30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Accepting Thought-Box Deliveries 💚 (16/30)

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Accepting Thought-Box Deliveries 💚 (16/30)

In this podcast episode, we think about the things we allow into our mental real estate.

"What if you are conscious enough to pay attention to your mental real estate in a way that filters out the deliveries that should simply be marked “return to sender” or never even opened at all."

 Looking for an episode transcript? You'll find it below! 

This Episode is Brought To You By

  • The C.E.O. Training Team to Empty Nest Success Membership, powered by SupaPass

Episode Topics & Their Minute Markers

  • 00:41 Skip the intro & jump into today's topic
  • 03:21 Journal Prompt

💚 Send audio feedback to Coach Christine now: voicemail/text to 920-LIFEWIN (920-543-3946). 

You may be interested in…

For those who are freaking out about the empty nest years. It is time to make the rest of your life the best of your life!

Coach Christine,

Your Empty Nest Coach

"What if you are conscious enough to pay attention to your mental real estate in a way that filters out the deliveries that should simply be marked “return to sender” or never even opened at all."

Subscribe To This Podcast

It is FREE!

Want to get notified of new episodes directly on your phone? Subscribe to this podcast using your favorite app!

The Your Empty Nest Coach Podcast, Episode 184

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Consciously Process Your Emotions (16/30)

FULL TRANSCRIPT

[level-up music]

Accepting Thought-Box-Deliveries is our topic for today (Day 16) in the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success. 

[level-up music]

If this is your first time listening,  know we are diving into the challenge content. If you like what you hear, jump back to the episode titled “Getting Started with the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success” and then work your way through from the beginning - or visit EmptyNestSuccess.com to sign up for daily or weekly email delivery of this challenge that will lead you to companion videos, additional journal prompts, resources and more! 

Here we go: 

00:41

Amazing human and beautiful soul, we’ve been building an analogy for Conscious Effective Olympian (that’s C.E.O.) living in our empty nest years, and today we’re going to focus on where the thought-box-deliveries we first mentioned in episode 11 of this season are coming from.

The thought-box-deliveries can be quite plentiful and arrive from a variety of sources such as 

  • A teacher you had decades ago 

  • A parent

  • The media: we are continually bombarded by messages from television, social media, billboards, [giggle] podcasts and more!

  • A colleague at work

  • A friend or a frenemy

  • Even a stranger on the street who makes a comment

It is important to note that not all thought-box-deliveries are intentionally sent from others - they may be simply sharing their own experience never considering the impact you might make it in your own life. A thought-box-delivery may come as a demand or as what some consider a fact.

The consideration I invite you to make today is to pay attention to where one (or some) of the thought-box-deliveries that have strong negative emotions for you  - where are they coming from. Do you know where it came from? 

What if you are conscious enough to pay attention to your mental real estate in a way that filters out the deliveries that should simply be marked “return to sender” or never even opened at all.

By the way, your inner self has your back; thinks you’re amazing, and incredible; and would never think anything about you that is unkind. You weren’t born thinking lousy things about yourself. Unkind thoughts about yourself? Well, those came from somewhere, and you can choose to declutter them and never allow them within your fence again. 

Being curious about where thought-box-deliveries come from, allows you to not only declutter the boxes that aren’t serving you, but also you may discover some that are continually forwarded to you that make you feel wonderful - and you’re ignoring those. Why?

Then, you get to choose if you want to change anything: choose to ignore the happenings that cause the thought-box-delivery;  or take a look at a delivery and toss it into the trash; or you can treasure it - if it is one that feels good, and well, honestly, you can do whatever you want with them.

This is, after all, your life to live! 

03:21

[level-up music]

Your journal prompt for today is …Do you have an easier time accepting positive or negative thought-box-deliveries?

03:30

[level-up music]

As always, I provide content to make you think. My hope is that I am able to provide you with thoughts that positively impact your life. If you enjoyed this episode, I invite you to take a moment to follow this podcast - it is free after all - AND become this podcast's hero by sharing it with others! You’ll find links to additional resources, time markers and more in the show notes. 

