The Stress Nanny with Lindsay Miller
Mindfulness and stress management for families raising kids with big goals, big feelings, and everything in between.
Hosted by mindfulness coach Lindsay Miller, The Stress Nanny is full of practical strategies for calming anxious kids, supporting high-achievers, and teaching emotional regulation in everyday moments. Each episode offers easy-to-use mindfulness practices, stress management tips, and confidence-building tools that empower kids (and parents!) to navigate challenges with ease. Whether you’re raising a child who struggles with big feelings, a high-performing student-athlete, or simply want a calmer home, The Stress Nanny will give you the resources and encouragement you need.
The Stress Nanny with Lindsay Miller
Ep 186 What If We Could Raise a Generation of Emotionally Intelligent Children?
Ever watched your child navigate a challenging moment with unexpected grace? In this illuminating conversation with Giselle Shardlow, founder of Kids Yoga Stories, we explore how ancient yoga wisdom offers modern solutions for our children's most pressing challenges.
Giselle's journey weaves together threads of yoga practice from her childhood in rural Canada to her work as an international school teacher. What began as a response to childhood obesity and stress has evolved into something even more vital today: providing children with essential tools for emotional regulation in an increasingly complex world. As Giselle puts it, "These SEL tools are no longer a nice-to-have, they're a must-have."
We dive deep into how mindfulness and yoga practices create resilience not just for children but for entire families. The beauty lies in their adaptability—these aren't rigid programs requiring hours of dedication but flexible approaches that meet everyone exactly where they are. Whether it's a simple breathing exercise during a stressful moment or a yoga story at bedtime, these small practices create profound ripple effects.
Particularly moving are the stories of transformation: the child who chose breathing exercises instead of punching during a playground conflict, or the young teenager who can articulate, "Sometimes I need something calming, and sometimes I need to get rid of extra energy to feel calm." This level of self-awareness represents exactly what our children need to navigate our uncertain world.
Giselle shares her powerful "Five C's" framework—Calm, Curious, Connect, Creative, and Commit—offering parents a practical roadmap for incorporating these practices at home. She emphasizes that the journey begins with our own regulation: "What I could control is myself...and even by practicing yourself, all of that has ripple effects."
Ready to bring more calm, confidence, and connection into your family life? Listen now, and discover how simple yoga and mindfulness tools can transform not just your child's emotional wellbeing but your entire parenting experience. Your journey toward a more mindful family starts with just one breath.
Find out more about Kids Yoga Stories here.
To access an email you can use to connect with your child's school to learn more about SEL and share resources like Kids Yoga Stories click here.
Lindsay Miller is a distinguished kids mindfulness coach, mindfulness educator and host of The Stress Nanny Podcast. She is known for her suitcase tricks and playful laugh. When she's not cheering on her daughter or rollerblading on local trails with her husband, you can find her using her 20+ years of child development study and mindfulness certification to dream up new ways to get kids excited about deep breathing. Having been featured on numerous podcasts, platforms and publications, Lindsay’s words of wisdom are high impact and leave a lasting impression wherever she goes.
To sign up for Lindsay's "Calm & Collected" Newsletter click here.
To review the podcast click here.
Welcome to the Stress Nanny, the podcast where we take the overwhelm out of parenting and help kids and parents build calm, confidence and connection. I'm your host, Lindsay Miller, kids mindfulness coach and cheerleader for busy families everywhere. Each week, we'll explore simple tools, uplifting stories and practical strategies to help your child learn emotional regulation, resilience and self-confidence, while giving you a little more peace of mind too. I'm so glad you're here. My guest today is Giselle Shardlow. She's the founder of Kids Yoga Stories.
Speaker 1:Kids Yoga Stories was founded in 2012 by Giselle, who's a classroom teacher and trained yoga instructor. Through her travels and teaching grades K through five in Guatemala, australia, canada and the United States, giselle witnessed the need through five in Guatemala, australia, canada and the United States. Giselle witnessed the need to address childhood literacy, obesity and stress. She blended her passions of yoga, mindfulness and education to create books, card decks, courses and educational resources to bring the benefits of yoga to children everywhere. The pandemic and the rise in mental health issues in children, as well as teacher burnout, has made the kids yoga stories mission even more critical and timely. They continue to grow and expand, providing weekly resources that are free and hundreds of yoga products available for purchase on their site. I'm so excited to share my conversation with Giselle. It felt like talking to an old friend, giselle, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so excited about this conversation.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's so great because we've met once before and it's always. It was one of those things. When I first met you, I felt like I'd known you forever.
Speaker 1:I know, and even just as we're chatting beforehand, we're like old friends just chatting about what's going on. So I really appreciate yeah, I appreciate you coming on the show because it's going to be insightful for me and everyone listening. So thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Thank you. Okay, In case people aren't familiar with your work, let's just get started with a bit of an intro. I know we we had shared the podcast you and I recorded on your show. But if people aren't familiar with your work, help us. Help us get a glimpse of, like how you got into it and what you're up to these days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great, Okay so I think of it sort of like two areas of my life, right? So yoga has always been a thread. You know, I started I practiced when I was little. My mom told us when we were really little. I grew up in the middle of Canada on a farm. My parents were British and she used to play yoga on the television, so that's really where it began. And then in my 20s I, you know, did practice yoga at the university. And then I, every time I came home to be with my mom, we'd always go to her classes. And then I, when I went to, when I lived in Sydney, australia, I did my teacher training yoga teacher training with my husband. We were newlywedseds and we jumped right into that, and so it's always been this thread with me.
