Building Children’s Resilience eBook
In our ever-changing, uncertain world it is important to understand what resilience is and how to build that in our children. Building Children’s Resilience is a ‘pocket guide’ to helping you develop your child’s capacity for building coping and enabling abilities, as well as help-seeking strategies and tangible life skills to help them navigate the world ahead. It outlines 10 key building blocks for children birth-12.
Taking the High Road eBook
This book is an essential guide for 12-25-year-olds to help them access the part of themselves that knows what’s right for us each as individuals. The book covers a range of topics including finding your spark, reading your personality map, breaking the circuit on negative self-talk, sleeping better, being a good friend, and thriving when things get really tough. The book also includes a link to the Relax and Escape audio relaxation track.
A Dog’s Life Wisdom
In the chaos of everyday life, it is easy to forget the simple things that can help us to breathe more easily, love more enthusiastically and live more joyfully. A Dog’s Life Wisdoms is a humorous, insightful and poignant look at living a meaningful life through the eyes of a very wise dog. It contains 21 succinct wisdoms that remind us how to be in the world, how to laugh and how to land on all fours when life tries to knock you flat.
Free audio tracks…
I also have four free audio tracks that will be useful for anyone in your household…
Sleepytime & Safe ‘N Sound
These 2 free audio tracks may be useful to parents who are facing a sleepless night with their children, and in situations where children are particularly distressed, or in the wake of a disaster or crisis. In each, I use the image of a giant protector to help children create their own sense of safety. Music copyright Robert J Boyd.
Flight Fantasy
In Flight Fantasy I use breath, colour, music and the imagery of a bird in flight to take anyone over the age of 8 on a relaxing, contemplative journey. This track takes you to a place of quietness where you can connect with your fullest human potential and the way in which you are called to express that. It’s been very helpful for adolescents who are indecisive about their future or for people in transition like after a loss of job or a redundancy, which is why I am offering it right now as our world is in such flux.
Moonlight Relaxation for Mums
This audio relaxation was created several years ago as a gift for mums and mother figures to celebrate Mother’s Day. In it we use deep breathing to release tension, stress, anxiety and frustration, and to calm the inner war that exists within many of our minds. In a way, giving yourself this time to relax is a way of nurturing and honouring yourself – giving yourself a gift instead of the ‘burnt chop’ we mums often end up with!
Additional resources
I would encourage all parents to read my articles Coping With Corona Chaos, Gentle steps to Recovery , Why Boys can Find Isolation Particularly Difficult, Helping Kids to Cope with Lockdown 2nd Time Around, A New Normal: Back to School After Isolation… and please check out my regularly updated Top tips and links for families in isolation. I also wrote for ABC Life about Parenting an Only Child Through the Pandemic and How to Help Stop Your Kids Fighting During Periods of High Stress.
Several episodes of the podcast I host for the ABC, Parental As Anything were devoted to parenting in this pandemic too. Check out the episodes we did on how to talk to kids about coronavirus, working from home, supporting kids to learn from home, going it alone in lockdown (whether a single parent or parenting an only child) and reducing conflict in your home during these trying times. I spoke with some wonderful people for these episodes including Dr Kristy Goodwin, Dr Prue Salter, Michelle Mitchell and Dr Justin Coulson. I also made this video with the ABC on Talking to Kids About Coronavirus which may be helpful to revisit as we deal with these new variants.
If you look at nothing else, please check out my suite of “Maggie Soother” videos, which offer simple exercises, tips and strategies for kids and adults to ease the anxiety and stress that families may be experiencing during these uncertain times.
Maggie's Soothers
Resources for coping with death, loss or trauma
All unexpected change causes stress. When this change is significant, and lasts more than a week, it becomes distress and involves a sense of loss. Distress impacts deeply on several levels and children are particularly vulnerable to its damaging effects. Death, social dislocation, prolonged absence of loved ones and unexpected change that lasts causes stress to children and adolescents. For my full range of resources on death and loss, please click here. Otherwise, below are some key resources which we hope will help support you and your family at this time.
Articles
I would encourage you to take a look at my articles below but also for parents and school staff who are worried about the risk of suicide in their communities please read this excellent post from the CEO of Enlighten Education, Dannielle Miller. It is full of practical advice and links to further resources for help and support.
Article
Death through the Eyes of a Child
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge That myth is more potent than history. ...
Apr
Article
When children lose someone they love
In my life before becoming an author I worked around death and dying a lot. ...
Oct
Article
Helping boys understand loss and death
Even as adults we find significant loss experiences of any kind hurt. So we can ...
Jun
Article
Supporting your teen through grief
When I was running seminars for teens, I noticed one afternoon working with some 14- ...
Dec
Video blogs
I have several video blogs for families on the subject of loss and death, including: