September 11, 2025 • 55 mins
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to the Stress Nanny, the podcast where we
take the overwhelm out ofparenting and help kids and
parents build calm, confidenceand connection.
I'm your host, Lindsay Miller,kids mindfulness coach and
cheerleader for busy familieseverywhere.
Each week, we'll explore simpletools, uplifting stories and
practical strategies to helpyour child learn emotional
(00:41):
regulation, resilience andself-confidence, while giving
you a little more peace of mindtoo.
I'm so glad you're here.
My guest today is GiselleShardlow.
She's the founder of Kids YogaStories.
Kids Yoga Stories was founded in2012 by Giselle, who's a
classroom teacher and trainedyoga instructor.
Through her travels andteaching grades K through five
(01:02):
in Guatemala, australia, canadaand the United States, giselle
witnessed the need through fivein Guatemala, australia, canada
and the United States.
Giselle witnessed the need toaddress childhood literacy,
obesity and stress.
She blended her passions ofyoga, mindfulness and education
to create books, card decks,courses and educational
resources to bring the benefitsof yoga to children everywhere.
The pandemic and the rise inmental health issues in children
(01:25):
, as well as teacher burnout,has made the kids yoga stories
mission even more critical andtimely.
They continue to grow andexpand, providing weekly
resources that are free andhundreds of yoga products
available for purchase on theirsite.
I'm so excited to share myconversation with Giselle.
It felt like talking to an oldfriend, giselle, thank you so
much for joining me today.
I'm so excited about thisconversation.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
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 feltlike I'd known you forever.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I know, and even just as we're chatting beforehand,
we're like old friends justchatting about what's going on.
So I really appreciate yeah, Iappreciate you coming on the
show because it's going to beinsightful for me and everyone
listening.
So thank you.
Thank you, Thank you.
Okay, In case people aren'tfamiliar with your work, let's
just get started with a bit ofan intro.
I know we we had shared thepodcast you and I recorded on
(02:18):
your show.
But if people aren't familiarwith your work, help us.
Help us get a glimpse of, likehow you got into it and what
you're up to these days.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, great, Okay so I think of it sort of like two
areas of my life, right?
So yoga has always been athread.
You know, I started I practicedwhen I was little.
My mom told us when we werereally little.
I grew up in the middle ofCanada on a farm.
My parents were British and sheused to play yoga on the
television, so that's reallywhere it began.
And then in my 20s I, you know,did practice yoga at the
(02:51):
university.
And then I, every time I camehome 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 teachertraining yoga teacher training
with my husband.
We were newlywedseds and wejumped right into that, and so
it's always been this threadwith me.
And then, parallel, I've alwaysworked with children.
So I grew up a figure skater,taught figure skater, worked in
(03:13):
day camps, became aninternational school teacher,
and now here I am with Kids,yoga Stories, writing stories
and helping grownups teach yogato children.
So those have kind of been thethreads we're.
We put everything together interms of we're just we're on
this mission, lindsay, just likeyou are right, is that now more
(03:34):
than ever, even though.
We've been doing this work for13 years, but now more than ever
you know to transform schoolcommunities 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 inyour toolkit is no longer a nice
(03:54):
to have, it's a must have.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, 100%.
Well, and I love just the thehistory of your experience,
because I think that that, liketethering all those different
perspectives, like fromdifferent countries, you know,
in different like timelines, andbeing able to weave the, the
universality of yoga through allof those things and then share
(04:17):
those bits of it that you knowfor you were consistent
everywhere, you went right, likethose were the supportive bits,
those were the things thatreally made an impact, and so I
think you're teaching around itand the stories really
illustrate those concepts andthose principles that are, like
you said, universally essential,especially right now for adults
(04:39):
, for kids, for all of us as wenavigate modern living.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, that's actually a good point.
I hadn't thought about that,because when I first took yoga
teacher training, I firststarted writing yoga stories.
For me, at that point, what Icould see in the classrooms that
I was working in was obesity orstress, or English as a second
language, or global education,environmental education.
So those are the things thatwere on my heart and those are
(05:06):
the books that were on my heart,and those are the books that I
wrote about is teaching children.
You know, let's go on anadventure to Costa Rica, or
let's go, you know, on amountain, or so we learned
habitats and things and actingthings out so that it was light
and fun back in the day, right,and now, that's the cool thing
about this ancient wisdom, asyou know, right, that you know
this is 5000 years old.
(05:26):
This is not a trend, this isnot an overnight right, but this
is something that has a threadthrough every aspects of your
life and you get to pick andchoose what works for you.
So, right now, emotionalregulation is, you know, and
stress and you know, being withpeople and social interaction.
Those are the most importantthings.
So those are the concepts wecan pull from this ancient
(05:49):
wisdom, whereas before it wasmore.
Like you know, let's getchildren to move and have body
awareness and travel the worldand learn about things you know,
so I hadn't thought about thatway.
It's very adaptive to what weare addressing in this moment.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, I love the way you put that, because I think
one of the things that's soappealing to me about teaching
kids mindfulness is theuniversality of the tools.
You know that, like you justsaid, they have application in a
wide range of circumstances andbeing able to kind of pick and
choose what helps when theempowerment of that is also
supportive, right, like beingable to kind of pick and choose
what helps when the empowermentof that is also supportive,
(06:28):
right.
Like being able to approach asituation knowing, if you have
the tools of yoga, if you havethe tools of mindfulness, like
that are kind of written withinyou, then you have a level of
resilience for anything thatcomes your way Right, and it's a
matter of just activating thewisdom that you hold as a result
(06:48):
of those practices.
And so it does feel, yeah,really versatile and really
relevant, just because you, youknow, with a little bit of
support, can be translated intoso many different scenarios,
such that the individualexperiencing, you know, a myriad
of conditions or circumstancescan find that inner resilience.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, I love that so much.
Yeah, that's so true, and itchanges.
Right, it can meet everyonewhere they're at, whether you're
in a classroom, at home or in aclinic with a pediatric
therapist.
Wherever you are, it meets youwhere you're at, both with the
grownup and the child.
So the resilience piece isreally that's really interesting
(07:32):
concept of how do we help thesechildren bounce back.
I mean, gosh, they've beenthrough more Lindsay in these
years than we have in our entirelives.
Right, it's going to only getfaster and more complex and more
artificial.
You know there's a lot comingahead of us.
And how do we help thesechildren navigate this new world
(07:54):
?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, for sure.
You and I were just talkingbefore I got started about how
this podcast has been.
You know it was launched almostsix years ago and the number of
different topics or socialsituations or you know, just
looking back on my episodesummaries and list of episodes,
it's really interesting to me tosee, you know, because it was
(08:16):
right before COVID started.
So I've got episodes aboutCOVID and making it through
COVID.
You know we've got episodes onso many different like social
situations that have occurredover the last six years, and
then also just the generalskillset right, that we're
seeing as, like you said, anessential skillset.
You know that's emerging assomething kids can't do without
(08:38):
these SEL tools and I think,yeah, the dynamic nature of life
is not going to change anytimesoon and, if anything, the speed
will will increase, and sohaving tools at your disposal
that are timeless and haveserved for for such a long time
really does make sense, to me atleast.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, and I think too , speaking of that right, that
what a blessing that we foundthis really easy tool that can
be added in in such a quick wayand have such powerful impacts,
and now we have the science toback that up, right.
So it's not about adding moreto your plate or taking a lot of
time or buying a bunch ofthings, right, but also it
affects the child and thegrownup, and the grownup.
(09:28):
I mean like you as amindfulness coach, right, going
through those lessons with yourstudents.
How cool is that.
You get to experience ityourself.
You get to teach the familiesthat you work with right, and no
doubt that's, you know,filtering through to their
classrooms and it fits the wholecommunity.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, I totally agree , and that's what you know.
When I, when I talk to newfamilies and we'll talk through
what to expect One of the thingsthat I hear back consistently
is like I came to you for helpwith this one child, but what
I'm learning as a result ishelping my whole family, or my
whole circle of influence, right?
Or you know, classroom one ofthe moms that I worked with her
(10:07):
son and she was second gradeteacher and she's like, oh my
gosh, the thing we did last week.
I just took it to school and mykids loved it.
I've got to show you what wedid.
Here's the bulletin board of it, you know, and it is like once
you kind of just can wrap yourbrain around the shift in
thinking that is like thatinternal locus of control and
like what can, what can I do inthis circumstance?
(10:28):
And being really present withthat, tuning into your body,
right, your intuition, andfiguring out how to move forward
.
The sky's the limit as to whereit applies, right, Like who can
benefit from it.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Right, exactly, and I think one of the things you
know I'm sure you've spokenabout is you know we could speak
all day about what's notworking right now.
Right, and so you can kind ofgo down that rabbit hole of all
the things.
But you know, I'm reallycurious I'm shifting now into
this what is working?
What are the success stories?
Right, because we all had toexperience the empathy for each
(11:01):
other and really understandparents and schools and all
what's happening and children.
But now you know to your pointabout what's working.
You know, in our community wework closely with practitioners
and pediatric therapists,educators, families.
You know the whole range, andwhat we're hearing is the
practices that are mosttransformational are those that
(11:24):
that go across the classroom, goacross the, the sessions, the
pediatric therapy sessions, goacross the families, go across
the children, is with the adults, with the children, with
everything.
So it becomes embedded in acommunity.
That's where the transformationhappens.
We can't, you know, looking atwhat we can control and what we
(11:44):
can't control.
You know we can't control thegovernment choices, the
educational standards, the youknow systematic issues that are
happening, even the you knowadministration potentially, if
they're not on board.
But what can we control right.
We can control our ownregulation.
(12:04):
We can work with our child,although I do have one of those
children that is a littleresistant to yoga, mindfulness
we can talk about that at somepoint, but you know, I mean you
can't.
What you can control isyourself, and even by practicing
yourself in whatever way worksfor you, all of that has ripple
effects.
And then you can speak to othermoms or you share it with your
(12:26):
educators and how cool is that?
One of your moms, of yourstudent, is now as a second
grade teacher and that's had aripple effect.
So you working one-to-one hasnow affected all the children in
that classroom who may go homeand tell their families.
It know it's, it's amazing.
I think that's the key isstarting small but having a
(12:47):
larger impact.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's so beautifully put and I think
when we teach kids and we'll getinto specific tools here in
just a minute but I think as welay this foundation for why this
is important and howsignificant the impact is, it's
like when we teach kids thesetools, they build the whole rest
of their lives right On thisfoundation of resilience and the
(13:13):
kind of individuals that aregoing to affect change in the
future, the kind of individualswho will be able to problem
solve, work through big emotionsto, you know, tackle big
problems, those are going to bepeople who have a certain level
of resilience, right, and thatlevel of emotional regulation,
emotional intelligence, to beable to communicate through big
(13:34):
feelings, to be able to talkabout you know, how to approach
a situation, with discernment,with mindfulness, right, like
being fully present with whatthe reality of the situation is.