Speaker 2:And then, parallel, I've always worked with children. So I grew up a figure skater, taught figure skater, worked in day camps, became an international school teacher, and now here I am with Kids, yoga Stories, writing stories and helping grownups teach yoga to children. So those have kind of been the threads we're. We put everything together in terms of we're just we're on this mission, lindsay, just like you are right, is that now more than ever, even though. We've been doing this work for 13 years, but now more than ever you know to transform school communities right On on, helping children to self, to self, regulate and manage their big emotions and be ready to learn. So these SEO you know tool in your toolkit is no longer a nice to have, it's a must have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. Well, and I love just the the history of your experience, because I think that that, like tethering all those different perspectives, like from different countries, you know, in different like timelines, and being able to weave the, the universality of yoga through all of those things and then share those bits of it that you know for you were consistent everywhere, you went right, like those were the supportive bits, those were the things that really made an impact, and so I think you're teaching around it and the stories really illustrate those concepts and those principles that are, like you said, universally essential, especially right now for adults, for kids, for all of us as we navigate modern living.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's actually a good point. I hadn't thought about that, because when I first took yoga teacher training, I first started writing yoga stories. For me, at that point, what I could see in the classrooms that I was working in was obesity or stress, or English as a second language, or global education, environmental education. So those are the things that were on my heart and those are the books that were on my heart, and those are the books that I wrote about is teaching children.
Speaker 2:You know, let's go on an adventure to Costa Rica, or let's go, you know, on a mountain, or so we learned habitats and things and acting things out so that it was light and fun back in the day, right, and now, that's the cool thing about this ancient wisdom, as you know, right, that you know this is 5000 years old. This is not a trend, this is not an overnight right, but this is something that has a thread through every aspects of your life and you get to pick and choose what works for you. So, right now, emotional regulation is, you know, and stress and you know, being with people and social interaction. Those are the most important things. So those are the concepts we can pull from this ancient wisdom, whereas before it was more. Like you know, let's get children to move and have body awareness and travel the world and learn about things you know, so I hadn't thought about that way. It's very adaptive to what we are addressing in this moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love the way you put that, because I think one of the things that's so appealing to me about teaching kids mindfulness is the universality of the tools. You know that, like you just said, they have application in a wide range of circumstances and being able to kind of pick and choose what helps when the empowerment of that is also supportive, right, like being able to kind of pick and choose what helps when the empowerment of that is also supportive, right. Like being able to approach a situation knowing, if you have the tools of yoga, if you have the tools of mindfulness, like that are kind of written within you, then you have a level of resilience for anything that comes your way Right, and it's a matter of just activating the wisdom that you hold as a result of those practices. And so it does feel, yeah, really versatile and really relevant, just because you, you know, with a little bit of support, can be translated into so many different scenarios, such that the individual experiencing, you know, a myriad of conditions or circumstances can find that inner resilience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that so much. Yeah, that's so true, and it changes. Right, it can meet everyone where they're at, whether you're in a classroom, at home or in a clinic with a pediatric therapist. Wherever you are, it meets you where you're at, both with the grownup and the child. So the resilience piece is really that's really interesting concept of how do we help these children bounce back. I mean, gosh, they've been through more Lindsay in these years than we have in our entire lives. Right, it's going to only get faster and more complex and more artificial. You know there's a lot coming ahead of us. And how do we help these children navigate this new world?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. You and I were just talking before I got started about how this podcast has been. You know it was launched almost six years ago and the number of different topics or social situations or you know, just looking back on my episode summaries and list of episodes, it's really interesting to me to see, you know, because it was right before COVID started. So I've got episodes about COVID and making it through COVID. You know we've got episodes on so many different like social situations that have occurred over the last six years, and then also just the general skillset right, that we're seeing as, like you said, an essential skillset. You know that's emerging as something kids can't do without these SEL tools and I think, yeah, the dynamic nature of life is not going to change anytime soon and, if anything, the speed will will increase, and so having tools at your disposal that are timeless and have served for for such a long time really does make sense, to me at least.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think too, speaking of that right, that what a blessing that we found this really easy tool that can be added in in such a quick way and have such powerful impacts, and now we have the science to back that up, right. So it's not about adding more to your plate or taking a lot of time or buying a bunch of things, right, but also it affects the child and the grownup, and the grownup. I mean like you as a mindfulness coach, right, going through those lessons with your students. How cool is that. You get to experience it yourself. You get to teach the families that you work with right, and no doubt that's, you know, filtering through to their classrooms and it fits the whole community. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree, and that's what you know. When I, when I talk to new families and we'll talk through what to expect One of the things that I hear back consistently is like I came to you for help with this one child, but what I'm learning as a result is helping my whole family, or my whole circle of influence, right? Or you know, classroom one of the moms that I worked with her son and she was second grade teacher and she's like, oh my gosh, the thing we did last week. I just took it to school and my kids loved it. I've got to show you what we did. Here's the bulletin board of it, you know, and it is like once you kind of just can wrap your brain around the shift in thinking that is like that internal locus of control and like what can, what can I do in this circumstance? And being really present with that, tuning into your body, right, your intuition, and figuring out how to move forward. The sky's the limit as to where it applies, right, Like who can benefit from it.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly, and I think one of the things you know I'm sure you've spoken about is you know we could speak all day about what's not working right now. Right, and so you can kind of go down that rabbit hole of all the things. But you know, I'm really curious I'm shifting now into this what is working? What are the success stories? Right, because we all had to experience the empathy for each other and really understand parents and schools and all what's happening and children. But now you know to your point about what's working. You know, in our community we work closely with practitioners and pediatric therapists, educators, families. You know the whole range, and what we're hearing is the practices that are most transformational are those that that go across the classroom, go across the, the sessions, the pediatric therapy sessions, go across the families, go across the children, is with the adults, with the children, with everything. So it becomes embedded in a community. That's where the transformation happens.
