To me, one of the most wondrous aspects of parental love is the sheer unconditionality of it. We fall madly in love with our children before we even know, in any real sense, who our children are. Parental love is wide open, spacious and infinitely curious to discover. It can be tempting, oh so tempting, […]
Mindfulness is the ability to stay psychologically present in the here and now of your life. It is a skill and, like any other skill, you can improve with practice. Just as the psychological sciences are starting to really flesh out the benefits of mindfulness, mindfulness has broken into popular culture and the mindfulness craze […]
Everybody makes mistakes. Every parent makes mistakes. And they aren’t always little ones. So, how do you recover and move on when you recognise that you’ve stuffed up? Start by treating yourself with compassion. Recognise that you aren’t alone. You are an imperfect human being, just like the rest of us and we all stuff […]
‘It’s not who you’ve known, but who you’re knowing’ Who are you ‘knowing’? Who do you spend time listening to? Who do you make efforts to understand? Who do you treasure learning little details about? Who are you aware of? Who are you insightful about? Who do you share living with? Work colleagues, acquaintances, celebrities, […]
Responsive parenting series part 3 This post is the third of a three part series on responsive parenting. Responsive parenting, in a nutshell, means parenting that is responsive to the signals or cues of your child. It is warm, caring and on cue. Responsiveness is often understood within an attachment theory framework (responsive parenting predicts […]
Shame is that sinking feeling, which may be accompanied by sadness, fear, anger or disgust, along with a sense of your own unworthiness and lack of worth in the eyes of others. Shame is often accompanied by a tendency to behave in a submissive way, that is, a shamed person is likely to try to […]
A major problem with the human mind is how quickly we think of the big, the grandiose, the larger than life, and then get stuck there. So, in wanting to show our partner how much we love them, we think of going on a date to a fancy restaurant or buying an expensive present, not […]
Motherhood can be challenging, stressful, and painful. But it is also, for many women, one of their greatest sources of joy and achievement. This Mother’s Day Weekend, become the mum you want to be: Follow your own heart. Let go of advice, judgment and criticism and, instead, follow your own heart. Get in touch with […]
Modern parenting is full of rules. I don’t mean the rules that parents set for their children. I mean the rules that society sets for us. You know the rules like, ‘Never feed, rock or cuddle your baby to sleep’ or ‘No television before the age of two’. There are heaps of them. If we […]
As long as I’ve had any degree of political awareness I’ve dreamt of a better world – a world free of sexism, racism and ableism, a world where no one goes hungry, a world where we’ve learnt to co-exist with the environment, a world where knowledge is valued. But I had to make my own […]