9 Positive Ways to Connect with Your Child

With the 2020 pandemic, those of us who fulfill roles as caregivers—parents, grandparents, older siblings, aunts, uncles, more—find ourselves trying to do the impossible. The whole world is still learning how to get through our day-to-day tasks as we redefine “normal,” some of us are working from home in jobs that were never meant to be remote, and we caregivers bear the responsibility of providing for our children’s education, getting them the support they need and the opportunities they deserve in order to learn and grow.

It’s hard enough to provide for a growing child, or to educate them, or to care for their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Simultaneously taking on all three of these roles, plus juggling their schedules and other needs even as we juggle our own, is a recipe for overwhelm, burnout, stress, and anxiety.

If you’re experiencing any or all of these feelings, know that you are not alone. In a recent study by Kaiser Health, “53 percent of adult respondents reported feeling significantly increased stress and anxiety from the impact of COVID-19-related restrictions on their lives.”

What we know about emotions is that they have a lasting impact on our bodies and minds, whether we consciously acknowledge them or not. In particular, negative emotions that are prolonged and unaddressed can take a toll on youth and adults alike.

Stress sinks its way into the body, leaving us feeling exhausted, disoriented, alone. Stress puts us in a constant state of alarm, ready to fight for our lives, to freeze in place, or to run away at any moment. Without intentional care, stress can build a wall of separation between you and your loved ones and your own self-awareness.

If you are feeling stressed out, the youth that you care for are feeling that way too.

Families across the globe are seeking connection with their families and within themselves, but they find their focus constantly drawn to external demands. With overloaded task lists, scarce resources, unpredictable time constraints, and a growing sense of fatigue, doing one more thing seems utterly impossible, even if that one thing is the sense of connectedness we want more than anything.

As a bridge of connection, Yoga Ed. has created a simple toolkit: 9 Positive Ways to Connect with Your Child. 

In this toolkit, you will:

• Understand how to identify when you and your child are feeling disconnected, and 
• Learn 9 body-based practices to support and nourish the relationships between caregivers and children. 

With these tools, you are equipped to guide yourself in a responsive approach to connecting with your child and with yourself. We invite you to get grounded in your body, which provides the essential foundation for us to work from a place of response rather than reaction. Through sharing this toolkit, we hope to help nurture the life-giving connections that will sustain us in these tough times and beyond.

Download now.