Speaker 2:We can't, you know, looking at what we can control and what we can't control. You know we can't control the government choices, the educational standards, the you know systematic issues that are happening, even the you know administration potentially, if they're not on board. But what can we control right. We can control our own regulation. We can work with our child, although I do have one of those children that is a little resistant to yoga, mindfulness we can talk about that at some point, but you know, I mean you can't. What you can control is yourself, and even by practicing yourself in whatever way works for you, all of that has ripple effects. And then you can speak to other moms or you share it with your educators and how cool is that? One of your moms, of your student, is now as a second grade teacher and that's had a ripple effect. So you working one-to-one has now affected all the children in that classroom who may go home and tell their families. It know it's, it's amazing. I think that's the key is starting small but having a larger impact.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's so beautifully put and I think when we teach kids and we'll get into specific tools here in just a minute but I think as we lay this foundation for why this is important and how significant the impact is, it's like when we teach kids these tools, they build the whole rest of their lives right On this foundation of resilience and the kind of individuals that are going to affect change in the future, the kind of individuals who will be able to problem solve, work through big emotions to, you know, tackle big problems, those are going to be people who have a certain level of resilience, right, and that level of emotional regulation, emotional intelligence, to be able to communicate through big feelings, to be able to talk about you know, how to approach a situation, with discernment, with mindfulness, right, like being fully present with what the reality of the situation is.
Speaker 1:And so I'm constantly just like, so enthusiastic about the types of lives that can be built, like weaving these tools in from such a young age. You know, just building with this foundation feels like there's such incredible ability to access one's potential.
Speaker 2:Yeah exactly, and I think you know, going back to this idea of being artificial, I was listening to YouTube the other day with the president of CASEL, dr Leah, and Dr Mark Brackett, who's the professor out of Yale right and he's author of Permission to Feel and the Ruler Approach, and they were talking about how the importance of the social, emotional and cognitive it's those three pieces that are really the most important thing. It was a fascinating, a fascinating look, and we can, you know, thinking about resilience in terms of, you know, the research around, you know the parents want it, the educators want it, the workforce, the students who are showing up at Yale, for example. Those are the ones that have the social, emotional component as well as cognitive. It's not just about getting good grades, it's can you interact? Can you, you know, manage your big emotions? And then, in terms of workforce, right, and so they were talking about AI and looking at you know who's in charge of creating this artificial intelligence and how regulated are these folks?
Speaker 2:And how do we prepare our children for this world of artificial intelligence? How do we help them navigate and make good choices in the face of who knows what's going to be thrown at them? Right, and it's not going away, it's something that we have to face, and so, being these mindfulness tools that you're teaching also is having them be able to discern whether, like you said, discerning, discern is this for real. You know, I was watching a video the other day about something entirely different and I thought I don't actually know if this person is real or not. Like it's a level of distrust that we all have, and this is the thing that we have to teach our children is how do you discern? How do you trust people online? How do you know what's real, what's not, what's honest, right? And these are all the practices of resilience, as you say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, it's such an interesting point and I love the idea of like growing a generation of kids who could train like a compassionate AI, you know like an informed AI and emotionally intelligent AI. I listened to the Mo News podcast a lot and they've been talking recently about just the increased need for people who are training the models. You know, training the.
Speaker 1:AI models and how. Like, yeah, the need for individuals who can have an impact on the way so many people will see the world, you know, a need for individuals who are well-rounded and have the skills that they need to to create models that are going to lead humanity forward in a hopefully, holistic and supported way. You know we can't underrate that, right? So I love that, I love that you were hearing that too. Yes, 100% Well, and I think I mean I think too, like you just brought up and we can maybe start here with the tools the uncertainty right now.
Speaker 1:You know, like the incredible amount of uncertainty in so many facets of life, right, and I love back to Mark Brackett, his definition of uncertainty anxiety being uncertainty about the future. So he, you know, he's like anxiety is when you were uncertain about the future, and so I think, you know, taken globally, if we look around us right now, it's no wonder that we have so many kids grappling with massive feelings of anxiety, and adults for that matter. Right, but that uncertainty about the future, it can feel like a lot to manage. So, in the families that you're working with and you know, as you're sharing the stories, what are some of the ways you see parents use yoga and mindfulness to help kids manage the everyday stresses or big emotions like anxiety.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, I think that for me, the number one thing is starting with ourself, right, and so being aware of our own calm and organized self, and I think it has to start here. So you know, personally I was not aware of the anxiety that I had inside of me. Then I, you know, spoke to my mom about it. Apparently there is a thread. They were born in England, as I mentioned, so you know that came through there, but it's really exacerbated over the last five, six years, right, and having my child as well as COVID.