And so I'm constantly just like,so enthusiastic about the types
of lives that can be built,like weaving these tools in from
(13:55):
such a young age.
You know, just building withthis foundation feels like
there's such incredible abilityto access one's potential.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah exactly, and I think you know, going back to
this idea of being artificial, Iwas listening to YouTube the
other day with the president ofCASEL, dr Leah, and Dr Mark
Brackett, who's the professorout of Yale right and he's
author of Permission to Feel andthe Ruler Approach, and they
were talking about how theimportance of the social,
(14:26):
emotional and cognitive it'sthose three pieces that are
really the most important thing.
It was a fascinating, afascinating look, and we can,
you know, thinking aboutresilience in terms of, you know
, the research around, you knowthe parents want it, the
educators want it, the workforce, the students who are showing
(14:48):
up at Yale, for example.
Those are the ones that havethe social, emotional component
as well as cognitive.
It's not just about gettinggood grades, it's can you
interact?
Can you, you know, manage yourbig emotions?
And then, in terms of workforce, right, and so they were
talking about AI and looking atyou know who's in charge of
(15:09):
creating this artificialintelligence and how regulated
are these folks?
And how do we prepare ourchildren for this world of
artificial intelligence?
How do we help them navigateand make good choices in the
face of who knows what's goingto be thrown at them?
Right, and it's not going away,it's something that we have to
(15:30):
face, and so, being thesemindfulness tools that you're
teaching also is having them beable to discern whether, like
you said, discerning, discern isthis for real.
You know, I was watching avideo the other day about
something entirely different andI thought I don't actually know
if this person is real or not.
Like it's a level of distrustthat we all have, and this is
(15:52):
the thing that we have to teachour 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 practicesof resilience, as you say.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's such an interesting point and I
love the idea of like growing ageneration of kids who could
train like a compassionate AI,you know like an informed AI and
emotionally intelligent AI.
I listened to the Mo Newspodcast a lot and they've been
talking recently about just theincreased need for people who
are training the models.
(16:26):
You know, training the.
AI models and how.
Like, yeah, the need forindividuals who can have an
impact on the way so many peoplewill see the world, you know, a
need for individuals who arewell-rounded and have the skills
that they need to to createmodels that are going to lead
humanity forward in a hopefully,holistic and supported way.
(16:51):
You know we can't underratethat, right?
So I love that, I love that youwere hearing that too.
Yes, 100% Well, and I think Imean I think too, like you just
brought up and we can maybestart here with the tools the
uncertainty right now.
You know, like the incredibleamount of uncertainty in so many
(17:11):
facets of life, right, and Ilove back to Mark Brackett, his
definition of uncertaintyanxiety being uncertainty about
the future.
So he, you know, he's likeanxiety is when you were
uncertain about the future, andso I think, you know, taken
globally, if we look around usright now, it's no wonder that
we have so many kids grapplingwith massive feelings of anxiety
(17:33):
, and adults for that matter.
Right, but that uncertaintyabout the future, it can feel
like a lot to manage.
So, in the families that you'reworking with and you know, as
you're sharing the stories, whatare some of the ways you see
parents use yoga and mindfulnessto help kids manage the
(17:55):
everyday stresses or bigemotions like anxiety.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
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 wasnot aware of the anxiety that I
had inside of me.
Then I, you know, spoke to mymom about it.
(18:19):
Apparently there is a thread.
They were born in England, as Imentioned, so you know that
came through there, but it'sreally exacerbated over the last
five, six years, right, andhaving my child as well as COVID
.
But just acknowledging it, right, and so it's a label and I see
myself saying I'm anxious, orpeople say to you, are you
feeling nervous, or whatever, Istart to worry about the future.
(18:41):
Or you know, get prepared withthings, or whatever.
And so I think, justacknowledging, like what?
What?
Speaking of Mark Brackett,bracket, you know, recognizing
our own emotions.
But I think it's also about howdo we change the script on that
, because we hear it so much andI feel like it's been so
overused also since covid abouthow do we just lean into gosh,
(19:04):
I'm a caring, loving person andI love people and I'm also
prepared for the future.
Is that such a bad thing Really,you know I'm just making this
up, but like what if we justshift like change the channel,
changed how we looked at thingsand changed our lens.
So I think that's one thing inmodeling with my daughter.
She was diagnosed with anxietyand depression, all the things,
(19:26):
but you know how do I help hersee that it's not necessarily a
bad thing either.
You know, I've had a great life.
I traveled the world and howcould I have traveled the world
as a backpacker and livedoverseas in so many places if I
was so anxious?
It didn't paralyze me, you know.
I think that those of us in thissort of age where we have, you
(19:47):
know, our perimenopause years,some of us are naturally like my
constitution.
If you look at the doshas inAyurveda yoga, sister science,
I'm a strong vata.
It's one of the threeconstitutions and vata is very
airy.
I'm very creative, I'm veryairy and that creates the
anxiety piece, right.
(20:08):
But if I am aware of that, sowe've got this trifecta right
now for a lot of us myconstitution has anxiety, the
time of my life where women aremoving into a very Vata style
life and also the world has anentire Vata vibration.
Right now it's ADHD and there'sfast moving and all the things
(20:29):
right, and so acknowledging thatand thinking okay, so what are
some counter practices that Ican use myself?
And then that will have rippleeffects because we see the
children are anxious.
But, Lindsay, I'm curious abouthow many of us, as educators
and parents, are anxious and howmuch of it is our stuff and how
(20:50):
much is their stuff?
You know what I mean.
And so practices that haveworked, and it's not a one size
fits all, so everyone has tofind 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 beensleeping well, so that's one
thing.
I've been having really hotbaths, so for my constitution
(21:11):
that works really well.
You know, I have my consistentwith anxiety.
Right, it's a consistency.
I have my consistent exerciseroutine, my yoga routine,
sitting silently in the morning,taking deep breaths during the
day.
You know.
So, even before us chatting, Iknew I had to take a moment to
take a pause and just take adeep breath.
(21:31):
You know there's all kinds ofthese little practices that
build on themselves, so it's notlike one class once a week, but
is it?
How do we make it more of alifestyle?
That is part of our life, Right.
So I think that's that's thething is, about acknowledging
and looking at, getting curiousabout huh, okay, what am I
(21:55):
worried about, Right?
And then, what are somepractices that I could add in
that would make a difference sothat I can I can have the
anxiety, stay here and not beover there with the children?
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, yeah, no, I love the way you explained it.
It makes me think of DanSiegel's River of Integration.
Are you familiar with that?
How he's got on one side of theriver is like chaos and on one
side is rigidity, and the thingyou have to figure out is how to
find flow right and like, ifthings feel if you've like, when
(22:33):
I feel anxious, I feel chaoticright Like it just feels like
kind of a lot and I and thensometimes, when I'm trying to
manage that I might swing to theother side of the river and
just get super, super structuredright and find, like I must do
things exactly this way in orderto feel okay, right.
And instead the invitation, youknow, which I've, as I age,
(22:57):
have increasingly taken withmore and more grace, but still
sometimes fight is to blend thatthe chaos and the and the
rigidity in a way that allowsfor flow right, like so that you
can down the river.
And so I love what you justdescribed, because I think you
know, if we get stuck in the bigemotion and we're kind of
fighting it and we're notwilling to say like I'm feeling
anxious right now or I'm feelingreally sad right now, I'm
(23:19):
feeling really concerned rightnow, if we fight the big
feelings, we can't work withthem, right?
It's just like all of ourenergy is getting stored up.
One of my favoritepsychologists calls it like a
beach ball emotion, and justlike beach ball underwater,
right.
Yes, if we're using all of ourenergy to do that, we're not at
(23:39):
liberty to be incorporating,like you said, those simple
practices or figuring out how wecan work with our tendencies.
And I think, more than like alabel, I love to call it a
tendency, like I tend toward youknow my brain tends toward this
, you know, and if we can lookat ourselves with a bit more
(24:01):
grace, I think that thosemoments of acknowledgement are a
little softer right, because wecan find the gentleness in it,
and it doesn't have to be apermanent.
I will always feel this way.
There's nothing I can do aboutit.
Acknowledgement it's more of a.
This is something that isconsistent for me, so the
invitation is for me to figureout how to work with it Right.
(24:23):
So like bringing the chaos andthe rigidity into the middle,
where you can move with someflow, using those tools, finding
the practices that are like goto for you, in order to not get
stuck over there on the side ofthe river in the emotion,
watching life go by, but insteadbeing able to like engage with
our tendencies in a way thatgives us movement in the
(24:45):
direction we want to go.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
I love the grace and I want to say some sprinkle of
humor, you know, like let's.
I mean, how funny are we ashumans?
Right, and I've learned thisfrom Judith Lassiter Hansen,
who's the co founder of YogaJournal back in the day, right,
she's amazing wrote a book, nonviolent communication.
But, hand on heart, say howhuman of me.
(25:08):
Oh my gosh, lindsay over thelast few years has been
challenging you know it's, it'schanged my life really.
That's been the thing.
But also I think that, coupledand there's something about hand
on heart too, there's somescience behind the feeling of it
on your, on your chest.
But also I've been latelythinking like, zooming out a bit
and going, oh gosh, we're funny, like is there something
(25:31):
ruminating about that, you know,or yeah, like.
I've got it.
I don't like flying, it doesn'tmake me feel well, and we fly
to Australia every other year.
Right now it's gonna be everyyear, you know, and it's like a
25 hour flight right with mydaughter who's?
You know, she's 13.
Now, but it has been achallenge, right.
I'm just going to say that, butyou know I'll worry about that
(25:53):
for 10 months before the flight.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
As soon as you get home start worrying about that,
exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
And then you think, oh my gosh, wow brain, like you
have to have kind of a, have alaugh about it.
That's ridiculous, as if I'm ohmy goodness, poor me.
I get to go to Australia, youknow, every other year, every
year, like, oh my goodness youknow, to see family.
So, yeah, I think there's a,there's a bit of lightness.
(26:21):
I think that that has to happento we've.
It's been so intense the lastfew years.
You know, all of us have beenon our own individual journey,
so the intensity will change,depends on your, you know,
whether with your children oryour elderly parents, or you've
got a sick dog.
You were mentioning this, a lotof stuff.
But also, I think, globally,we've all been very intense.
(26:43):
But I think this kind of periodof like let's lighten up a
little bit, like where's where'sthe humor, where's the fun?
How do we bring that back and Iknow that's a simplistic way,
you know that's not going towork for everyone at all moments
, you know.
I think you do have to dropinto your life and stuff that's
happening, but also a littlesprinkle of fun.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah, no, I totally agree.
And that that resonates with meBecause, I mean, even last
night we had been having aconversation.
My daughter, like you know, asshe's getting older, her
involvement in differentactivities is is shifting, as
well as some of the potential orthe opportunities associated
(27:27):
with those activities.