[exit music - upbeat]

Thanks for listening today, be curious where those thought-box-deliveries are coming from, and don’t you dare forget that you are amazing! 

Chat next time!

[end]


Your Empty Nest Coach Christine has her arms out wide and looking up to the sky while in nature, text leads to the online home for the 30-Day  Challenge to Empty Nest Success

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success

It's time to take control of your new reality and turn it into a positive experience. Do the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success and get started on your amazing new chapter in life! All are welcome - whether the empty nest is ahead or you've been in it for years and anywhere between. 

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Consciously Process Your Emotions 💚 (15/30)

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Consciously Process Your Emotions 💚 (15/30)

In this podcast episode, we continue the Conscious Effective Olympian analogy for your emotions.

"Be curious about where your thoughts go, and consider what would your life look like if you felt your emotions and you weren't afraid to feel them?"

 Looking for an episode transcript? You'll find it below! 

This Episode is Brought To You By

  • The C.E.O. Training Team to Empty Nest Success Membership, powered by SupaPass

Episode Topics & Their Minute Markers

  • 00:44 Skip the intro & jump into today's topic
  • 06:48 Journal Prompt

💚 Send audio feedback to Coach Christine now: voicemail/text to 920-LIFEWIN (920-543-3946). 

You may be interested in…

For those who are freaking out about the empty nest years. It is time to make the rest of your life the best of your life!

Coach Christine,

Your Empty Nest Coach

"Be curious about where your thoughts go, and consider what would your life look like if you felt your emotions and you weren't afraid to feel them?"

Subscribe To This Podcast

It is FREE!

Want to get notified of new episodes directly on your phone? Subscribe to this podcast using your favorite app!

The Your Empty Nest Coach Podcast, Episode 183

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Consciously Process Your Emotions (15/30)

FULL TRANSCRIPT

[level-up music]

Consciously Processing Your Emotions is our topic for today (Day 15) in the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success. Yes, we’re halfway there.

[level-up music]

If this is your first time listening,  know we are diving into the challenge content. If you like what you hear, jump back to the episode titled “Getting Started with the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success” and then work your way through from the beginning - or visit EmptyNestSuccess.com to sign up for daily or weekly email delivery of this challenge that will lead you to companion videos, additional journal prompts, resources and more!

Here we go: 

00:44

Amazing human and beautiful soul, we began this topic a bit yesterday when we added on how to envision emotions within our Conscious Effective Olympian Living - and I invite you to dig in a little bit more today: 

Many of us were told over the years to hide our strong emotions. Have you heard these comments: 

"Cheer up," 

"You have nothing to be angry about," 

"Oh I'll give you something to cry about." 

Statements like these certainly don't teach us how to process or pay attention to our emotions. 

It is a bit of a rarity to find loved ones and others who are willing to share their emotions, tell you things like: I’ll be okay. I just have some emotions I need to pay attention to for a little bit of time. 

Can you imagine a parent allowing a child to be angry and encouraging the child to see what they can learn about themselves as they experience the anger? What thoughts are on their mind? Are they enjoying the anger?  To be honest, it might feel way better than the despair they felt moments earlier, or hopelessness they might have been feeling. And then when they get to the other side of the anger, they may be able to move to another emotion that feels even better. 

They may discover the anger really didn’t serve them much at all - or the way they expressed it brought up other things. And the next time they feel it, they may process through it quicker.

What would a world, where we all did this, be like?  These are the kinds of things I like to think about.

In our ever-expanding analogy, I imagine our avoiding and ignoring emotions as we are well-trained to take any thought-box delivery with a strong emotion and toss it in the basement of our home with all the other strong emotions. 

I see all the angry ones are together. All the hopeless ones are together, happy, sadness, you make the piles. The more boxes that are together, the more the energy in that emotion expands over time.

As the thought-box delivery comes down, it quickly is magnetized to the pile that it matches and it becomes STRONG. I almost can visualize them rumbling a bit.

Whether the emotion was triggered by something you watched on TV, in social media, a conversation you had, maybe even driving your car, we don’t know any different, so there’s no reason to beat ourselves up. 