Speaker 2:But just acknowledging it, right, and so it's a label and I see myself saying I'm anxious, or people say to you, are you feeling nervous, or whatever, I start to worry about the future. Or you know, get prepared with things, or whatever. And so I think, just acknowledging, like what? What? Speaking of Mark Brackett, bracket, you know, recognizing our own emotions. But I think it's also about how do we change the script on that, because we hear it so much and I feel like it's been so overused also since covid about how do we just lean into gosh, I'm a caring, loving person and I love people and I'm also prepared for the future.
Speaker 2:Is that such a bad thing Really, you know I'm just making this up, but like what if we just shift like change the channel, changed how we looked at things and changed our lens. So I think that's one thing in modeling with my daughter. She was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, all the things, but you know how do I help her see that it's not necessarily a bad thing either. You know, I've had a great life. I traveled the world and how could I have traveled the world as a backpacker and lived overseas in so many places if I was so anxious? It didn't paralyze me, you know.
Speaker 2:I think that those of us in this sort of age where we have, you know, our perimenopause years, some of us are naturally like my constitution. If you look at the doshas in Ayurveda yoga, sister science, I'm a strong vata. It's one of the three constitutions and vata is very airy. I'm very creative, I'm very airy and that creates the anxiety piece, right. But if I am aware of that, so we've got this trifecta right now for a lot of us my constitution has anxiety, the time of my life where women are moving into a very Vata style life and also the world has an entire Vata vibration. Right now it's ADHD and there's fast moving and all the things right, and so acknowledging that and thinking okay, so what are some counter practices that I can use myself? And then that will have ripple effects because we see the children are anxious. But, Lindsay, I'm curious about how many of us, as educators and parents, are anxious and how much of it is our stuff and how much is their stuff? You know what I mean. And so practices that have worked, and it's not a one size fits all, so everyone has to find their own way and we can certainly talk about that. But lately I've been doing yoga, nidra, which is I play in it overnight because I haven't been sleeping well, so that's one thing. I've been having really hot baths, so for my constitution that works really well.
Speaker 2:You know, I have my consistent with anxiety. Right, it's a consistency. I have my consistent exercise routine, my yoga routine, sitting silently in the morning, taking deep breaths during the day. You know. So, even before us chatting, I knew I had to take a moment to take a pause and just take a deep breath. You know there's all kinds of these little practices that build on themselves, so it's not like one class once a week, but is it? How do we make it more of a lifestyle? That is part of our life, Right. So I think that's that's the thing is, about acknowledging and looking at, getting curious about huh, okay, what am I worried about, Right? And then, what are some practices that I could add in that would make a difference so that I can I can have the anxiety, stay here and not be over there with the children? Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, I love the way you explained it. It makes me think of Dan Siegel's River of Integration. Are you familiar with that? How he's got on one side of the river is like chaos and on one side is rigidity, and the thing you have to figure out is how to find flow right and like, if things feel if you've like, when I feel anxious, I feel chaotic right Like it just feels like kind of a lot and I and then sometimes, when I'm trying to manage that I might swing to the other side of the river and just get super, super structured right and find, like I must do things exactly this way in order to feel okay, right. And instead the invitation, you know, which I've, as I age, have increasingly taken with more and more grace, but still sometimes fight is to blend that the chaos and the and the rigidity in a way that allows for flow right, like so that you can down the river.
Speaker 1:And so I love what you just described, because I think you know, if we get stuck in the big emotion and we're kind of fighting it and we're not willing to say like I'm feeling anxious right now or I'm feeling really sad right now, I'm feeling really concerned right now, if we fight the big feelings, we can't work with them, right? It's just like all of our energy is getting stored up. One of my favorite psychologists calls it like a beach ball emotion, and just like beach ball underwater, right. Yes, if we're using all of our energy to do that, we're not at liberty to be incorporating, like you said, those simple practices or figuring out how we can work with our tendencies.
Speaker 1:And I think, more than like a label, I love to call it a tendency, like I tend toward you know my brain tends toward this, you know, and if we can look at ourselves with a bit more grace, I think that those moments of acknowledgement are a little softer right, because we can find the gentleness in it, and it doesn't have to be a permanent. I will always feel this way. There's nothing I can do about it. Acknowledgement it's more of a. This is something that is consistent for me, so the invitation is for me to figure out how to work with it Right. So like bringing the chaos and the rigidity into the middle, where you can move with some flow, using those tools, finding the practices that are like go to for you, in order to not get stuck over there on the side of the river in the emotion, watching life go by, but instead being able to like engage with our tendencies in a way that gives us movement in the direction we want to go. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I love the grace and I want to say some sprinkle of humor, you know, like let's. I mean, how funny are we as humans? Right, and I've learned this from Judith Lassiter Hansen, who's the co founder of Yoga Journal back in the day, right, she's amazing wrote a book, non violent communication. But, hand on heart, say how human of me. Oh my gosh, lindsay over the last few years has been challenging you know it's, it's changed my life really. That's been the thing. But also I think that, coupled and there's something about hand on heart too, there's some science behind the feeling of it on your, on your chest. But also I've been lately thinking like, zooming out a bit and going, oh gosh, we're funny, like is there something ruminating about that, you know, or yeah, like.
Speaker 2:I've got it. I don't like flying, it doesn't make me feel well, and we fly to Australia every other year. Right now it's gonna be every year, you know, and it's like a 25 hour flight right with my daughter who's? You know, she's 13. Now, but it has been a challenge, right. I'm just going to say that, but you know I'll worry about that for 10 months before the flight.