Right, and so the stakes, youknow, as they get older, the
stakes on some things get alittle higher, right, and in
some of the environments she'sin, she's feeling that pressure
and trying to navigate it withas 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 aboutit with perspective, we were
(27:48):
specifically talking about SethGodin's concept of the dip where
it's like yes, you have likeit's like you're oblivious to
kind of how.
You have like oblivious optimismabout something and then you
have like pessimistic realismabout it and there's this like
cavernous dip that happens andthen at the bottom is like the
valley of despair, and then youfind your way you find your way
(28:10):
to like informed optimism andthen success, and how a lot of
times we're navigating somethingthat's challenging.
We might be in that dip rightwhen we were like all
happy-go-lucky about it before,and then we hit the dip and
we're like, well, this is harderthan I thought it was going to
be and we've got to kind of workthrough it in order to get out.
So, anyway, we've been havingthese conversations.
(28:31):
She's got a lot going on.
It had been a long day, acouple of different practices.
She was at.
We get to the end of the night.
We're like everybody's kind ofsettling down and getting ready
to go to bed and all of a suddenI see all these ants crawling
from her backpack.
Oh, my goodness.
And I was like what is going on?
No-transcript.
(29:19):
I was like, yeah, yeah, this isthe dip.
It's when you think you can'tgo any further.
You know like all you've done,all you can do, and all of a a
sudden, like you just find theanswer.
So we're just like laughing onthe front porch, shaking out
clothes, you know, at 11 atnight.
But it was one of those momentswhere and I think presence is
(29:40):
key to it and that's why I bringit up?
Because in that experience,like if I had been so wrapped up
in the frustration, I wasfeeling my exhaustion.
You know, I was attuned to herfeelings and if those had been
the only thing in my awarenessit would have felt heavier Right
.
But, like mindfulness allowed meto notice what I was feeling in
(30:02):
my body, right, like in yogaalso.
Right, like I'm feeling tired,I'm feeling the weight of the
day, I'm noticing thatfrustration come up.
I'm noticing, you know, likeher, her exhaustion and like
she's got a stretch right, likewe've got to figure this out
before we can all settle for thenight.
And then I'm noticing the irony, and that's where the humor can
(30:23):
come in, right, yes, I lovethat we can be present with all
of those things all at once.
We get to choose which one arewe going to give our attention
to.
And we were all frustrated andso we ended up at one point like
we're like shaking the clothesreally hard, like to just move
through that frustration right,as we're also like laughing
about how ironic it is that youknow, of all the things we find,
(30:45):
like this little colony of antsin the backpack at you know
late at night.
But I think that your pointabout humor is so well taken.
But I think it's like integralto that is that idea of presence
.
Would you agree?
Speaker 2 (31:00):
A hundred percent.
I love that story.
That's so great Cause it reallycould have gone such a
different way.
It really could have gone and Ithink that that's what it seems
to be.
And I, you know I'm likeeveryone else, none of us are
perfect.
Just because you and I practiceyoga, mindfulness, not to say
we're perfect.
And some nights, maybe on adifferent circumstance, you
might not have been able toaccess your mindfulness practice
(31:21):
and it might've gone adifferent way.
But you know, as you, as you say, we, we there's things we can
control and things we can't, andsometimes we have the capacity
in which to to see it for whatit is, and sometimes we get lost
.
And then later on, you know, wehave to clean ourselves up or
we clean up relationships thatwe might have said things that
we didn't mean.
But it's not about beingperfect, right, it's about
(31:43):
connection, connection withourselves, with the people
around us.
And, you know, maybe the theants were, if you kind of kind
of look at it, a different waywith this whole idea of changing
the channel, of wow, the antsgave you an opportunity as a
family to get together to, youknow, against all odds create
(32:05):
all the wagons at the end of thenight.
Exactly.
You know, and I think that'sthat's the blessing that this
work can offer us all isespecially during this time.
I mean, that's a perfectexample of you know, it's all
how we view things.
You know, it's a hot mess rightnow, or wow.
(32:26):
This is an opportunity for ourplanet to heal, and potentially
a different way than we everthought possible.
As you say, maybe we are in thedip, or maybe there's more dip
to come, who knows?
But why not try and see thegood as much as we possibly can
in our students, in our children, in our partners, right In our
(32:50):
school communities?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
yeah, I think too.
I mean, I love the way youphrased 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 whenit's there and when it's not
there, taking the, theexperience that you're having
(33:14):
and the moment that's at yourdisposal, or you're like the
moment that you're gifted withand being able to, like imbue it
with whatever small amount ofof goodness you can, right.
And I think the same aboutthese tools, and I maybe we talk
a little bit about some of thechanges you've seen as families
have implemented these tools.
(33:35):
But like, if, when, when we seethese, these principles, kind
of planted in different spacesand allowed to, to be nourished
and then flourish, like the waythat they impact small
situations just like on my frontporch right, with like a bunch
of ants and some sweaty sportsclothes the way that they can
(34:00):
manifest in those moments, itreally is high impact, right.
And I think, as we take thesesmall steps, like, we take the
deep breath, we sit in whateverbig emotion we're feeling, we
allow conversations to happen,trusting that we're competent
and capable to show up, however,we need to.
(34:22):
You know, for the moment that'sat hand, like when we do those
simple things, we end up withlike opportunities that we
wouldn't otherwise have.
So what are some of the thingsyou've seen as families have
really like?
Let these principles take holdand grow in their own family and
friends.
What, what changes have youseen happen?
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Oh, how long have you got?
I'll just think of a few thatpopped to mind.
So just just the other day, acouple days ago, we my daughter
and I'll start with my own storyso 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, justabout to get into the car and
she's standing behind the carand you know, she was inside the
(35:07):
garage.
So she said, mom, come, listento the rain.
And in that moment I could havebeen easily hurry up, we gotta
go.
Or saying something aboutmindfulness, because that's
mindfulness, but it's reallyabout.
So I went and stood next to herand I had a hand on my heart
because I was just in myself,screaming in my in myself,
(35:29):
screaming with excitement, like,oh, my gosh, this is a mindful
you know mindful moment of like.
I've been dreaming of thisright and it, you know it's
raining and the sound of thebirds and you know what the
sounds and the smells and youknow all of that.
But I just stood with her andthose moments are precious,
right, and that will stay withme forever.
(35:50):
So it's something that we'reprobably already doing anyway,
but it's just bringing thatintention.
So in my mind I was bothscreaming with excitement to
myself but also thinking what aprecious moment, probably a
moment I will always rememberwith her right that we never
know the seed that we'replanting with our children by
(36:10):
practicing ourself.
You know, because forever I'malways saying, oh, the weather
is so you know, british family,I don't know talking about the
weather, but, yeah, you knowwhat a beautiful day.
Or you know, oh, isn't thatgorgeous.
Or being outside and thosekinds of things.
So I think that it's justappreciating those moments.
So the impact of you know ithas worked.
(36:33):
It has worked to plant theselittle seeds for my daughter.
And then I think about anotherstory that pops in my mind.
I used to read my yoga storieswhen my daughter was in
preschool and a dad came up tome and said, oh, you're the mom
who reads yoga stories.
And he said, oh, my son, wewere out on the weekend and he
(36:54):
was.
There was this grassy patch andhe 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 theway, that's what he took away
from it.
And he said he was.
He was sitting there breathing.
This was like a five year oldright.
And so those moments of youknow, children surprise grownups
all the time right.
And so just being who you be, asyou say, being the good, that's
(37:18):
what's so captivating forchildren.
You don't even know whatthey're picking up.
Or you know, another parentemailed 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
(37:38):
argument with this, this boy,and instead of punching him, I
practiced you know in my mindand did some poses.
And and I didn't you know, youknow in my mind, and did some
poses and I didn't you know hewas able to regulate and for her
it was life changing.
Right, because that hadn't beenthe reaction he normally would
have had.
But it's about using thesepractices, you know, naturally
(38:01):
in our lives, but alsopracticing them when the
children are calm and organizedtoo, so they can come back to
that when they need, in thesituation, that is, they're
called upon to use them.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, those are such great stories.
I I especially love thehighlight 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 lotof funny looks about it.
Right, but exactly what yousaid it's easier to integrate
and it's easier to return tocalm than it is to just like
(38:35):
find it when we're flailing.
But also just the recognitionthat small efforts have far
reaching influence.
You know, and I think asparents, so many aspects of
parenting in this modern timefeel like a lot right.
I think, especially when itcomes to mindfulness and yoga,
(38:57):
if you don't have exposure to it, don't have a background with
it, it can feel overwhelming tokind of like tune into all the
different pieces, understanddifferent words and language, or
like really kind of reorientyourself to your experience
through that lens.
But what you just described wasso beautiful because that was
simple presence right.
In those moments right and Ithink if we can take anything
(39:19):
from this conversation, thatinvitation to just that simple
special kind of noticing thathappens when you're present,
that simple special kind ofnoticing that happens when
you're present, I mean theimpact of that, if you choose to
practice that once, twice a daywith your kids, right?
I mean, like you said, from anexample perspective, massive
(39:40):
From their experience of yourrelationship.
Incredible From your ownorientation to your life and
your responsibility to raiseyour children.
Life changing, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
So true, yeah, yeah, actually, it reminds me I, for
myself, I created these five C'swhen, when things were really
tough, when my daughter wasyoung and the first one we, you
know, we talked about is beingcalm.
So it was really I noticed thatI could read, cause I'm a, I'm
a teacher, right, I thought I'lljust read a whole bunch of
books and watch a bunch ofwebinars and someone, please
(40:12):
help me with my child parent, mychild, and she did not come out
how I was expecting, right, andso I realized, whoop, you know,
none of this is working.
I need to start with myself.
So, the calm we've spoken a lotabout, you know, getting
yourself calm and organized,choosing the practices that work
for you.
Number two in my five C's wasbeing curious.
So, as we talked about beingcurious, what is yoga?
(40:35):
What is it about?
What do I want to read about?
What?
Who do I want to listen to?
You know, what are thepractices?
Am I interested in yoga classeswhere it's, you know, physical
postures, or am I interested inbreathing practices?
Or sitting silently inmeditation in the morning, or
practicing mindfulness, whatyou're doing?
So there's a whole bunch ofdifferent practices you can work
(40:57):
with.
So, getting curious.
And then what would be gettingcurious about your children,
like what's?
Like Mona Delahook and DanSiegel, they're always talking
about what's under the surface.
So, getting curious about whatis under the surface here.
And so when I could look at mydaughter okay, here's her
outside display above theiceberg, but what's underneath
(41:17):
that?
Now you know, and that's thatcuriosity comes from such a
different place versus she's notlistening 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 aboutconnect.
How do we connect withourselves and our children at a
deeper level?
Number four is being creative.
(41:37):
You know how do we make thisfun and interesting and creative
?
How do we get them on board?
You know you do such a greatjob with your mindfulness
coaching on.
I always see you with.
