Celebrate My Birthday & April Fool’s Day with me- No foolin’
I am dedicated to helping parents be their best. It’s a ripple effect, because when parents are parenting with a child’s perspective in mind it effects how child behave, feel & think. Most importantly, this style of parenting connects parents and children in love and respect! Click the link below to see what this is all about!
https://www.integrativecounseling.us/so/f3MdAgPcE?cid=151f38a8-c076-4390-9561-330d29d9308f#/main
Stay home & learn from home!
Join me for this live webinar training in
Creative Play Therapy Based Interventions
for Children & Adolescents
Register now! Only 5 spots left!
When: April 27th, 2020
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. EST
(30 min. break for lunch)
Location: Zoom (webinar)
Cost: $100 USD
This webinar counts as 4 contact CEUs!
Looking for Telehealth tips?! This webinar has many applicable interventions that can be used in a Telehealth setting!
5 West Cayuga Street, Oswego, NY, United States 315-342-9255
More evidence of the importance of PLAY
In the Freakishly Well Behaved Kids book, one of the parenting principles I discuss is Let’s Play. Check out this article about the benefits of parent-child play!
What are you doing tonight?
Just wanted to invite you to join me tonight, Monday February 18, 2019, 8pm EST, for a free facebook live event. I’ll be answering your questions about the challenges you face in play therapy.
Hope to see you!
Raising Freakishly Well-Behaved Kids
I have some stories for you! I am so excited to share my new book . I take all I have learned as a mental health counselor, play therapist and mom and apply it to parenting.
When a loving and respectful parent-child relationship is the foundation for parenting and discipline the result is well-behaved, thoughtful, and socially conscious children.
This book focuses on what parents can do, and more importantly how they can be with their children in order to create an atmosphere where children choose pro-social behaviors. The behaviors are not created from a place of fear or even traditional discipline, but from 20 simple principles parents can implement in a variety of circumstances from infancy to young adulthood. Following these principles parents can positively impact the behavior of their children, enhance the parent-child relationship, increase their parenting-esteem, and promote lifelong relational skills in their children. The principles come from the perspectives of children, and have an inherent simplicity that is focused on the parent-child relationship. Following these child-centered principles fosters parent-child relationships based in love and respect.
You can preorder my new book (the ebook version) on select sites!
Stay tuned for info on print and audio book versions.
DAYS 23-29, March 22-28, 2018, A month of working on my wellness.
Today is officially a month. I recognize I have been quiet the last week. There’s a reason for that. I drastically over-committed and I suffered for it. Having an entire month to reflect on, it turns out that I have learned a lot that will help me as I move forward.
It has been three months since I have had any alcohol. I have not craved it or felt like I was missing out when I was in social situations where other people were indulging; that is, until Saturday. I was at a conference with my fun play therapy colleagues. I was offered a glass of champagne (my favorite), no thank you; red wine, white wine, no thank you, not drinking; and a beer, um no. Here’s the thing, I wanted the champagne, I even wanted the wine red and/or white. What happened when I denied myself of a glass, which I think is all I would have had in this scenario, it was not good. Instead of filling my glass, I filled my belly. I ate crap I typically do not eat. I felt like ass because I ate a good deal of sugar, gluten and just too much overall. It affected me physically in the short term. It also affected my relationship with myself. I was mean to myself, that in turn affected my mood, which then affected my carb, sugar, chocolate cravings. Freaking disaster.
ZZzzzzz
The last two weeks my sleep has sucked. I already discussed that. I am 100% sure at this point that if I do not address my sleep hygiene as a priority I will never be able to reach my overall wellness goals. When I am sleep deprived, I wake up in a foul mood. I skip morning workouts. I complain and feel sluggish when I do make it to my 6am workout and therefore don’t get the same feeling of pride and overall health when I complete it. It seems to me that I am hungrier than usual when I don’t sleep well and I am more interested in eating food that is quick and easy versus nutritious and consistent with my wellness goals. My focus is negatively affected. I am not on the top of my game. On the outside, I look tired, my sparkle is dimmed and there seems to be more hair in the drain. I know what I need to do. It’s time to take actions.
A Complicated Relationship
My relationship with food is complicated. It is simplified when I eat whole foods, when I prepare my meals, when I take the time to think about what I am eating before I am hungry and take the time to make yummy whole food that does not include sugar, and gluten; that is not processed; and is part of a plant-based diet. It does not have to be complicated. I make it that way, I can make it the other way.
Next…
I feel like I can seriously work on my sleep. I am 12 hours away from going on a short vacation (HOORAY). I have a new book coming out, Raising Freakishly Well-Behaved Kids in the next 90 days. I will need to care for myself while the book release kicks into gear. Writing, journaling, blogging has really helped me make sense of what I have learned and learned about myself. I am going to take a week off and then start back up. When I start back up I will be focused on Parenting, connecting the content of my new book to wellness. I am excited about that. Thanks for hanging with me.
With Love & Gratitude~
Jodi
DAYS 19, 20, 21 & 22 March 18-21, 2018, A month of working on my wellness.
Can commitment be a bad thing?
My goodness I have not updated you in a while. It’s not because I quit on you guys (or myself) I just got really bogged down. Jack Canfield creator of the Success Principles says “Over commit, under achieve.” He’s on to something for sure! Overcommitting myself is probably related to my poor sleep hygiene, and most of the other wellness challenges I face. My sleep schedule has been terrible over the last few days and it’s not going to improve in the near future.
Here’s what wellness challenges I notice when I get over-loaded:
- My sleep goes from being awful to sucking. I have not had a night over 5 hours in several days. Dr. Gottfried says that will get in my way of focusing, choosing healthy food for nourishment, and losing (or even maintaining weight), for starters.
- I am on edge emotionally (also connected to being sleep deprived).
- Caffeine is back into my diet.
- I am hungry.
- My meditation routine is totally off (I haven’t meditated in days).
- Sleeping even an extra few minutes seemed like a better idea then working out then I get get mad at myself (and random other people) for skipping a workout.
- Sugar cravings, particularly chocolate have reemerged. I had some vegan ice cream yesterday and today.
- For whatever reason, I haven’t had enough water.
- Twice today, I said yes when I should have and wanted to say “No.”
This is what I notice. I cannot imagine what is going on inside and what the cumulative effects on my health are. It is also interesting to me that most of the consequences of overcommitting are also consequences of sleep deprivation. Vicious. Sleep is the key. I need to plan out my sleep with the same vigor I plan out my workouts, my work, even my meditation gets a slot on my calendar sometimes.
My commitment to sleep is my commitment to wellness.
It’s already after 10:30pm and I am clearly not off the screen. It would be beyond challenging to me to get this going tonight because after finishing this I have to do a few other things that HAVE to be done for tomorrow. I am also headed out of town for a conference for a few days. Hotel sleeping when sharing a room with some friend-colleagues is not really an ideal situation for me to put my plan into practice. Best start day for me is Sunday. Anyone else want to give it a try? Starting on Sunday will give me three days before I go on vacation to begin my journey to better sleep. I know that’s not a lot of time, but really I need to get started!
I have learned a lot about sleep hygiene in battling with my own insomnia, helping my clients with their insomnia and other sleep disturbances, and in the recent reading that I have done about overall health and wellness. I am a chronic hypocrite when it comes to sleep hygiene and do not even remotely practice what I preach. One thing that writing this blog has really illuminated for me, is that sleep is what stands in the way of me achieving my wellness goals. I can no longer be a hypocrite. Plus, I just shared that with you all and now I have a bunch of accountability partners (thank you!).
Another plan
As I get started on what my plan is; I recognize it will look simple. I also recognize it will in NO WAY be easy.
Step away from the screen by 9:30pm.
Get ready for bed at 10:00pm. Have a cup of tea (decaf, of course), wash face, brush and floss teeth, read for 10-20 minutes.
Get in bed 10:30pm. Lights off, done for the night. *If after an hour I am struggling to sleep take a dose of magnesium and a dose of L-tryptophan.
I’ll let you know how it goes! Wish me luck!
With Love & Gratitude~
Jodi
Dr. Jodi Ann Mullen 