Simply acknowledge that this may be happening. And, if this analogy kind of works for you but you can kind of make it fit a little better, please, make this your own.  

I'd like to encourage you to consider experiencing your emotions (not tossing them down the basement) can be freeing. Sure, we may have been taught to take those emotions, put them into storage and lock them away. 

Taking a look at the emotions, and considering why the emotions are there - what is raising them in us can allow us to clear the clutter of our mind quickly - or quicker than we used to.  I encourage you to become conscious of your emotions. You’re not going to catch them all, but if you start with one, that’s a win!

As you learn to sift through your emotions, pay attention to how they feel in your body, and decide what to do with them before they make it to the basement area. It’s a lot easier to open a single box and to process it, then to go into the basement, grab that box that’s now in a rumbling pile of emotion.

And lets be real, sometimes you open the box, you look at the emotion, and you think, “Yeah, this is justified!” That’s really good! Other times you may be “why was I so angry about this, that’s really no big deal.”   It’s all for you to figure out - make it fun! 

And, there are times when we have to store away emotions briefly until we have time and safe space to process them. When you begin to make that the exception rather than the norm, you may find your life becomes freeing. 

Then, when you do have the time to process your emotions and you end up visiting the storage area, it doesn’t mean you need to dive in and re-evaluate all of your past emotions or anything. Honestly, if you are feeling good, you don’t even have to look at that original box!

Remember, I’m not your boss. You use your own inner guidance, but if you decide to do a deep dive into those emotions, that is a really good time to seek a therapist or another mental health practitioner. They are skilled in helping you navigate all that may come up. 

For now, though, and the future, what if you pay attention to your emotions and consider that, yeah, maybe you just need to be sad. What if you share with your loved ones things like, “Hey, I'm sad. And it’s okay that I’m sad. It really  makes sense. This is a bittersweet time for me.” Looking at the Empty Nest in particular, we could continue with things like,”  I am really excited for you but I'm also sad because I like having you around. And we've built this relationship. I'm really proud of you,  so, I'll miss you. I'm gonna have sad moments but it's gonna be okay. And I am really excited for you."

Not only are you gifting yourself with the ability to take that thought-box delivery, open it up, look at it, consider it and process through - decide where you want to put it, but you're also showing your children and loved ones what emotions look like - that it's okay to have them and this is healthy. 

See where this all lands for you. Ultimately, it’s your journey so do what you feel inspired to try or not try. Conscious Effective Olympian living is super fun and it takes time to adjust - it’s worth it but there is also no rush at all.

A reminder that this is the “meatier” portion of the challenge - and you may need to chew on the concept a little bit. 

Enjoy considering all of this. Be curious about where your thoughts go, and consider what would your life look like if you felt your emotions and you weren't afraid to feel them? Super fun! If you already do this - well done!

06:48

[level-up music]

Your journal prompt for today is …. Reflect on a strong emotion that you initially pushed down - one that isn’t too tough - can you identify where that thought originally came from?

[exit music - upbeat]

Thanks for listening today! Lean into some of those emotions and don’t you dare forget that you are amazing! 

Chat next time!

[end]

Your Empty Nest Coach Christine has her arms out wide and looking up to the sky while in nature, text leads to the online home for the 30-Day  Challenge to Empty Nest Success

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success

It's time to take control of your new reality and turn it into a positive experience. Do the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success and get started on your amazing new chapter in life! All are welcome - whether the empty nest is ahead or you've been in it for years and anywhere between. 

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Your Emotions 💚 (14/30)

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Your Emotions 💚 (14/30)

In this podcast episode, we continue our primary analogy for Conscious Effective Olympian living with a focus on your emotions. 

"Any emotion you experience is valid because it is yours."

 Looking for an episode transcript? You'll find it below! 

This Episode is Brought To You By

  • The C.E.O. Training Team to Empty Nest Success Membership, powered by SupaPass

Episode Topics & Their Minute Markers

  • 00:42 Skip the intro & jump into today's topic
  • 03:13 Journal Prompt

💚 Send audio feedback to Coach Christine now: voicemail/text to 920-LIFEWIN (920-543-3946). 

