Hello,
And welcome.
My name is Julie,
And I'm glad you've joined us for a parent break.
If your eyes are open,
I invite you to close them.
And let's take a few breaths together to move from the outside inward.
Inhale and release.
Let's inhale and release.
Today we're going to spend some time considering saying no.
I speak with many parents who feel like they spend their entire lives saying no.
They don't like being that person,
The one who always gets in the way of what others want.
Today,
I invite you to explore a different perspective on saying no.
In your palm,
Imagine that you're holding a coin.
On one side of this coin is the word no.
And every coin has two sides.
As you slowly turn the coin over,
On the other side is the word yes.
I invite you to consider that every time you play that coin and say no to someone,
There is a yes that is played as well.
Whenever we say no to something,
We are also saying yes to something else.
When we say no,
You can't have that second ice cream cone.
We are saying yes,
I will help your tummy to feel safe from being over full.
When we say no,
You can't have that extra story tonight.
We are saying yes,
You can begin to move toward a healthy night of sleep.
When we say no,
You can't keep playing on the screen.
We are saying yes,
I care about your body and brain development,
And it's time for something new.
Saying no to children sometimes comes more easily than saying no to others our own age.
It might be that we don't want to let anyone down.
We want to seem like we care about whatever we're being asked to do.
Let's take out that coin again and see how it might apply here.
If we're asked to do something,
And we're already feeling overwhelmed,
Saying no to that request means we are saying yes to ourselves,
Our other commitments,
And our health.
Let's spend a few moments breathing and considering how a no is also a yes.
If it makes sense to you,
I invite you to join me in a few yes affirmations.
So if you're feeling up to it,
Join me in saying no,
Followed by these yeses.
No,
I can't take that on right now.
Yes,
I value having space in my life.
As we prepare to go back into our day,
We'll take two breaths.
We'll do an inhale,
Float,
Exhale and drift.
Here we go.
Inhale,
Float,
Exhale,
Drift.
Inhale,
Float,
Exhale,
Drift.
If you're here at parent break,
We're going to take eight minutes for private journaling.
And if you're joining us on instant timer in a replay,
I encourage you to do the same.
Thank you for joining us for another parent break.