You know there's arts andcrafts and projects, and you
know there's no one size fitsall about all these practices.
How do you make them fun andengaging right?
And so we've done that, forexample, with our breathing
(41:59):
exercises, the cards that wehave, our breathing exercise
cards such fun ways to learn tobreathe.
You could blow through a strawor pretend that you're blowing a
flower or a hot chocolate oryou know, there's lots of
different ways you can play andbe creative with breathing
techniques, right?
And the last one is commit.
Is how do we commit to apractice?
(42:20):
Choose one because it can be so, as you say, whether that's one
breath or one meditation toolor meditation moment you're
going to do every morning, orone affirmation Right now, my
affirmation that I have I'vejust been writing out this
(42:42):
morning everything works out forme.
So in my mind, I keep over andover again everything works out
for me, everything works out formy daughter, everything works
out for us, everything's goingto work out for this world.
Everything works out.
You know, that's just anaffirmation.
I'm just going to choose thatone for a while.
I'm going to stick with it andsee what happens, right, but
just choosing one, committing tosomething.
(43:02):
So it was calm, curious,connect, creative and commit
curious connect creative andcommit.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
I love those.
Thank you for sharing that.
I think too.
I mean, I'm going to plug yourbooks here because I think that
one of the things that is sobeautiful about your approach,
in addition to, like thestep-by-step nature of
application that you just talkedabout, or the breathing
exercises cards that you have,like being able to build a story
(43:29):
around these things that youcan then refer back to.
Right and so, if your choice is,you know, like at bedtime,
where we, you know, you'rereading stories, like choosing a
yoga story, you know, choosingone of your yoga stories, and
just like building that intoyour family culture, referring
to Hannah and Hugo, right, orlike referring to whoever you
(43:50):
need to refer to in order to,like make the principle yours,
apply it.
You know, in different settingsand in my experience, those
stories have been so powerfulfor weaving that thread, like we
talked about through thebeginning, because it can be the
story at home and then it canbe like how did I apply it at
school?
How did I apply it at my soccergame?
(44:12):
How did I apply it with mybrother?
You know, like weaving itthrough all those different
situations, the story is thecommon thread, right, and so, in
my experience, the applicationof these principles is
infinitely easier with thestories.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yes, I love that so much.
There's so much you know youcan pack in whether you know,
some of our stories are moreyoga principles.
So it's about a few of them.
Are, you know, to be happyyourself, be happy for others?
That's Anna, the rainbowcolored yoga mats.
And then you know, anxiety,think the opposite.
When you have a negativethought, think the opposite.
It's another yoga principle.
But then we also have, as wetalked about, the yoga stories
(44:50):
that are more adding yogapostures through the story, so
it's more fun and light, anddiscovering different places or
habitats around the world, soadding movement to story time.
You know the children do a lotof sitting these days, right?
And so how do we get them toembody the story, as you say,
and have fun and apply theseprinciples to the rest of their
(45:14):
lives?
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Yeah, like if committing to a bit of mindful
time, a bit of yoga time a dayis your goal, having the
flexibility, like you said, therange of the stories, like
letting the child, the child,choose.
Like, are we wanting a morechill story, are you wanting
more active story?
Like one of the kiddos that Iwork with, we were talking about
self-care because she's in thethick of performances, so lots
(45:38):
of rehearsals and andperformances ongoing, and so I
was like what is your self-carelooking like in this season?
And she was like you know,sometimes I need something
that's calming me and sometimesI have a little extra energy I
need to get rid of in order tobe calm.
That's incredible.
I know, right, I'm like thethings kids come up with.
(46:00):
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'scultivating that awareness, like
what do I need tonight If Iwant to connect with myself?
Right, do I need a gentle,calming story?
Do I need a more active storyLike what will serve me?
(46:21):
Just those tiny decisions withdiscernment, you know, have
again the kind of impact thatwe're looking for in terms of
presence and self-awareness andresilience.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Right.
And if anyone says, oh, Iwonder if this work works just
listen to that story you justtold.
I mean for a child to say,sometimes I need calm and
sometimes I need energizing, Imean, 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 thechildren just blow us away.
(46:54):
They're there, you knowsomething that we did not have
as much growing up, right, and?
And they got it.
We're still trying to.
You know, train ourselves toregulate our emotions, Doesn't
it's a bit messy?
But yeah, the children, yeah, Igot this.
Yeah, I'm just up to be calmer,energized.
You know that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Well, and then I mean , I'll just I'll just mention
this real quick but one of theother things that I was super
impressed about with her is, youknow, as folks of a certain
generation, some of us are maybeless gentle with ourselves when
it comes to the emotions thatwe feel.
Right, and a hallmark ofmindfulness and yoga is that
compassionate self-awareness.
Right, it's not just thatyou're self-aware, it's that
you're fully accepting ofwhatever you're aware of, right,
(47:42):
and you moderate your reactionsand your responses.
You don't just like freewheelit, but you do give yourself so
much grace, right.
And so in the conversation withher as we're talking, she was
like and I've had a little bitof a hard time, you know like
there've been some moments whenI've maybe been a little bit
grouchy, but also I haven't beengetting a lot of sleep and I've
(48:05):
just had a lot going on and Ihaven't had a chance to be as
creative lately, and so there'sjust, there's just a lot on my
plate, you know, and to hearsomebody, like just entering
adolescence, utter that kind ofself-compassion just makes my
heart explode.
Because I think again, if we can, if we can just take the
(48:27):
self-compassion piece from allof this, right, and if that
becomes the thing we practice,if that becomes the thing we
teach, if that becomes themessage that is planted from our
interactions with other peopleagain, so far reaching right.
But to build your life fromthat space, from the space of
self-awareness, emotionalregulation and compassion for
(48:49):
yourself.
I can't even wait to see whatshe makes with that, what she
creates with those skills in herunique just like the beautiful,
unique person that she is, howthose things allow who she is to
flourish even more.
Things allow who she is toflourish even more.
And I think in the world thatwe live in right now, what we
need is for the individual giftsof everyone to flourish even
(49:14):
more.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
I love that so much.
And I see the opposite, where Isee some of my daughter's peers
, you know, straight honorsclasses, staying up till two or
three every day.
You know they're just sofixated on the mark, you know
their scores it just breaks myheart, you know I'm thinking.
I just can't help but thinkthat.
You know they're not gettingthose opportunities to notice
(49:36):
how they're feeling or how theirself-care, because all they can
think about is the grades.
I don't know where it's comingfrom.
If it's just the children, theparents, I don't know where.
But in my world I can'tunderstand it, you know.
And again, I need to havecompassion, for everyone lives,
(49:56):
different lives, and that's justbecause that's not for me, it
doesn't mean it's not forsomeone else.
But I do worry about some ofthese children who are.
You know, is that really goingto get you where you want to go?
Right, this seems to be set upfor an emotional or social
breakdown.
Right, if you have no friendsand and you don't understand
what's going to work for you,yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:19):
And so so many of the kids that I work with are
really high achievers and wework 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 likecrushing it at school or in your
performances or in your sportand taking good care of yourself
?
And again, I think, yoga andmindfulness right, it's the and
(50:40):
and that's where a lot of timeswe think it's gotta be either or
right.
But there's a world where wehave really high achieving kids
who take great care ofthemselves.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
Yes, 100%, 100%.
I love that so good.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Well, this I could go on.
This has been such a lovelyconversation as Giselle and I
were talking before I said.
I think I'm at a point whereI'm just wanting to kind of
circle back to really greatconversations more often instead
of doing as many new ones.
So hopefully we can reconnectagain soon and have another
great conversation.
But I really appreciated whatyou've shared today and then
just again your work andpresence in the world and all
(51:19):
the ways that that has a rippleeffect.
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
Oh, thank you, Lindsay.
Same same same.
Thank you, I'm so glad weconnected.
Speaker 1 (51:28):
Yeah, Before we go, just remind folks, like where
they can get the cards, thebooks we've mentioned.
You know, all the differentthings that you've talked about
today how they can connect withyou.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Okay, great.
So thanks for asking.
So we're at kidsyogastoriescom.
We're on Instagram, you knowkidsyogastories and Pinterest on
.
I'm on LinkedIn, giselleShardlow as well, facebook, all
that, but watch out for ourcards.
We've got them on Amazon or inour shop.
So we've got breathing cardsand mindfulness cards, yoga pose
(51:58):
cards.
Those have been really the mosthelpful.
If someone just wants what's aone thing and how do I get
started?
We also have a membership, socome join us.
We've got a whole crew ofpeople who are receiving digital
content every month and we havea portal and we have monthly
live events and it's a beautifulcommunity as well as our sort
of.
Our signature program is ourschool yoga program.
(52:20):
So if you're someone lookingfor, you know, as a parent or as
an educator, thinking how do Imake, how do I customize my own
yoga program for my community,come join us.
There it's been.
It's been an absoluteincredible program.
The things people are doingaround the world is amazing.
So yeah, that's us.
Come check us out and email meif you have any questions.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
I love it.
Yeah, definitely, I'm always anadvocate too, for if you, if
you're a new listener, wheneveryou hear about something like
this, if you feel like it wouldserve your school.
I have a blog that I wrote alittle bit ago and I'll I'll
link for this podcast as well.
But, like having theconversation with your
(53:01):
administrator, you know, juststarting the conversation, if
this isn't something that is inyour child's school like Giselle
has so many things for at home,but also that school component
is massive, right, because ourkids are at school for so much
of the day.
So, if your child's schooldoesn't have a strong SEL
program or you're not even surewhat it is, being able to
advocate for your child and yourfamily with your administrators
(53:23):
present ideas like this to them, you know, say I just listened
to this podcast.
You know, have a listen.
One of the things that we can doas parents, right, is just like
create that small change in theschool settings and maybe they
don't adopt all of it.
Maybe they get breathing cardsfor the classrooms, right, like,
maybe maybe they're not readyto take the whole program and
(53:45):
implement, but maybe they'relike, yeah, we definitely need
to carry the kids yoga storiesin our library.
So, like again, the small,small actions lead to
significant impact.
So just noting, like, if youjust heard that and we're like
man, I wish my kids school hadthat, like, let's, let's work on
that, let's get it in your kidsschool.
Like you know, whatever we cando, let's, let's try to make
(54:06):
that happen.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
Thank you so much, Lindsay.
It's very kind of you.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
Well, thank you again .
It's a sheer joy.
I really appreciate your timeand we'll chat again soon.
Thanks, Lindsay.
Thanks for listening to theStress Nanny.
If you found today's episodehelpful, be sure to share it
with a friend who could use alittle extra calm in their week,
and if you have a minute, I'dlove for you to leave a review.
It helps other parents find theshow and join us on this
(54:31):
journey.
For more tools and support,head over to
wwwthestressnannycom.
Remember you don't have to dostress alone.
Together, we can raise kids whoknow how to navigate life with
confidence and ease.
Until next time, take a deepbreath and give yourself some
grace.