Speaker 1:As soon as you get home start worrying about that, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:And then you think, oh my gosh, wow brain, like you have to have kind of a, have a laugh about it. That's ridiculous, as if I'm oh my goodness, poor me. I get to go to Australia, you know, every other year, every year, like, oh my goodness you know, to see family. So, yeah, I think there's a, there's a bit of lightness. I think that that has to happen to we've.
Speaker 2:It's been so intense the last few years. You know, all of us have been on our own individual journey, so the intensity will change, depends on your, you know, whether with your children or your elderly parents, or you've got a sick dog. You were mentioning this, a lot of stuff. But also, I think, globally, we've all been very intense. But I think this kind of period of like let's lighten up a little bit, like where's where's the humor, where's the fun? How do we bring that back and I know that's a simplistic way, you know that's not going to work for everyone at all moments, you know. I think you do have to drop into your life and stuff that's happening, but also a little sprinkle of fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I totally agree. And that that resonates with me Because, I mean, even last night we had been having a conversation. My daughter, like you know, as she's getting older, her involvement in different activities is is shifting, as well as some of the potential or the opportunities associated with those activities. Right, and so the stakes, you know, as they get older, the stakes on some things get a little higher, right, and in some of the environments she's in, she's feeling that pressure and trying to navigate it with as much grace as she can, but also recognizing that, like, this is a skill set that's developing for her. And so, where I can talk about it with perspective, we were specifically talking about Seth Godin's concept of the dip where it's like yes, you have like it's like you're oblivious to kind of how.
Speaker 1:You have like oblivious optimism about something and then you have like pessimistic realism about it and there's this like cavernous dip that happens and then at the bottom is like the valley of despair, and then you find your way you find your way to like informed optimism and then success, and how a lot of times we're navigating something that's challenging.
Speaker 1:We might be in that dip right when we were like all happy-go-lucky about it before, and then we hit the dip and we're like, well, this is harder than I thought it was going to be and we've got to kind of work through it in order to get out. So, anyway, we've been having these conversations. She's got a lot going on. It had been a long day, a couple of different practices. She was at. We get to the end of the night. We're like everybody's kind of settling down and getting ready to go to bed and all of a sudden I see all these ants crawling from her backpack. Oh, my goodness. And I was like what is going on? No-transcript.
Speaker 1:I was like, yeah, yeah, this is the dip. It's when you think you can't go any further. You know like all you've done, all you can do, and all of a a sudden, like you just find the answer. So we're just like laughing on the front porch, shaking out clothes, you know, at 11 at night. But it was one of those moments where and I think presence is key to it and that's why I bring it up? Because in that experience, like if I had been so wrapped up in the frustration, I was feeling my exhaustion. You know, I was attuned to her feelings and if those had been the only thing in my awareness it would have felt heavier Right.
Speaker 1:But, like mindfulness allowed me to notice what I was feeling in my body, right, like in yoga also. Right, like I'm feeling tired, I'm feeling the weight of the day, I'm noticing that frustration come up. I'm noticing, you know, like her, her exhaustion and like she's got a stretch right, like we've got to figure this out before we can all settle for the night. And then I'm noticing the irony, and that's where the humor can come in, right, yes, I love that we can be present with all of those things all at once.
Speaker 1:We get to choose which one are we going to give our attention to. And we were all frustrated and so we ended up at one point like we're like shaking the clothes really hard, like to just move through that frustration right, as we're also like laughing about how ironic it is that you know, of all the things we find, like this little colony of ants in the backpack at you know late at night. But I think that your point about humor is so well taken. But I think it's like integral to that is that idea of presence. Would you agree?
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. I love that story. That's so great Cause it really could have gone such a different way. It really could have gone and I think that that's what it seems to be. And I, you know I'm like everyone else, none of us are perfect. Just because you and I practice yoga, mindfulness, not to say we're perfect. And some nights, maybe on a different circumstance, you might not have been able to access your mindfulness practice and it might've gone a different way.
Speaker 2:But you know, as you, as you say, we, we there's things we can control and things we can't, and sometimes we have the capacity in which to to see it for what it is, and sometimes we get lost. And then later on, you know, we have to clean ourselves up or we clean up relationships that we might have said things that we didn't mean. But it's not about being perfect, right, it's about connection, connection with ourselves, with the people around us. And, you know, maybe the the ants were, if you kind of kind of look at it, a different way with this whole idea of changing the channel, of wow, the ants gave you an opportunity as a family to get together to, you know, against all odds create all the wagons at the end of the night.
Speaker 2:Exactly. You know, and I think that's that's the blessing that this work can offer us all is especially during this time. I mean, that's a perfect example of you know, it's all how we view things. You know, it's a hot mess right now, or wow. This is an opportunity for our planet to heal, and potentially a different way than we ever thought possible. As you say, maybe we are in the dip, or maybe there's more dip to come, who knows? But why not try and see the good as much as we possibly can in our students, in our children, in our partners, right In our school communities?
Speaker 1:yeah, I think too. I mean, I love the way you phrased it and I would also maybe add, like, see the good, but maybe sometimes it's a matter of also finding the good, or being the good right, like maybe it's it's noticing it when it's there and when it's not there, taking the, the experience that you're having and the moment that's at your disposal, or you're like the moment that you're gifted with and being able to, like imbue it with whatever small amount of of goodness you can, right. And I think the same about these tools, and I maybe we talk a little bit about some of the changes you've seen as families have implemented these tools. But like, if, when, when we see these, these principles, kind of planted in different spaces and allowed to, to be nourished and then flourish, like the way that they impact small situations just like on my front porch right, with like a bunch of ants and some sweaty sports clothes the way that they can manifest in those moments, it really is high impact, right.
