is going to be a problem).

“Worry is a misuse of the imagination.” ~ Dan Zadra

Worry is an adaptive survival mechanism that's based on keeping us and our loved ones alive. Our imaginations project into the future and anticipate all of the possible dangers and then our brain does what it can to avoid or remove those possibilities. It serves us well if we are in a dangerous situation. And worry can be a catalyst to solve problems for sure! But it can go awry and we can form the habit of worrying and even become addicted to worrying.

Perhaps that we worry isn’t the problem, it’s how we worry.

I think we are “incomplete worriers.” Most of us stop worrying too early and sort of get stuck. We never bring the situation into our full consciousness so we're run by unconscious and irrational fears.

We worry effectively when we allow ourselves to worry long enough to go through the fear and through the worry and into confidence. Yes, you read that right, I said we need to worry longer.

We need to let our worry to play out fully.

Let’s take an example for a parent of a boy who is entering high school this year. Mom is afraid he will be exposed to drugs and give into the peer pressure, do drugs, get addicted and become a pot-head and never leave her basement.

Most likely she'll stop there and keep playing that worry tape – forming a groove in her brain by going over the same thoughts repeatedly – and this is what forms a worry habit.

She's uncomfortable sitting in this fear so she begins to think about how she can control her outside circumstances to solve this problem. She considers that if her son has more activities after school he will have less time to party. She contemplates what rules need to be in place to prevent him from being out partying too late. She lectures him about the risks of drug use. She tries to establish family traditions and family meals because studies show kids with strong family ties, regular meals, and traditions are less likely to do drugs.

Great ideas! And this shows that worrying can be useful for problem-solving. But nothing guarantees that her son won’t do drugs. If he wants to, he will. Period. And she's still stuck in fear.

Mom's just putting a bandaid on the boo-boo in her heart. She is masking (and avoiding) the uncomfortable and painful feelings around the uncertainty of her son's future. Trying to manage her fear of her son getting involved in drugs by trying to fix and control – but it’s really just an illusion of control. Since her son is now in control of his own life, there is very little she can do to control his behaviors.

HERE ARE THE 3 STEPS TO “WORRY BETTER” SO WE CAN GO BEYOND FEAR AND INTO CONFIDENCE:

1. We calm ourselves. Realize that your limbic brain is worried you'll be abandoned, rejected, or die. Or that your child will be, which is like death for you. It’s time to soothe and be tender with ourselves. We lean into the fear instead of resisting it. It’s a good time to say to ourselves, perhaps with a hand to our heart, that it’s going to be okay. I often remind myself “I am not going to die and it’s going to be okay, we can handle anything.”
2. Next, we play out the scary story by asking a repetitive question like “and then what happens?” While we do this, we poke holes in the story we are creating – we ask:
   “What is the likelihood of things turning out that way?”
   “What other creative solutions could I find if I were really in this situation?”
   “What good is happening in this moment of the story?”
   “So, what if that happened? What would we do?”
   “Who could help us?”
   “How would we handle that situation…could we make it through it? Would we be okay?”
   “What would a friend say about this situation?”
   “What would we do if the tables were turned?”
3. Lastly, we create a positive story about this – the most likely and best-case scenario based on what we know about life. I always say that if you are going to use your imagination to make up a story, it might as well be a lovely one!

Allow me to digress from our 9th-grade kid example with a simple example to illustrate this process: 

Situation: you walk by a friend who completely ignored you when you said hello. You're worried she is mad at you - did you do something wrong? Why would she do that?

• Even if she's mad at you, start by reminding yourself that you'll be okay. Most likely she won’t abandon you, it’s going to be alright. You are safe. 
• Turn things around and get curious – what might I have done for her to be mad at me? Nothing I can think of, I haven’t even seen her in weeks. If she is mad at me, maybe we could talk about it and work it out. But maybe she isn’t even mad at me. And I am sure I’ve dissed others in the past and probably don’t even know I did it!
• The "lovely story" is that she was distracted and didn’t even hear you or see you. That might even cause you to have some compassion for her and wonder if she is okay. Maybe you would even call her to check on her.

Doesn’t that feel better than staying stuck in a story that she ignored you because you did something wrong? Even if she IS upset with you, what value is there in you worrying about it? 

NOW LET’S USE THESE STEPS AND THE EXAMPLE OF THE 9TH GRADER AND DRUGS:

First, allow yourself to fully feel the fear.
Accept that you truly are afraid that your child will get hurt or even die if he chooses a path of drugs. Honor how scary that feels and your deep desire to protect him. Tell yourself that you are okay and that he's okay in this moment. Put your hand on your heart and take a breath. Remember that this is not real, it’s just a worry, just your imagination.