Thank you.
Welcome to the Stress Nanny, the podcast where we
take the overwhelm out ofparenting and help kids and
parents build calm, confidenceand connection.
I'm your host, Lindsay Miller,kids mindfulness coach and
cheerleader for busy familieseverywhere.
Each week, we'll explore simpletools, uplifting stories and
practical strategies to helpyour child learn emotional
(00:41):
regulation, resilience andself-confidence, while giving
you a little more peace of mindtoo.
I'm so glad you're here.
My guest today is GiselleShardlow.
She's the founder of Kids YogaStories.
Kids Yoga Stories was founded in2012 by Giselle, who's a
classroom teacher and trainedyoga instructor.
Through her travels andteaching grades K through five
(01:02):
in Guatemala, australia, canadaand the United States, giselle
witnessed the need through fivein Guatemala, australia, canada
and the United States.
Giselle witnessed the need toaddress childhood literacy,
obesity and stress.
She blended her passions ofyoga, mindfulness and education
to create books, card decks,courses and educational
resources to bring the benefitsof yoga to children everywhere.
The pandemic and the rise inmental health issues in children
(01:25):
, as well as teacher burnout,has made the kids yoga stories
mission even more critical andtimely.
They continue to grow andexpand, providing weekly
resources that are free andhundreds of yoga products
available for purchase on theirsite.
I'm so excited to share myconversation with Giselle.
It felt like talking to an oldfriend, giselle, thank you so
much for joining me today.
I'm so excited about thisconversation.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
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 feltlike I'd known you forever.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I know, and even just as we're chatting beforehand,
we're like old friends justchatting about what's going on.
So I really appreciate yeah, Iappreciate you coming on the
show because it's going to beinsightful for me and everyone
listening.
So thank you.
Thank you, Thank you.
Okay, In case people aren'tfamiliar with your work, let's
just get started with a bit ofan intro.
I know we we had shared thepodcast you and I recorded on
(02:18):
your show.
But if people aren't familiarwith your work, help us.
Help us get a glimpse of, likehow you got into it and what
you're up to these days.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, great, Okay so I think of it sort of like two
areas of my life, right?
So yoga has always been athread.
You know, I started I practicedwhen I was little.
My mom told us when we werereally little.
I grew up in the middle ofCanada on a farm.
My parents were British and sheused to play yoga on the
television, so that's reallywhere it began.
And then in my 20s I, you know,did practice yoga at the
(02:51):
university.
And then I, every time I camehome 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 teachertraining yoga teacher training
with my husband.
We were newlywedseds and wejumped right into that, and so
it's always been this threadwith me.
And then, parallel, I've alwaysworked with children.
So I grew up a figure skater,taught figure skater, worked in
(03:13):
day camps, became aninternational school teacher,
and now here I am with Kids,yoga Stories, writing stories
and helping grownups teach yogato children.
So those have kind of been thethreads we're.
We put everything together interms of we're just we're on
this mission, lindsay, just likeyou are right, is that now more
(03:34):
than ever, even though.
We've been doing this work for13 years, but now more than ever
you know to transform schoolcommunities 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 inyour toolkit is no longer a nice
(03:54):
to have, it's a must have.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, 100%.
Well, and I love just the thehistory of your experience,
because I think that that, liketethering all those different
perspectives, like fromdifferent countries, you know,
in different like timelines, andbeing able to weave the, the
universality of yoga through allof those things and then share
(04:17):
those bits of it that you knowfor you were consistent
everywhere, you went right, likethose were the supportive bits,
those were the things thatreally made an impact, and so I
think you're teaching around itand the stories really
illustrate those concepts andthose principles that are, like
you said, universally essential,especially right now for adults
(04:39):
, for kids, for all of us as wenavigate modern living.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, that's actually a good point.
I hadn't thought about that,because when I first took yoga
teacher training, I firststarted writing yoga stories.
For me, at that point, what Icould see in the classrooms that
I was working in was obesity orstress, or English as a second
language, or global education,environmental education.
So those are the things thatwere on my heart and those are
(05:06):
the books that were on my heart,and those are the books that I
wrote about is teaching children.
You know, let's go on anadventure to Costa Rica, or
let's go, you know, on amountain, or so we learned
habitats and things and actingthings out so that it was light
and fun back in the day, right,and now, that's the cool thing
about this ancient wisdom, asyou know, right, that you know
this is 5000 years old.
(05:26):
This is not a trend, this isnot an overnight right, but this
is something that has a threadthrough every aspects of your
life and you get to pick andchoose what works for you.
So, right now, emotionalregulation is, you know, and
stress and you know, being withpeople and social interaction.
Those are the most importantthings.
So those are the concepts wecan pull from this ancient
(05:49):
wisdom, whereas before it wasmore.
Like you know, let's getchildren to move and have body
awareness and travel the worldand learn about things you know,
so I hadn't thought about thatway.
It's very adaptive to what weare addressing in this moment.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, I love the way you put that, because I think
one of the things that's soappealing to me about teaching
kids mindfulness is theuniversality of the tools.
You know that, like you justsaid, they have application in a
wide range of circumstances andbeing able to kind of pick and
choose what helps when theempowerment of that is also
supportive, right, like beingable to kind of pick and choose
what helps when the empowermentof that is also supportive,
(06:28):
right.
Like being able to approach asituation knowing, if you have
the tools of yoga, if you havethe tools of mindfulness, like
that are kind of written withinyou, then you have a level of
resilience for anything thatcomes your way Right, and it's a
matter of just activating thewisdom that you hold as a result
(06:48):
of those practices.
And so it does feel, yeah,really versatile and really
relevant, just because you, youknow, with a little bit of
support, can be translated intoso many different scenarios,
such that the individualexperiencing, you know, a myriad
of conditions or circumstancescan find that inner resilience.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, I love that so much.
Yeah, that's so true, and itchanges.
Right, it can meet everyonewhere they're at, whether you're
in a classroom, at home or in aclinic with a pediatric
therapist.
Wherever you are, it meets youwhere you're at, both with the
grownup and the child.
So the resilience piece isreally that's really interesting
(07:32):
concept of how do we help thesechildren bounce back.
I mean, gosh, they've beenthrough more Lindsay in these
years than we have in our entirelives.
Right, it's going to only getfaster and more complex and more
artificial.
You know there's a lot comingahead of us.
And how do we help thesechildren navigate this new world
(07:54):
?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, for sure.
You and I were just talkingbefore I got started about how
this podcast has been.
You know it was launched almostsix years ago and the number of
different topics or socialsituations or you know, just
looking back on my episodesummaries and list of episodes,
it's really interesting to me tosee, you know, because it was
(08:16):
right before COVID started.
So I've got episodes aboutCOVID and making it through
COVID.
You know we've got episodes onso many different like social
situations that have occurredover the last six years, and
then also just the generalskillset right, that we're
seeing as, like you said, anessential skillset.
You know that's emerging assomething kids can't do without
(08:38):
these SEL tools and I think,yeah, the dynamic nature of life
is not going to change anytimesoon and, if anything, the speed
will will increase, and sohaving tools at your disposal
that are timeless and haveserved for for such a long time
really does make sense, to me atleast.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, and I think too , speaking of that right, that
what a blessing that we foundthis really easy tool that can
be added in in such a quick wayand have such powerful impacts,
and now we have the science toback that up, right.
So it's not about adding moreto your plate or taking a lot of
time or buying a bunch ofthings, right, but also it
affects the child and thegrownup, and the grownup.
(09:28):
I mean like you as amindfulness coach, right, going
through those lessons with yourstudents.
How cool is that.
You get to experience ityourself.
You get to teach the familiesthat you work with right, and no
doubt that's, you know,filtering through to their
classrooms and it fits the wholecommunity.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, I totally agree , and that's what you know.
When I, when I talk to newfamilies and we'll talk through
what to expect One of the thingsthat I hear back consistently
is like I came to you for helpwith this one child, but what
I'm learning as a result ishelping my whole family, or my
whole circle of influence, right?
Or you know, classroom one ofthe moms that I worked with her
(10:07):
son and she was second gradeteacher and she's like, oh my
gosh, the thing we did last week.
I just took it to school and mykids loved it.
I've got to show you what wedid.
Here's the bulletin board of it, you know, and it is like once
you kind of just can wrap yourbrain around the shift in
thinking that is like thatinternal locus of control and
like what can, what can I do inthis circumstance?
(10:28):
And being really present withthat, tuning into your body,
right, your intuition, andfiguring out how to move forward
.
The sky's the limit as to whereit applies, right, Like who can
benefit from it.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Right, exactly, and I think one of the things you
know I'm sure you've spokenabout is you know we could speak
all day about what's notworking right now.
Right, and so you can kind ofgo down that rabbit hole of all
the things.
But you know, I'm reallycurious I'm shifting now into
this what is working?
What are the success stories?
Right, because we all had toexperience the empathy for each
(11:01):
other and really understandparents and schools and all
what's happening and children.
But now you know to your pointabout what's working.
You know, in our community wework closely with practitioners
and pediatric therapists,educators, families.
You know the whole range, andwhat we're hearing is the
practices that are mosttransformational are those that
(11:24):
that go across the classroom, goacross the, the sessions, the
pediatric therapy sessions, goacross the families, go across
the children, is with the adults, with the children, with
everything.
So it becomes embedded in acommunity.
That's where the transformationhappens.
We can't, you know, looking atwhat we can control and what we
(11:44):
can't control.
You know we can't control thegovernment choices, the
educational standards, the youknow systematic issues that are
happening, even the you knowadministration potentially, if
they're not on board.
But what can we control right.
We can control our ownregulation.
(12:04):
We can work with our child,although I do have one of those
children that is a littleresistant to yoga, mindfulness
we can talk about that at somepoint, but you know, I mean you
can't.
What you can control isyourself, and even by practicing
yourself in whatever way worksfor you, all of that has ripple
effects.
And then you can speak to othermoms or you share it with your
(12:26):
educators and how cool is that?
One of your moms, of yourstudent, is now as a second
grade teacher and that's had aripple effect.
So you working one-to-one hasnow affected all the children in
that classroom who may go homeand tell their families.
It know it's, it's amazing.
I think that's the key isstarting small but having a
(12:47):
larger impact.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's so beautifully put and I think
when we teach kids and we'll getinto specific tools here in
just a minute but I think as welay this foundation for why this
is important and howsignificant the impact is, it's
like when we teach kids thesetools, they build the whole rest
of their lives right On thisfoundation of resilience and the
(13:13):
kind of individuals that aregoing to affect change in the
future, the kind of individualswho will be able to problem
solve, work through big emotionsto, you know, tackle big
problems, those are going to bepeople who have a certain level
of resilience, right, and thatlevel of emotional regulation,
emotional intelligence, to beable to communicate through big
(13:34):
feelings, to be able to talkabout you know, how to approach
a situation, with discernment,with mindfulness, right, like
being fully present with whatthe reality of the situation is.