Speaker 1:And I think, as we take these small steps, like, we take the deep breath, we sit in whatever big emotion we're feeling, we allow conversations to happen, trusting that we're competent and capable to show up, however, we need to. You know, for the moment that's at hand, like when we do those simple things, we end up with like opportunities that we wouldn't otherwise have. So what are some of the things you've seen as families have really like? Let these principles take hold and grow in their own family and friends. What, what changes have you seen happen?
Speaker 2:Oh, how long have you got? I'll just think of a few that popped to mind. So just just the other day, a couple days ago, we my daughter and I'll start with my own story so I was driving my daughter to early morning chorus. We were a couple minutes early, but in any case, we went outside, it was raining, just about to get into the car and she's standing behind the car and you know, she was inside the garage. So she said, mom, come, listen to the rain. And in that moment I could have been easily hurry up, we gotta go.
Speaker 2:Or saying something about mindfulness, because that's mindfulness, but it's really about. So I went and stood next to her and I had a hand on my heart because I was just in myself, screaming in my in myself, screaming with excitement, like, oh, my gosh, this is a mindful you know mindful moment of like. I've been dreaming of this right and it, you know it's raining and the sound of the birds and you know what the sounds and the smells and you know all of that. But I just stood with her and those moments are precious, right, and that will stay with me forever. So it's something that we're probably already doing anyway, but it's just bringing that intention. So in my mind I was both screaming with excitement to myself but also thinking what a precious moment, probably a moment I will always remember with her right that we never know the seed that we're planting with our children by practicing ourself. You know, because forever I'm always saying, oh, the weather is so you know, british family, I don't know talking about the weather, but, yeah, you know what a beautiful day. Or you know, oh, isn't that gorgeous. Or being outside and those kinds of things. So I think that it's just appreciating those moments. So the impact of you know it has worked. It has worked to plant these little seeds for my daughter.
Speaker 2:And then I think about another story that pops in my mind. I used to read my yoga stories when my daughter was in preschool and a dad came up to me and said, oh, you're the mom who reads yoga stories. And he said, oh, my son, we were out on the weekend and he was. There was this grassy patch and he was sitting there cross legged. And I didn't teach that. You know, sitting cross legged, like we're meditating on top of the mountain, but that's the way, that's what he took away from it. And he said he was. He was sitting there breathing. This was like a five year old right. And so those moments of you know, children surprise grownups all the time right.
Speaker 2:And so just being who you be, as you say, being the good, that's what's so captivating for children. You don't even know what they're picking up. Or you know, another parent emailed from our community a couple years ago and said, oh, my son's been practicing you know the calm down five poster, you know the postures. And he came home and he said, you know I was having an argument with this, this boy, and instead of punching him, I practiced you know in my mind and did some poses. And and I didn't you know, you know in my mind, and did some poses and I didn't you know he was able to regulate and for her it was life changing. Right, because that hadn't been the reaction he normally would have had. But it's about using these practices, you know, naturally in our lives, but also practicing them when the children are calm and organized too, so they can come back to that when they need, in the situation, that is, they're called upon to use them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are such great stories. I I especially love the highlight about practicing when you're already calm. Like I'm always preaching that, like practice calm when you're already calm and I'll get a lot of funny looks about it. Right, but exactly what you said it's easier to integrate and it's easier to return to calm than it is to just like find it when we're flailing. But also just the recognition that small efforts have far reaching influence. You know, and I think as parents, so many aspects of parenting in this modern time feel like a lot right. I think, especially when it comes to mindfulness and yoga, if you don't have exposure to it, don't have a background with it, it can feel overwhelming to kind of like tune into all the different pieces, understand different words and language, or like really kind of reorient yourself to your experience through that lens. But what you just described was so beautiful because that was simple presence right.
Speaker 1:In those moments right and I think if we can take anything from this conversation, that invitation to just that simple special kind of noticing that happens when you're present, that simple special kind of noticing that happens when you're present, I mean the impact of that, if you choose to practice that once, twice a day with your kids, right? I mean, like you said, from an example perspective, massive From their experience of your relationship. Incredible From your own orientation to your life and your responsibility to raise your children. Life changing, right yeah.
Speaker 2:So true, yeah, yeah, actually, it reminds me I, for myself, I created these five C's when, when things were really tough, when my daughter was young and the first one we, you know, we talked about is being calm. So it was really I noticed that I could read, cause I'm a, I'm a teacher, right, I thought I'll just read a whole bunch of books and watch a bunch of webinars and someone, please help me with my child parent, my child, and she did not come out how I was expecting, right, and so I realized, whoop, you know, none of this is working. I need to start with myself. So, the calm we've spoken a lot about, you know, getting yourself calm and organized, choosing the practices that work for you. Number two in my five C's was being curious. So, as we talked about being curious, what is yoga? What is it about? What do I want to read about? What? Who do I want to listen to? You know, what are the practices? Am I interested in yoga classes where it's, you know, physical postures, or am I interested in breathing practices? Or sitting silently in meditation in the morning, or practicing mindfulness, what you're doing? So there's a whole bunch of different practices you can work with. So, getting curious. And then what would be getting curious about your children, like what's? Like Mona Delahook and Dan Siegel, they're always talking about what's under the surface. So, getting curious about what is under the surface here. And so when I could look at my daughter okay, here's her outside display above the iceberg, but what's underneath that? Now you know, and that's that curiosity comes from such a different place versus she's not listening to me, she's having big reactions, it's you're, she's screaming. You know what's underneath that, right? And the third thing is about connect. How do we connect with ourselves and our children at a deeper level?
