Hello and welcome.
My name is Julie and I'm glad you joined us for a parent break.
I invite you to close your eyes and let's take a few breaths together as we move from the outside in.
So we'll breathe in and release and release.
And I invite you to continue breathing in whatever way feels comfortable as we consider today's idea of against versus with.
And as we consider that idea I invite you to visualize the following situation.
You've gone to pick up your children so you go into the building,
You get your kids and then you have to go out through a different door.
And as you're walking through the door you've got your kids behind you maybe you're holding the hand of one of your children.
There's a bag or goodies or something else that's in your hand and you're heading towards the door and you push on the door expecting it to open and you meet with resistance.
And you feel that you maybe haven't pushed hard enough so you step in and you give the door a good shove and it doesn't open.
And your kids are getting antsy and you're wondering if there's somebody behind you and you're not really sure what to do and then you think okay maybe there's another way here.
And you hold on to the handle and you pull towards you and the door immediately comes open and your kids are happy and you head out and the people behind you follow you out and you laugh to yourself and you think oh I can't believe I pushed instead of pulling.
But there's a sense of relief there's that feeling as the door comes towards you and suddenly everything's going in the right direction.
There can be that same sense of relief as rolling down a hill instead of lugging yourself up one.
Or perhaps the difference between walking against the current into the ocean or floating on a little flotation device as you head around a lazy river in a water park.
It's often easier to go with the flow which doesn't mean it's the right thing to do all the time.
All the time.
But it can feel a lot of the time in life that we are working against the flow and there is a sense of ease that happens when we work with instead of working against.
As parents it can sometimes feel like we're supposed to have all the answers.
That people are counting on us to lead the way,
Make the decisions and get there on time.
And the reality is that we can't have all the answers.
And sometimes when we create space to ask others for help,
To ask others to work with us,
To ask others to come up with an idea of how we can make it work there is a sense of relief just like pulling that door open.
And in addition there's a commitment from the other people involved.
There's a renewed energy and there's a possibility of working together.
In parenting we can take on so much responsibility and some of it is ours to take and we have to take it on.
But sometimes we take on even more responsibility than we need to take.
And so let's take a few moments here to let go of some of that responsibility or at least the burden of some of that responsibility.
So in a moment we're going to breathe together again.
We're going to breathe in for three counts,
Float for three counts and then sigh out the responsibility for three counts.
And we'll do that twice.
So here we go.
Please join me.
We're going to inhale for one,
Two,
Three,
Float,
Two,
Three and release.
Let's do that one more time.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Float,
Two,
Three and release.
As we let go of some of that responsibility we're going to bring ourselves back into the room,
Open our eyes and get ready for some journal.