And so I'm constantly just like,so enthusiastic about the types
of lives that can be built,like weaving these tools in from
(13:55):
such a young age.
You know, just building withthis foundation feels like
there's such incredible abilityto access one's potential.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah exactly, and I think you know, going back to
this idea of being artificial, Iwas listening to YouTube the
other day with the president ofCASEL, dr Leah, and Dr Mark
Brackett, who's the professorout of Yale right and he's
author of Permission to Feel andthe Ruler Approach, and they
were talking about how theimportance of the social,
(14:26):
emotional and cognitive it'sthose three pieces that are
really the most important thing.
It was a fascinating, afascinating look, and we can,
you know, thinking aboutresilience in terms of, you know
, the research around, you knowthe parents want it, the
educators want it, the workforce, the students who are showing
(14:48):
up at Yale, for example.
Those are the ones that havethe social, emotional component
as well as cognitive.
It's not just about gettinggood grades, it's can you
interact?
Can you, you know, manage yourbig emotions?
And then, in terms of workforce, right, and so they were
talking about AI and looking atyou know who's in charge of
(15:09):
creating this artificialintelligence and how regulated
are these folks?
And how do we prepare ourchildren for this world of
artificial intelligence?
How do we help them navigateand make good choices in the
face of who knows what's goingto be thrown at them?
Right, and it's not going away,it's something that we have to
(15:30):
face, and so, being thesemindfulness tools that you're
teaching also is having them beable to discern whether, like
you said, discerning, discern isthis for real.
You know, I was watching avideo the other day about
something entirely different andI thought I don't actually know
if this person is real or not.
Like it's a level of distrustthat we all have, and this is
(15:52):
the thing that we have to teachour 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 practicesof resilience, as you say.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's such an interesting point and I
love the idea of like growing ageneration of kids who could
train like a compassionate AI,you know like an informed AI and
emotionally intelligent AI.
I listened to the Mo Newspodcast a lot and they've been
talking recently about just theincreased need for people who
are training the models.
(16:26):
You know, training the.
AI models and how.
Like, yeah, the need forindividuals who can have an
impact on the way so many peoplewill see the world, you know, a
need for individuals who arewell-rounded and have the skills
that they need to to createmodels that are going to lead
humanity forward in a hopefully,holistic and supported way.
(16:51):
You know we can't underratethat, right?
So I love that, I love that youwere hearing that too.
Yes, 100% Well, and I think Imean I think too, like you just
brought up and we can maybestart here with the tools the
uncertainty right now.
You know, like the incredibleamount of uncertainty in so many
(17:11):
facets of life, right, and Ilove back to Mark Brackett, his
definition of uncertaintyanxiety being uncertainty about
the future.
So he, you know, he's likeanxiety is when you were
uncertain about the future, andso I think, you know, taken
globally, if we look around usright now, it's no wonder that
we have so many kids grapplingwith massive feelings of anxiety
(17:33):
, and adults for that matter.
Right, but that uncertaintyabout the future, it can feel
like a lot to manage.
So, in the families that you'reworking with and you know, as
you're sharing the stories, whatare some of the ways you see
parents use yoga and mindfulnessto help kids manage the
(17:55):
everyday stresses or bigemotions like anxiety.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
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 wasnot aware of the anxiety that I
had inside of me.
Then I, you know, spoke to mymom about it.
(18:19):
Apparently there is a thread.
They were born in England, as Imentioned, so you know that
came through there, but it'sreally exacerbated over the last
five, six years, right, andhaving my child as well as COVID
.
But just acknowledging it, right, and so it's a label and I see
myself saying I'm anxious, orpeople say to you, are you
feeling nervous, or whatever, Istart to worry about the future.
(18:41):
Or you know, get prepared withthings, or whatever.
And so I think, justacknowledging, like what?
What?
Speaking of Mark Brackett,bracket, you know, recognizing
our own emotions.
But I think it's also about howdo we change the script on that
, because we hear it so much andI feel like it's been so
overused also since covid abouthow do we just lean into gosh,
(19:04):
I'm a caring, loving person andI love people and I'm also
prepared for the future.
Is that such a bad thing Really,you know I'm just making this
up, but like what if we justshift like change the channel,
changed how we looked at thingsand changed our lens.
So I think that's one thing inmodeling with my daughter.
She was diagnosed with anxietyand depression, all the things,
(19:26):
but you know how do I help hersee that it's not necessarily a
bad thing either.
You know, I've had a great life.
I traveled the world and howcould I have traveled the world
as a backpacker and livedoverseas in so many places if I
was so anxious?
It didn't paralyze me, you know.
I think that those of us in thissort of age where we have, you
(19:47):
know, our perimenopause years,some of us are naturally like my
constitution.
If you look at the doshas inAyurveda yoga, sister science,
I'm a strong vata.
It's one of the threeconstitutions and vata is very
airy.
I'm very creative, I'm veryairy and that creates the
anxiety piece, right.
(20:08):
But if I am aware of that, sowe've got this trifecta right
now for a lot of us myconstitution has anxiety, the
time of my life where women aremoving into a very Vata style
life and also the world has anentire Vata vibration.
Right now it's ADHD and there'sfast moving and all the things
(20:29):
right, and so acknowledging thatand thinking okay, so what are
some counter practices that Ican use myself?
And then that will have rippleeffects because we see the
children are anxious.
But, Lindsay, I'm curious abouthow many of us, as educators
and parents, are anxious and howmuch of it is our stuff and how
(20:50):
much is their stuff?
You know what I mean.
And so practices that haveworked, and it's not a one size
fits all, so everyone has tofind 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 beensleeping well, so that's one
thing.
I've been having really hotbaths, so for my constitution
(21:11):
that works really well.
You know, I have my consistentwith anxiety.
Right, it's a consistency.
I have my consistent exerciseroutine, my yoga routine,
sitting silently in the morning,taking deep breaths during the
day.
You know.
So, even before us chatting, Iknew I had to take a moment to
take a pause and just take adeep breath.
(21:31):
You know there's all kinds ofthese little practices that
build on themselves, so it's notlike one class once a week, but
is it?
How do we make it more of alifestyle?
That is part of our life, Right.
So I think that's that's thething is, about acknowledging
and looking at, getting curiousabout huh, okay, what am I
(21:55):
worried about, Right?
And then, what are somepractices that I could add in
that would make a difference sothat I can I can have the
anxiety, stay here and not beover there with the children?
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, yeah, no, I love the way you explained it.
It makes me think of DanSiegel's River of Integration.
Are you familiar with that?
How he's got on one side of theriver is like chaos and on one
side is rigidity, and the thingyou have to figure out is how to
find flow right and like, ifthings feel if you've like, when
(22:33):
I feel anxious, I feel chaoticright Like it just feels like
kind of a lot and I and thensometimes, when I'm trying to
manage that I might swing to theother side of the river and
just get super, super structuredright and find, like I must do
things exactly this way in orderto feel okay, right.
And instead the invitation, youknow, which I've, as I age,
(22:57):
have increasingly taken withmore and more grace, but still
sometimes fight is to blend thatthe chaos and the and the
rigidity in a way that allowsfor flow right, like so that you
can down the river.
And so I love what you justdescribed, because I think you
know, if we get stuck in the bigemotion and we're kind of
fighting it and we're notwilling to say like I'm feeling
anxious right now or I'm feelingreally sad right now, I'm
(23:19):
feeling really concerned rightnow, if we fight the big
feelings, we can't work withthem, right?
It's just like all of ourenergy is getting stored up.
One of my favoritepsychologists calls it like a
beach ball emotion, and justlike beach ball underwater,
right.
Yes, if we're using all of ourenergy to do that, we're not at
(23:39):
liberty to be incorporating,like you said, those simple
practices or figuring out how wecan work with our tendencies.
And I think, more than like alabel, I love to call it a
tendency, like I tend toward youknow my brain tends toward this
, you know, and if we can lookat ourselves with a bit more
(24:01):
grace, I think that thosemoments of acknowledgement are a
little softer right, because wecan find the gentleness in it,
and it doesn't have to be apermanent.
I will always feel this way.
There's nothing I can do aboutit.
Acknowledgement it's more of a.
This is something that isconsistent for me, so the
invitation is for me to figureout how to work with it Right.
(24:23):
So like bringing the chaos andthe rigidity into the middle,
where you can move with someflow, using those tools, finding
the practices that are like goto for you, in order to not get
stuck over there on the side ofthe river in the emotion,
watching life go by, but insteadbeing able to like engage with
our tendencies in a way thatgives us movement in the
(24:45):
direction we want to go.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
I love the grace and I want to say some sprinkle of
humor, you know, like let's.
I mean, how funny are we ashumans?
Right, and I've learned thisfrom Judith Lassiter Hansen,
who's the co founder of YogaJournal back in the day, right,
she's amazing wrote a book, nonviolent communication.
But, hand on heart, say howhuman of me.
(25:08):
Oh my gosh, lindsay over thelast few years has been
challenging you know it's, it'schanged my life really.
That's been the thing.
But also I think that, coupledand there's something about hand
on heart too, there's somescience behind the feeling of it
on your, on your chest.
But also I've been latelythinking like, zooming out a bit
and going, oh gosh, we're funny, like is there something
(25:31):
ruminating about that, you know,or yeah, like.
I've got it.
I don't like flying, it doesn'tmake me feel well, and we fly
to Australia every other year.
Right now it's gonna be everyyear, you know, and it's like a
25 hour flight right with mydaughter who's?
You know, she's 13.
Now, but it has been achallenge, right.
I'm just going to say that, butyou know I'll worry about that
(25:53):
for 10 months before the flight.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
As soon as you get home start worrying about that,
exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
And then you think, oh my gosh, wow brain, like you
have to have kind of a, have alaugh about it.
That's ridiculous, as if I'm ohmy goodness, poor me.
I get to go to Australia, youknow, every other year, every
year, like, oh my goodness youknow, to see family.
So, yeah, I think there's a,there's a bit of lightness.
(26:21):
I think that that has to happento we've.
It's been so intense the lastfew years.
You know, all of us have beenon our own individual journey,
so the intensity will change,depends on your, you know,
whether with your children oryour elderly parents, or you've
got a sick dog.
You were mentioning this, a lotof stuff.
But also, I think, globally,we've all been very intense.
(26:43):
But I think this kind of periodof like let's lighten up a
little bit, like where's where'sthe humor, where's the fun?
How do we bring that back and Iknow that's a simplistic way,
you know that's not going towork for everyone at all moments
, you know.
I think you do have to dropinto your life and stuff that's
happening, but also a littlesprinkle of fun.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah, no, I totally agree.
And that that resonates with meBecause, I mean, even last
night we had been having aconversation.
My daughter, like you know, asshe's getting older, her
involvement in differentactivities is is shifting, as
well as some of the potential orthe opportunities associated
(27:27):
with those activities.
