In her article “Four Things to Do Every Day for Your Mental Health”, Elizabeth Markle says that, “in the absence of everything that normally dictates our days, we are called on to create the structures that will support our health, physically and emotionally, in a time of profound uncertainty.” Markle advocates that we all create our own structure using these four concepts: Move: Build movement in your structure, at least 20 minutes per day! Nourish: setting up a daily structure that (mostly) fills you with nourishing, healthy foods Connect: Humans need to connect to other humans. Since right now it won’t naturally happen throughout the day, you have to ask for it and schedule it. Be: Pause long enough from the chaos of our new realities “to let your nervous system come back to baseline after prolonged activation.” Find what works for you, be it meditation, doing a puzzle or simply watching TV. Whatever helps you just BE. As parents we can take care of ourselves by incorporating some of this into our daily routines, as we model for and support our kids, of any age, to do the same. Read the full article: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/four_things_to_do_every_day_for_your_mental_health
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I came across a great article in the NY Times by Anya Kamenetz, education reporter for NPR and author of “The Art of Screen Time”. As a full time working parent who lectures about screen time all over the country, she uses this article to reframe the issue of screen time during the time of COVID. The screen rules that were in place before shelter in place no longer have the same meaning or value for most families. Life for her and for most parents has dramatically changed as kids regular summer and school routines were interrupted last Spring. And with no end in sight she offers up some new screen time guidelines:
Find the full article here. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/parenting/children-screen-time-games-phones.html |
AuthorJenny Michaelson is a PCI, Archives
January 2024
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