From my heart...

I've just spent the weekend looking after a fifteen year-old deaf and blind dog. What has that got to do with parenting you may well wonder? Well it's all connected. I noticed she was lacking something - very hungry, despite her processed biscuits. I added a raw egg into her diet and some fish, and she started skipping, jumping and generally woke up. Now this dog is 15 and arthritic, so I wasn't expecting miracles. But it made me think of all those highly sensitive children and all the global energies shifting at the moment and dealing with turbulence. 

Food is foundational for physical health, but also for mental health (the brain and nervous system) and for highly sensitive people, it is the foundation of emotional health too. If our bodies don't get the clean pure food we need it's hard to feel really vibrant and joyful. 

Which brings me to something I have been noticing in the public culture which gives me a lot of hope. I have been working with neurodivergent children and their parents for over thirty years. And only recently are schools, educators and parents finally catching on that getting good grades is worthless if a child isn't also emotionally and socially able and fulfilled. It makes sense of course that mental achievements alone are useless. After all we need to be developed in all areas of our functioning to have overall health - both mental, emotional and physical.  All the more reason to keep advocating for your child's interests, for their right to have their emotional and sensory needs met at school, and them being set tasks and targets at school which are in line with their individual speed of development and personality. Anything else will just lower self esteem and decrease confidence. 

And because we all know how strongly HS children react to criticism, we want to make sure that they are not being compared or put down for being who and how they are at school. Things are changing, and it is no longer PC to ostracise children who are neurodivergent. There is hope spreading in the wider media that it will become normal and common to talk about children being themselves. And thriving as they are, not who they should be. This leaves me both excited and more determined than ever to share my work... 

Heads up on the emotional forecast...

There is an eclipse of the moon this week - 13-14March - a so called blood moon. Highly sensitive children will often respond very similarly to an eclipse as animals - who withdraw, may be unsettled or go quiet for hours before it happens, and recover once it passes. Be prepared there may be extra emotions this week, inexplicable meltdowns and sleepless nights. You can't really do much except make sure your children's diet (and yours) is clean, and they get plenty of breaks. Its not a good idea to plan outings or too much activity for those two days because the body can need more rest.

And just after that we head into the delightful mercury retrograde, where most people become more introspective and have less desire to socialise. A time to reflect and come out with renewed energy and clarity. It just sometimes helps us as parents not to beat ourselves up when the children go through meltdowns or big emotional swings for seemingly no reason - when in fact there are reasons.  

COOL RESOURCE

This weeks resource is a bit different. It's YOU - your passion - what you love and believe in. What you stand for. In times like this where things are devolving into chaos and we are being pulled in so many directions it can serve us wisely to just let go of all the external noise. And come back to our core values, the one thing that motivates us, and to stand strong in that. Gratitude for our own being, our essence and the truth and goodness of who we are. We may sometimes think we are not much or not enough. But were are. We all are definitely something and that's what we can hold onto. And let it expand, grow, soften and take up more space in our inner and outer worlds. From my perspective right now nothing matters more. We are all streaming out our individual frequencies across the globe, and those of us who hold strong act as lighthouses for the disconnected, frightened and lost. And as examples for all the children who are struggling to make sense of everything right now.  

UPCOMING EVENTS

This weeks Masterclass on Calm connected Child Essentials - 3 Keys to Confidently Parent your Highly Sensitive Child promises to be exciting and transformational - you can sign up here on eventbrite, and you will receive the zoom link. Taking place on Wednesday 12 March at 8pm GMT. It's nearly full, so grab a spot or send a friend! (or partner...) I look forward to seeing you there. You'll get the chance to ask questions live as well as meet other parents with similar challenges. If you want to join the private FB group in the meantime (A connection group for parents of HSCs) and start talking about your pressing concerns, then click here.

CONNECT WITH ME

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmpatheticParents
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mira-watson-msc-4ab1a6102/
Blog: www.mirawatson.com