Right, and so the stakes, youknow, as they get older, the
stakes on some things get alittle higher, right, and in
some of the environments she'sin, she's feeling that pressure
and trying to navigate it withas 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 aboutit with perspective, we were
(27:48):
specifically talking about SethGodin's concept of the dip where
it's like yes, you have likeit's like you're oblivious to
kind of how.
You have like oblivious optimismabout something and then you
have like pessimistic realismabout it and there's this like
cavernous dip that happens andthen at the bottom is like the
valley of despair, and then youfind your way you find your way
(28:10):
to like informed optimism andthen success, and how a lot of
times we're navigating somethingthat's challenging.
We might be in that dip rightwhen we were like all
happy-go-lucky about it before,and then we hit the dip and
we're like, well, this is harderthan I thought it was going to
be and we've got to kind of workthrough it in order to get out.
So, anyway, we've been havingthese conversations.
(28:31):
She's got a lot going on.
It had been a long day, acouple of different practices.
She was at.
We get to the end of the night.
We're like everybody's kind ofsettling down and getting ready
to go to bed and all of a suddenI see all these ants crawling
from her backpack.
Oh, my goodness.
And I was like what is going on?
No-transcript.
(29:19):
I was like, yeah, yeah, this isthe dip.
It's when you think you can'tgo any further.
You know like all you've done,all you can do, and all of a a
sudden, like you just find theanswer.
So we're just like laughing onthe front porch, shaking out
clothes, you know, at 11 atnight.
But it was one of those momentswhere and I think presence is
(29:40):
key to it and that's why I bringit up?
Because in that experience,like if I had been so wrapped up
in the frustration, I wasfeeling my exhaustion.
You know, I was attuned to herfeelings and if those had been
the only thing in my awarenessit would have felt heavier Right
.
But, like mindfulness allowed meto notice what I was feeling in
(30:02):
my body, right, like in yogaalso.
Right, like I'm feeling tired,I'm feeling the weight of the
day, I'm noticing thatfrustration come up.
I'm noticing, you know, likeher, her exhaustion and like
she's got a stretch right, likewe've got to figure this out
before we can all settle for thenight.
And then I'm noticing the irony, and that's where the humor can
(30:23):
come in, right, yes, I lovethat we can be present with all
of those things all at once.
We get to choose which one arewe going to give our attention
to.
And we were all frustrated andso we ended up at one point like
we're like shaking the clothesreally hard, like to just move
through that frustration right,as we're also like laughing
about how ironic it is that youknow, of all the things we find,
(30:45):
like this little colony of antsin the backpack at you know
late at night.
But I think that your pointabout humor is so well taken.
But I think it's like integralto that is that idea of presence
.
Would you agree?
Speaker 2 (31:00):
A hundred percent.
I love that story.
That's so great Cause it reallycould have gone such a
different way.
It really could have gone and Ithink that that's what it seems
to be.
And I, you know I'm likeeveryone else, none of us are
perfect.
Just because you and I practiceyoga, mindfulness, not to say
we're perfect.
And some nights, maybe on adifferent circumstance, you
might not have been able toaccess your mindfulness practice
(31:21):
and it might've gone adifferent way.
But you know, as you, as you say, we, we there's things we can
control and things we can't, andsometimes we have the capacity
in which to to see it for whatit is, and sometimes we get lost
.
And then later on, you know, wehave to clean ourselves up or
we clean up relationships thatwe might have said things that
we didn't mean.
But it's not about beingperfect, right, it's about
(31:43):
connection, connection withourselves, with the people
around us.
And, you know, maybe the theants were, if you kind of kind
of look at it, a different waywith this whole idea of changing
the channel, of wow, the antsgave you an opportunity as a
family to get together to, youknow, against all odds create
(32:05):
all the wagons at the end of thenight.
Exactly.
You know, and I think that'sthat's the blessing that this
work can offer us all isespecially during this time.
I mean, that's a perfectexample of you know, it's all
how we view things.
You know, it's a hot mess rightnow, or wow.
(32:26):
This is an opportunity for ourplanet to heal, and potentially
a different way than we everthought possible.
As you say, maybe we are in thedip, or maybe there's more dip
to come, who knows?
But why not try and see thegood as much as we possibly can
in our students, in our children, in our partners, right In our
(32:50):
school communities?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
yeah, I think too.
I mean, I love the way youphrased 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 whenit's there and when it's not
there, taking the, theexperience that you're having
(33:14):
and the moment that's at yourdisposal, or you're like the
moment that you're gifted withand being able to, like imbue it
with whatever small amount ofof goodness you can, right.
And I think the same aboutthese tools, and I maybe we talk
a little bit about some of thechanges you've seen as families
have implemented these tools.
(33:35):
But like, if, when, when we seethese, these principles, kind
of planted in different spacesand allowed to, to be nourished
and then flourish, like the waythat they impact small
situations just like on my frontporch right, with like a bunch
of ants and some sweaty sportsclothes the way that they can
(34:00):
manifest in those moments, itreally is high impact, right.
And I think, as we take thesesmall steps, like, we take the
deep breath, we sit in whateverbig emotion we're feeling, we
allow conversations to happen,trusting that we're competent
and capable to show up, however,we need to.
(34:22):
You know, for the moment that'sat hand, like when we do those
simple things, we end up withlike opportunities that we
wouldn't otherwise have.
So what are some of the thingsyou've seen as families have
really like?
Let these principles take holdand grow in their own family and
friends.
What, what changes have youseen happen?
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Oh, how long have you got?
I'll just think of a few thatpopped to mind.
So just just the other day, acouple days ago, we my daughter
and I'll start with my own storyso 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, justabout to get into the car and
she's standing behind the carand you know, she was inside the
(35:07):
garage.
So she said, mom, come, listento the rain.
And in that moment I could havebeen easily hurry up, we gotta
go.
Or saying something aboutmindfulness, because that's
mindfulness, but it's reallyabout.
So I went and stood next to herand I had a hand on my heart
because I was just in myself,screaming in my in myself,
(35:29):
screaming with excitement, like,oh, my gosh, this is a mindful
you know mindful moment of like.
I've been dreaming of thisright and it, you know it's
raining and the sound of thebirds and you know what the
sounds and the smells and youknow all of that.
But I just stood with her andthose moments are precious,
right, and that will stay withme forever.
(35:50):
So it's something that we'reprobably already doing anyway,
but it's just bringing thatintention.
So in my mind I was bothscreaming with excitement to
myself but also thinking what aprecious moment, probably a
moment I will always rememberwith her right that we never
know the seed that we'replanting with our children by
(36:10):
practicing ourself.
You know, because forever I'malways saying, oh, the weather
is so you know, british family,I don't know talking about the
weather, but, yeah, you knowwhat a beautiful day.
Or you know, oh, isn't thatgorgeous.
Or being outside and thosekinds of things.
So I think that it's justappreciating those moments.
So the impact of you know ithas worked.
(36:33):
It has worked to plant theselittle seeds for my daughter.
And then I think about anotherstory that pops in my mind.
I used to read my yoga storieswhen my daughter was in
preschool and a dad came up tome and said, oh, you're the mom
who reads yoga stories.
And he said, oh, my son, wewere out on the weekend and he
(36:54):
was.
There was this grassy patch andhe 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 theway, that's what he took away
from it.
And he said he was.
He was sitting there breathing.
This was like a five year oldright.
And so those moments of youknow, children surprise grownups
all the time right.
And so just being who you be, asyou say, being the good, that's
(37:18):
what's so captivating forchildren.
You don't even know whatthey're picking up.
Or you know, another parentemailed 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
(37:38):
argument with this, this boy,and instead of punching him, I
practiced you know in my mindand did some poses.
And and I didn't you know, youknow in my mind, and did some
poses and I didn't you know hewas able to regulate and for her
it was life changing.
Right, because that hadn't beenthe reaction he normally would
have had.
But it's about using thesepractices, you know, naturally
(38:01):
in our lives, but alsopracticing them when the
children are calm and organizedtoo, so they can come back to
that when they need, in thesituation, that is, they're
called upon to use them.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, those are such great stories.
I I especially love thehighlight 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 lotof funny looks about it.
Right, but exactly what yousaid it's easier to integrate
and it's easier to return tocalm than it is to just like
(38:35):
find it when we're flailing.
But also just the recognitionthat small efforts have far
reaching influence.
You know, and I think asparents, so many aspects of
parenting in this modern timefeel like a lot right.
I think, especially when itcomes to mindfulness and yoga,
(38:57):
if you don't have exposure to it, don't have a background with
it, it can feel overwhelming tokind of like tune into all the
different pieces, understanddifferent words and language, or
like really kind of reorientyourself to your experience
through that lens.
But what you just described wasso beautiful because that was
simple presence right.
In those moments right and Ithink if we can take anything
(39:19):
from this conversation, thatinvitation to just that simple
special kind of noticing thathappens when you're present,
that simple special kind ofnoticing that happens when
you're present, I mean theimpact of that, if you choose to
practice that once, twice a daywith your kids, right?
I mean, like you said, from anexample perspective, massive
(39:40):
From their experience of yourrelationship.
Incredible From your ownorientation to your life and
your responsibility to raiseyour children.
Life changing, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
So true, yeah, yeah, actually, it reminds me I, for
myself, I created these five C'swhen, when things were really
tough, when my daughter wasyoung and the first one we, you
know, we talked about is beingcalm.
So it was really I noticed thatI could read, cause I'm a, I'm
a teacher, right, I thought I'lljust read a whole bunch of
books and watch a bunch ofwebinars and someone, please
(40:12):
help me with my child parent, mychild, and she did not come out
how I was expecting, right, andso I realized, whoop, you know,
none of this is working.
I need to start with myself.
So, the calm we've spoken a lotabout, you know, getting
yourself calm and organized,choosing the practices that work
for you.
Number two in my five C's wasbeing curious.
So, as we talked about beingcurious, what is yoga?
(40:35):
What is it about?
What do I want to read about?
What?
Who do I want to listen to?
You know, what are thepractices?
Am I interested in yoga classeswhere it's, you know, physical
postures, or am I interested inbreathing practices?
Or sitting silently inmeditation in the morning, or
practicing mindfulness, whatyou're doing?
So there's a whole bunch ofdifferent practices you can work
(40:57):
with.
So, getting curious.
And then what would be gettingcurious about your children,
like what's?
Like Mona Delahook and DanSiegel, they're always talking
about what's under the surface.
So, getting curious about whatis under the surface here.
And so when I could look at mydaughter okay, here's her
outside display above theiceberg, but what's underneath
(41:17):
that?
Now you know, and that's thatcuriosity comes from such a
different place versus she's notlistening 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 aboutconnect.
How do we connect withourselves and our children at a
deeper level?
Number four is being creative.
(41:37):
You know how do we make thisfun and interesting and creative
?
How do we get them on board?
You know you do such a greatjob with your mindfulness
coaching on.
I always see you with.