By doing this, you will open up space to consider the possibility that you and your family can survive and even thrive in the face of any crisis your imagination will create and worry about. And that it’s HIGHLY unlikely that most things we worry about will come to reality (research shows that 85% of what we worry about never happens).

Next, it’s time to play out the story and poke holes in it.
We’ll play this out with the intention of seeing that you can survive even the worst thing your imagination can create in this situation – that he DOES get addicted to drugs.

First, you come together as a family and talk it out – you realize that it’s nice to talk it over with him openly and you appreciate that he is talking openly to you. In fact, you feel connected to him and haven’t felt that way in a while.

You're worried and he's worried – you notice that he has grown up a lot and really is a sweet and loving kid. You can tell that he feels relieved to be talking to you and not facing this all alone. He even hugs you and thanks you.

You consider your options together – you notice that you're actually doing okay, you are surviving this “crisis” and somehow you are coming together as a family. You notice that he hasn’t been partying with his friends and instead is hanging around the house and in a much better mood.

You start to get creative as a family and consider options like taking a family sabbatical to Costa Rica for a year or maybe a rehab facility that feels really right for him and has great outcomes – you decide to go to Costa Rica and can’t believe that you will be spending a year there. You are excited and feel curious how something so bad might be turning out to be so amazing for your family!

You work with a counselor while there and your son is doing great – in fact, better than ever. You discuss how to transition back home and you realize you have come along way – you survived!

This may seem unlikely – that it’s pretty fantastical to imagine it going this well. But the truth is, it doesn’t matter. There is an 85% chance that what you are worried about will never become reality anyway. It’s just a made-up story either way.

Finally, we create a lovely story to focus on.
Maybe it goes something like this:

“My son goes to high school and experiments a little with drugs, drinks a little more than he should, parties more than I prefer, graduates and gets into a great college, parties some more, begins to grow into the man I always hoped and knew he would be, gets a great job, and is living a pretty normal life.”

Not totally out of the question, right?

Can you see how this process brings clarity and resolution? We first honor the fear you're feeling and second, walk through a scenario that is scary but focuses on how you would handle it and that you CAN handle it. It helps us to feel our feelings and then get confident that perhaps we can allow life to happen and face circumstances as they come up rather than trying to change things to fit how we want the world to be. This is the basic premise behind mindfulness.

Trust yourself. You can handle anything. It sets us up to treat life is an adventure rather than something to be afraid of.

And then, with the lovely story, if you focus on what you want to happen instead of what you don’t want to happen, you will more likely have a positive outcome. The truth is, what we resist persists. If nothing else, you will feel better and you can still feel like you are focusing on the thing you are worried about, but perhaps with an intention for a better outcome 

“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” ~Benjamin Franklin

If you're going to worry anyway, why not learn to worry better?

​Are you a worrier? Do you have tips for how you have learned to manage your worry? Please comment below!

This is Part 3 of a 3 Part Series. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

I spent more than 40 years mostly in my head. I am a “head type” on the Enneagram and being my head’s a very comfortable place for me to be.

But I’ve learned that my best inspirations, ideas, clarity, answers, and solutions come from getting out of my head and into my body, into my heart and into THIS present moment. For some of you, this will not make a lot of sense…so you’ll need to try it to believe it.

For you, I ask you to trust me and give this a try.

And, yeah, some of us can talk ourselves out of our worry thoughts – reminding ourselves that these are just thoughts – that we don’t have to believe our thoughts – that they are just possibilities and that we are the thinker NOT the thoughts. But that takes a great deal of awareness and mental strength. Sometimes it’s just better to do something else!

10 QUICK WAYS TO GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD

1. Decide to stop the worry/ruminating/self-criticism, pick something to do to get your mind off it. And do it.
2. Snuggle/connect with your partner or your kids. Your body will release the hug or love hormone, oxytocin. This will automatically settle your nervous system and bring you back to this moment. If your kids are older and might resist a snuggle, just try to get as close to them as you can. BE WITH THEM. Get curious and try to connect with them about their lives and their world. It’s hard to think of our “stuff” when we are genuinely interested in someone else.
3. Breathe. Focus on an elongated out-breath which will calm your nervous system. Breath connects your mind to your heart.
4. Pull out a coloring book. Coloring is relaxing as an alternative to meditation. 
5. Get out into nature. Even if it's just in your back yard for 2 minutes. 
6. Get up and stretch, exercise, or DANCE! Move your body in whatever way your body is asking you to move it! Get your blood flowing. Have fun!
7. Do an orienting exercise. Look around the room/environment and notice something around the room you have not noticed before – like a light, a tree, a picture, or a piece of lint on the couch, etc – just focus on that and really notice it. Notice your breathing, but no need to change it. Slowly move your attention to something else in the room and focus on that.
8. Bring attention to your body. Stomp your feet. Hit your chest. Tap your skin. Rub your hands together. Wiggle. Jump up and down. Do something that actually brings you into your body.
9. Try out the power pose. Watch this video about how the way body language may affect how we feel about ourselves. Standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain.
10. Become aware of your body in the environment: Notice your butt on the chair and/or feet on the floor. If you’re in a chair, feel the contact you are making with the back of the seat. If your feet are on the ground, pay attention to each foot on the floor. Notice your breath. No need to change anything – just notice it. Do a quick body scan. Notice your head, temples, jaw, neck, heart, belly, hips, pelvic floor, legs, feet. Just bring attention from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet

BONUS: If you find yourself awake at night worrying or in a place where you can’t do something from the list above, use these to CHANGE your thinking:

• Say gratitudes. Recite as many things as you can that you are grateful for.
• Pray, if that feels right for you.
• Practice self-compassion. Say kind things to yourself as if you are talking your child or a close friend when he/she is worried or feeling bad – things such as “You are okay, things are okay, I’m with you, we’re going to get through this, this too shall pass, when we wake up in the morning it won’t feel so bad, it’s going to work out, etc.”
• Repeat a mantra or affirmation. For example, I am enough, I am love, I am okay, I am capable.

Do you have anything to add to this list? Put it into the comments below!

Part 2 of 3. Read Part 1 here and Part 3 here.

This blog post is summarized from Wayne Dyer’s amazing very first book called Your Erroneous Zones.

Okay, let’s get real here…I’m not suggesting that we’re never going to worry again…we’re adults living in a complex world with problems and children and jobs! So we’ve got a lot to worry about.

Full disclosure: I was just up last night at 2:42 worrying. And the truth is that a little bit of worry sometimes PUTS me INTO action.

But what I don’t want for any of us is that we look back at our lives with regret that we spent most of our precious present moments beating ourselves up about the past or worrying about the future. Here's the thing - if it was useful, I'd be encouraging it. But guilt and worry are rarely useful habits. 

So, let’s explore what we can do to manage these 2 habits:

GUILT

• Remind yourself that feeling guilty will never make you a better person or change the past. It’s over.
• Do not confuse the behavior with who you are. When you conflate the two, you get shame (“I am bad” vs. “my behavior was bad”). Shame keeps us stuck. *Super important point for how we discuss our kids’ behavior, too.
• Ask yourself what you’re avoiding in the present moment. What do you need to be doing but you’re focusing on your guilt instead?
• Is this even something that you actually feel guilt about? Is this something that YOU approve of but you either believe or know that others don’t? If left unexamined, we can spend our entire lives feeling guilty about something that comes from someone else’s value system, not ours! Take a close look at your value system and make sure your behaviors are in alignment with YOUR values, not someone else’s (including your family of origin). 
• What behavior/habit/pattern do you want to change because YOU want to change it? What can you do today to take action towards that change?
• Notice where other people try to manipulate you with guilt. A very hard thing to do is allow other people to be disappointed in you. But when you notice what’s happening and you gently show them that you can handle their disappointment, they will realize that their guilt-tactics no longer work on you.
• Do your best to learn from your past rather than beat yourself up about the past. This allows you to more consciously take action to repair trust, fix your mistakes, change your behavior, and make better choices in the future.

Note: How much you worry does not equal how much you love. 

WORRY

• Don’t confuse worry with planning for the future.
• Worry doesn’t have anything to do with love or caring. It's time to ditch any “guilt” that if you don’t worry, you don’t care or love enough. It's NOT true.
• Most everything you are worrying about, you have no control over.
• Notice what you’re avoiding DOING in your life by worrying. Worry keeps us from fully living our lives.
• Simply decide to stop the habit – when you notice yourself worrying, try to remind yourself to come back to this present moment. Ask yourself what you're avoiding by using this present moment for worry. Sometimes we break a habit by replacing it with something else - so you can replace worry with reciting what you're grateful for.
• DO something – play a game, clean a room, sing a song, talk to a friend (about something other than your worry), help someone…anything to stop the worrying!
• Set a worry timer – allow yourself to worry for 10 minutes and then stop worrying and go do something else!
• Never worry alone – call a friend and ask them to help you to stop worrying.

Check out the final blog post in this series for a list of quick and effective ways to break the worry/guilt habit by getting out of your head and into the present moment!

What one thing are you going to try to do THIS week from these lists? Pick the one thing that you are most likely to do…put it into the comments below!