Speaker 2:Number four is being creative. You know how do we make this fun and interesting and creative? How do we get them on board? You know you do such a great job with your mindfulness coaching on. I always see you with. You know there's arts and crafts and projects, and you know there's no one size fits all about all these practices. How do you make them fun and engaging right? And so we've done that, for example, with our breathing exercises, the cards that we have, our breathing exercise cards such fun ways to learn to breathe. You could blow through a straw or pretend that you're blowing a flower or a hot chocolate or you know, there's lots of different ways you can play and be creative with breathing techniques, right?
Speaker 2:And the last one is commit. Is how do we commit to a practice? Choose one because it can be so, as you say, whether that's one breath or one meditation tool or meditation moment you're going to do every morning, or one affirmation Right now, my affirmation that I have I've just been writing out this morning everything works out for me. So in my mind, I keep over and over again everything works out for me, everything works out for my daughter, everything works out for us, everything's going to work out for this world. Everything works out. You know, that's just an affirmation. I'm just going to choose that one for a while. I'm going to stick with it and see what happens, right, but just choosing one, committing to something. So it was calm, curious, connect, creative and commit curious connect creative and commit.
Speaker 1:I love those. Thank you for sharing that. I think too. I mean, I'm going to plug your books here because I think that one of the things that is so beautiful about your approach, in addition to, like the step-by-step nature of application that you just talked about, or the breathing exercises cards that you have, like being able to build a story around these things that you can then refer back to.
Speaker 1:Right and so, if your choice is, you know, like at bedtime, where we, you know, you're reading stories, like choosing a yoga story, you know, choosing one of your yoga stories, and just like building that into your family culture, referring to Hannah and Hugo, right, or like referring to whoever you need to refer to in order to, like make the principle yours, apply it. You know, in different settings and in my experience, those stories have been so powerful for weaving that thread, like we talked about through the beginning, because it can be the story at home and then it can be like how did I apply it at school? How did I apply it at my soccer game? How did I apply it with my brother? You know, like weaving it through all those different situations, the story is the common thread, right, and so, in my experience, the application of these principles is infinitely easier with the stories.
Speaker 2:Yes, I love that so much. There's so much you know you can pack in whether you know, some of our stories are more yoga principles. So it's about a few of them. Are, you know, to be happy yourself, be happy for others? That's Anna, the rainbow colored yoga mats. And then you know, anxiety, think the opposite. When you have a negative thought, think the opposite. It's another yoga principle. But then we also have, as we talked about, the yoga stories that are more adding yoga postures through the story, so it's more fun and light, and discovering different places or habitats around the world, so adding movement to story time. You know the children do a lot of sitting these days, right? And so how do we get them to embody the story, as you say, and have fun and apply these principles to the rest of their lives?
Speaker 1:Yeah, like if committing to a bit of mindful time, a bit of yoga time a day is your goal, having the flexibility, like you said, the range of the stories, like letting the child, the child, choose. Like, are we wanting a more chill story, are you wanting more active story? Like one of the kiddos that I work with, we were talking about self-care because she's in the thick of performances, so lots of rehearsals and and performances ongoing, and so I was like what is your self-care looking like in this season? And she was like you know, sometimes I need something that's calming me and sometimes I have a little extra energy I need to get rid of in order to be calm. That's incredible.
Speaker 1:I know, right, I'm like the things kids come up with. I just sit there in awe but I, you know, but I think your stories like again the range, right, it's so flexible, so, like someone like her who's cultivating that awareness, like what do I need tonight If I want to connect with myself? Right, do I need a gentle, calming story? Do I need a more active story Like what will serve me? Just those tiny decisions with discernment, you know, have again the kind of impact that we're looking for in terms of presence and self-awareness and resilience.
Speaker 2:Right. And if anyone says, oh, I wonder if this work works just listen to that story you just told. I mean for a child to say, sometimes I need calm and sometimes I need energizing, I mean, that's that's. That's a thing. We, sometimes adults, we, we, we have a particular agenda, we want things to go a certain way, we're excited and passionate about our work, and then the children just blow us away. They're there, you know something that we did not have as much growing up, right, and? And they got it. We're still trying to. You know, train ourselves to regulate our emotions, Doesn't it's a bit messy? But yeah, the children, yeah, I got this. Yeah, I'm just up to be calmer, energized. You know that's so cool.
Speaker 1:Well, and then I mean, I'll just I'll just mention this real quick but one of the other things that I was super impressed about with her is, you know, as folks of a certain generation, some of us are maybe less gentle with ourselves when it comes to the emotions that we feel. Right, and a hallmark of mindfulness and yoga is that compassionate self-awareness. Right, it's not just that you're self-aware, it's that you're fully accepting of whatever you're aware of, right, and you moderate your reactions and your responses. You don't just like freewheel it, but you do give yourself so much grace, right.