You know there's arts andcrafts and projects, and you
know there's no one size fitsall about all these practices.
How do you make them fun andengaging right?
And so we've done that, forexample, with our breathing
(41:59):
exercises, the cards that wehave, our breathing exercise
cards such fun ways to learn tobreathe.
You could blow through a strawor pretend that you're blowing a
flower or a hot chocolate oryou know, there's lots of
different ways you can play andbe creative with breathing
techniques, right?
And the last one is commit.
Is how do we commit to apractice?
(42:20):
Choose one because it can be so, as you say, whether that's one
breath or one meditation toolor meditation moment you're
going to do every morning, orone affirmation Right now, my
affirmation that I have I'vejust been writing out this
(42:42):
morning everything works out forme.
So in my mind, I keep over andover again everything works out
for me, everything works out formy daughter, everything works
out for us, everything's goingto work out for this world.
Everything works out.
You know, that's just anaffirmation.
I'm just going to choose thatone for a while.
I'm going to stick with it andsee what happens, right, but
just choosing one, committing tosomething.
(43:02):
So it was calm, curious,connect, creative and commit
curious connect creative andcommit.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
I love those.
Thank you for sharing that.
I think too.
I mean, I'm going to plug yourbooks here because I think that
one of the things that is sobeautiful about your approach,
in addition to, like thestep-by-step nature of
application that you just talkedabout, or the breathing
exercises cards that you have,like being able to build a story
(43:29):
around these things that youcan then refer back to.
Right and so, if your choice is,you know, like at bedtime,
where we, you know, you'rereading stories, like choosing a
yoga story, you know, choosingone of your yoga stories, and
just like building that intoyour family culture, referring
to Hannah and Hugo, right, orlike referring to whoever you
(43:50):
need to refer to in order to,like make the principle yours,
apply it.
You know, in different settingsand in my experience, those
stories have been so powerfulfor weaving that thread, like we
talked about through thebeginning, because it can be the
story at home and then it canbe like how did I apply it at
school?
How did I apply it at my soccergame?
(44:12):
How did I apply it with mybrother?
You know, like weaving itthrough all those different
situations, the story is thecommon thread, right, and so, in
my experience, the applicationof these principles is
infinitely easier with thestories.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Yes, I love that so much.
There's so much you know youcan pack in whether you know,
some of our stories are moreyoga principles.
So it's about a few of them.
Are, you know, to be happyyourself, be happy for others?
That's Anna, the rainbowcolored yoga mats.
And then you know, anxiety,think the opposite.
When you have a negativethought, think the opposite.
It's another yoga principle.
But then we also have, as wetalked about, the yoga stories
(44:50):
that are more adding yogapostures through the story, so
it's more fun and light, anddiscovering different places or
habitats around the world, soadding movement to story time.
You know the children do a lotof sitting these days, right?
And so how do we get them toembody the story, as you say,
and have fun and apply theseprinciples to the rest of their
(45:14):
lives?
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Yeah, like if committing to a bit of mindful
time, a bit of yoga time a dayis your goal, having the
flexibility, like you said, therange of the stories, like
letting the child, the child,choose.
Like, are we wanting a morechill story, are you wanting
more active story?
Like one of the kiddos that Iwork with, we were talking about
self-care because she's in thethick of performances, so lots
(45:38):
of rehearsals and andperformances ongoing, and so I
was like what is your self-carelooking like in this season?
And she was like you know,sometimes I need something
that's calming me and sometimesI have a little extra energy I
need to get rid of in order tobe calm.
That's incredible.
I know, right, I'm like thethings kids come up with.
(46:00):
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'scultivating that awareness, like
what do I need tonight If Iwant to connect with myself?
Right, do I need a gentle,calming story?
Do I need a more active storyLike what will serve me?
(46:21):
Just those tiny decisions withdiscernment, you know, have
again the kind of impact thatwe're looking for in terms of
presence and self-awareness andresilience.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Right.
And if anyone says, oh, Iwonder if this work works just
listen to that story you justtold.
I mean for a child to say,sometimes I need calm and
sometimes I need energizing, Imean, 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 thechildren just blow us away.
(46:54):
They're there, you knowsomething that we did not have
as much growing up, right, and?
And they got it.
We're still trying to.
You know, train ourselves toregulate our emotions, Doesn't
it's a bit messy?
But yeah, the children, yeah, Igot this.
Yeah, I'm just up to be calmer,energized.
You know that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Well, and then I mean , I'll just I'll just mention
this real quick but one of theother things that I was super
impressed about with her is, youknow, as folks of a certain
generation, some of us are maybeless gentle with ourselves when
it comes to the emotions thatwe feel.
Right, and a hallmark ofmindfulness and yoga is that
compassionate self-awareness.
Right, it's not just thatyou're self-aware, it's that
you're fully accepting ofwhatever you're aware of, right,
(47:42):
and you moderate your reactionsand your responses.
You don't just like freewheelit, but you do give yourself so
much grace, right.
And so in the conversation withher as we're talking, she was
like and I've had a little bitof a hard time, you know like
there've been some moments whenI've maybe been a little bit
grouchy, but also I haven't beengetting a lot of sleep and I've
(48:05):
just had a lot going on and Ihaven't had a chance to be as
creative lately, and so there'sjust, there's just a lot on my
plate, you know, and to hearsomebody, like just entering
adolescence, utter that kind ofself-compassion just makes my
heart explode.
Because I think again, if we can, if we can just take the
(48:27):
self-compassion piece from allof this, right, and if that
becomes the thing we practice,if that becomes the thing we
teach, if that becomes themessage that is planted from our
interactions with other peopleagain, so far reaching right.
But to build your life fromthat space, from the space of
self-awareness, emotionalregulation and compassion for
(48:49):
yourself.
I can't even wait to see whatshe makes with that, what she
creates with those skills in herunique just like the beautiful,
unique person that she is, howthose things allow who she is to
flourish even more.
Things allow who she is toflourish even more.
And I think in the world thatwe live in right now, what we
need is for the individual giftsof everyone to flourish even
(49:14):
more.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
I love that so much.
And I see the opposite, where Isee some of my daughter's peers
, you know, straight honorsclasses, staying up till two or
three every day.
You know they're just sofixated on the mark, you know
their scores it just breaks myheart, you know I'm thinking.
I just can't help but thinkthat.
You know they're not gettingthose opportunities to notice
(49:36):
how they're feeling or how theirself-care, because all they can
think about is the grades.
I don't know where it's comingfrom.
If it's just the children, theparents, I don't know where.
But in my world I can'tunderstand it, you know.
And again, I need to havecompassion, for everyone lives,
(49:56):
different lives, and that's justbecause that's not for me, it
doesn't mean it's not forsomeone else.
But I do worry about some ofthese children who are.
You know, is that really goingto get you where you want to go?
Right, this seems to be set upfor an emotional or social
breakdown.
Right, if you have no friendsand and you don't understand
what's going to work for you,yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:19):
And so so many of the kids that I work with are
really high achievers and wework 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 likecrushing it at school or in your
performances or in your sportand taking good care of yourself
?
And again, I think, yoga andmindfulness right, it's the and
(50:40):
and that's where a lot of timeswe think it's gotta be either or
right.
But there's a world where wehave really high achieving kids
who take great care ofthemselves.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
Yes, 100%, 100%.
I love that so good.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Well, this I could go on.
This has been such a lovelyconversation as Giselle and I
were talking before I said.
I think I'm at a point whereI'm just wanting to kind of
circle back to really greatconversations more often instead
of doing as many new ones.
So hopefully we can reconnectagain soon and have another
great conversation.
But I really appreciated whatyou've shared today and then
just again your work andpresence in the world and all
(51:19):
the ways that that has a rippleeffect.
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
Oh, thank you, Lindsay.
Same same same.
Thank you, I'm so glad weconnected.
Speaker 1 (51:28):
Yeah, Before we go, just remind folks, like where
they can get the cards, thebooks we've mentioned.
You know, all the differentthings that you've talked about
today how they can connect withyou.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Okay, great.
So thanks for asking.
So we're at kidsyogastoriescom.
We're on Instagram, you knowkidsyogastories and Pinterest on
.
I'm on LinkedIn, giselleShardlow as well, facebook, all
that, but watch out for ourcards.
We've got them on Amazon or inour shop.
So we've got breathing cardsand mindfulness cards, yoga pose
(51:58):
cards.
Those have been really the mosthelpful.
If someone just wants what's aone thing and how do I get
started?
We also have a membership, socome join us.
We've got a whole crew ofpeople who are receiving digital
content every month and we havea portal and we have monthly
live events and it's a beautifulcommunity as well as our sort
of.
Our signature program is ourschool yoga program.
(52:20):
So if you're someone lookingfor, you know, as a parent or as
an educator, thinking how do Imake, how do I customize my own
yoga program for my community,come join us.
There it's been.
It's been an absoluteincredible program.
The things people are doingaround the world is amazing.
So yeah, that's us.
Come check us out and email meif you have any questions.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
I love it.
Yeah, definitely, I'm always anadvocate too, for if you, if
you're a new listener, wheneveryou hear about something like
this, if you feel like it wouldserve your school.
I have a blog that I wrote alittle bit ago and I'll I'll
link for this podcast as well.
But, like having theconversation with your
(53:01):
administrator, you know, juststarting the conversation, if
this isn't something that is inyour child's school like Giselle
has so many things for at home,but also that school component
is massive, right, because ourkids are at school for so much
of the day.
So, if your child's schooldoesn't have a strong SEL
program or you're not even surewhat it is, being able to
advocate for your child and yourfamily with your administrators
(53:23):
present ideas like this to them, you know, say I just listened
to this podcast.
You know, have a listen.
One of the things that we can doas parents, right, is just like
create that small change in theschool settings and maybe they
don't adopt all of it.
Maybe they get breathing cardsfor the classrooms, right, like,
maybe maybe they're not readyto take the whole program and
(53:45):
implement, but maybe they'relike, yeah, we definitely need
to carry the kids yoga storiesin our library.
So, like again, the small,small actions lead to
significant impact.
So just noting, like, if youjust heard that and we're like
man, I wish my kids school hadthat, like, let's, let's work on
that, let's get it in your kidsschool.
Like you know, whatever we cando, let's, let's try to make
(54:06):
that happen.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
Thank you so much, Lindsay.
It's very kind of you.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
Well, thank you again .
It's a sheer joy.
I really appreciate your timeand we'll chat again soon.
Thanks, Lindsay.
Thanks for listening to theStress Nanny.
If you found today's episodehelpful, be sure to share it
with a friend who could use alittle extra calm in their week,
and if you have a minute, I'dlove for you to leave a review.
It helps other parents find theshow and join us on this
(54:31):
journey.
For more tools and support,head over to
wwwthestressnannycom.
Remember you don't have to dostress alone.
Together, we can raise kids whoknow how to navigate life with
confidence and ease.
Until next time, take a deepbreath and give yourself some
grace.
Thank you.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.