Speaker 1:And so in the conversation with her as we're talking, she was like and I've had a little bit of a hard time, you know like there've been some moments when I've maybe been a little bit grouchy, but also I haven't been getting a lot of sleep and I've just had a lot going on and I haven't had a chance to be as creative lately, and so there's just, there's just a lot on my plate, you know, and to hear somebody, like just entering adolescence, utter that kind of self-compassion just makes my heart explode.
Speaker 1:Because I think again, if we can, if we can just take the self-compassion piece from all of this, right, and if that becomes the thing we practice, if that becomes the thing we teach, if that becomes the message that is planted from our interactions with other people again, so far reaching right. But to build your life from that space, from the space of self-awareness, emotional regulation and compassion for yourself. I can't even wait to see what she makes with that, what she creates with those skills in her unique just like the beautiful, unique person that she is, how those things allow who she is to flourish even more. Things allow who she is to flourish even more. And I think in the world that we live in right now, what we need is for the individual gifts of everyone to flourish even more.
Speaker 2:I love that so much. And I see the opposite, where I see some of my daughter's peers, you know, straight honors classes, staying up till two or three every day. You know they're just so fixated on the mark, you know their scores it just breaks my heart, you know I'm thinking. I just can't help but think that. You know they're not getting those opportunities to notice how they're feeling or how their self-care, because all they can think about is the grades. I don't know where it's coming from. If it's just the children, the parents, I don't know where. But in my world I can't understand it, you know. And again, I need to have compassion, for everyone lives, different lives, and that's just because that's not for me, it doesn't mean it's not for someone else. But I do worry about some of these children who are. You know, is that really going to get you where you want to go? Right, this seems to be set up for an emotional or social breakdown. Right, if you have no friends and and you don't understand what's going to work for you, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so so many of the kids that I work with are really high achievers and we work on a lot of what you just described, right, Like how can, how can the both of these things be true, how can you be like crushing it at school or in your performances or in your sport and taking good care of yourself? And again, I think, yoga and mindfulness right, it's the and and that's where a lot of times we think it's gotta be either or right.
Speaker 1:But there's a world where we have really high achieving kids who take great care of themselves.
Speaker 2:Yes, 100%, 100%. I love that so good.
Speaker 1:Well, this I could go on. This has been such a lovely conversation as Giselle and I were talking before I said. I think I'm at a point where I'm just wanting to kind of circle back to really great conversations more often instead of doing as many new ones. So hopefully we can reconnect again soon and have another great conversation. But I really appreciated what you've shared today and then just again your work and presence in the world and all the ways that that has a ripple effect. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you, Lindsay. Same same same. Thank you, I'm so glad we connected.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Before we go, just remind folks, like where they can get the cards, the books we've mentioned. You know, all the different things that you've talked about today how they can connect with you.
Speaker 2:Okay, great. So thanks for asking. So we're at kidsyogastoriescom. We're on Instagram, you know kidsyogastories and Pinterest on. I'm on LinkedIn, giselle Shardlow as well, facebook, all that, but watch out for our cards. We've got them on Amazon or in our shop. So we've got breathing cards and mindfulness cards, yoga pose cards. Those have been really the most helpful. If someone just wants what's a one thing and how do I get started? We also have a membership, so come join us. We've got a whole crew of people who are receiving digital content every month and we have a portal and we have monthly live events and it's a beautiful community as well as our sort of. Our signature program is our school yoga program. So if you're someone looking for, you know, as a parent or as an educator, thinking how do I make, how do I customize my own yoga program for my community, come join us. There it's been. It's been an absolute incredible program. The things people are doing around the world is amazing. So yeah, that's us.
Speaker 2:Come check us out and email me if you have any questions.
Speaker 1:I love it. Yeah, definitely, I'm always an advocate too, for if you, if you're a new listener, whenever you hear about something like this, if you feel like it would serve your school. I have a blog that I wrote a little bit ago and I'll I'll link for this podcast as well. But, like having the conversation with your administrator, you know, just starting the conversation, if this isn't something that is in your child's school like Giselle has so many things for at home, but also that school component is massive, right, because our kids are at school for so much of the day. So, if your child's school doesn't have a strong SEL program or you're not even sure what it is, being able to advocate for your child and your family with your administrators present ideas like this to them, you know, say I just listened to this podcast. You know, have a listen.
Speaker 1:One of the things that we can do as parents, right, is just like create that small change in the school settings and maybe they don't adopt all of it. Maybe they get breathing cards for the classrooms, right, like, maybe maybe they're not ready to take the whole program and implement, but maybe they're like, yeah, we definitely need to carry the kids yoga stories in our library. So, like again, the small, small actions lead to significant impact. So just noting, like, if you just heard that and we're like man, I wish my kids school had that, like, let's, let's work on that, let's get it in your kids school. Like you know, whatever we can do, let's, let's try to make that happen.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Lindsay. It's very kind of you.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you again. It's a sheer joy. I really appreciate your time and we'll chat again soon. Thanks, Lindsay. Thanks for listening to the Stress Nanny. If you found today's episode helpful, be sure to share it with a friend who could use a little extra calm in their week, and if you have a minute, I'd love for you to leave a review. It helps other parents find the show and join us on this journey. For more tools and support, head over to wwwthestressnannycom. Remember you don't have to do stress alone. Together, we can raise kids who know how to navigate life with confidence and ease. Until next time, take a deep breath and give yourself some grace. Thank you.