You may be interested in…

For those who are freaking out about the empty nest years. It is time to make the rest of your life the best of your life!

Coach Christine,

Your Empty Nest Coach

"Any emotion you experience is valid

because it is yours."

Subscribe To This Podcast

It is FREE!

Want to get notified of new episodes directly on your phone? Subscribe to this podcast using your favorite app!

The Your Empty Nest Coach Podcast, Episode 182

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Your Emotions

FULL TRANSCRIPT

[level-up music]

Your Emotions. That’s our topic for today (Day 14) in the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success.  

[level-up music]

If this is your first time listening,  know we are diving into the challenge content. If you like what you hear, jump back to the episode titled “Getting Started with the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success” and then work your way through from the beginning - or visit EmptyNestSuccess.com to sign up for daily or weekly email delivery of this challenge that will lead you to companion videos, additional journal prompts, resources and more!

Here we go: 

00:42

Amazing human and beautiful soul, are you ready to add your emotions into this analogy that we are building? 

Let’s go back to those thought-box-deliveries that enter your home. 

I like to imagine my emotions (once I’ve identified them) as written on the inside flap opening of my thought-box-delivery. I picture them in thick black ink. 

For example, Imagine you open the thought-box-delivery labeled “my future is unknown”. And you see inside this box, written fear, nervousness, overwhelm - one word on each interior side of the box. 

For some thought-box-deliveries there will be one singular emotion. And for other thought-box-deliveries, there may be multiple emotions that arise. It’s always good to pick one emotion to take a look at a thought at a time. 

 Sometimes, we identify our thoughts before our emotions but quite often, what happens is our box is open and that emotion is pouring out - so we experience that emotion before we even think to pay attention to the thoughts we are thinking. 

Any emotion you experience is valid because it is yours. You may want to consider that an emotion you are experiencing might be an indicator to take stock of things - maybe do a reset, take a look at your thought-box-deliveries, or simply add to the statement: “And that is okay.”  This may lift the emotion to feeling a little better and gives you the space to experience it. 

If your emotions feel good - and you catch them - see what thought-box-delivery they arrived in and make a note that this one is definitely worth keeping and revisiting. Also, who sent that to you because you might want to spend more time around them. 

If you find your emotions tend to be on the unpleasant side of things, and are able to identify your thought-box-deliveries related to the emotion, those might be ones that are worth training your Protector on - and imagine what you would want your protector to do with them. 

I’d start with something small. 

For me, most of these deliveries are ones that my Protector now allows to pass on by - knowing they were never meant for me anyway. There’s no reason for them to enter my fence. 

We’ll continue to talk about your emotions in our next episode.

03:13 

[level-up music]

Your journal prompt for today is ….Take a moment to reflect on a recent situation where you experienced strong emotions. Are you able to identify the thought or belief that triggered them?

03:27

[level-up music]

As always, I provide content to make you think. My hope is that I am able to provide you with thoughts that positively impact your life. If you enjoyed this episode, I invite you to take a moment to follow this podcast - it is free after all - AND become this podcast's hero by sharing it with others! You’ll find links to additional resources, time markers and more in the show notes. 

[exit music - upbeat]

Thanks for listening today, see what emotions arise,  and don’t you dare forget that you are amazing! 

Chat next time!

[end]


Your Empty Nest Coach Christine has her arms out wide and looking up to the sky while in nature, text leads to the online home for the 30-Day  Challenge to Empty Nest Success

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success

It's time to take control of your new reality and turn it into a positive experience. Do the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success and get started on your amazing new chapter in life! All are welcome - whether the empty nest is ahead or you've been in it for years and anywhere between. 

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Your Protector – Who’s the boss? 💚 (13/30)

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Your Protector - Who's the boss? 💚 (13/30)

In this podcast episode, we add on the idea of the part of you that acts as your Protector.

"But, what if..  you become the boss of your own life - the Conscious Effective Olympian - by taking the time to get to know and train your Protector?"

 Looking for an episode transcript? You'll find it below! 

This Episode is Brought To You By

  • The C.E.O. Training Team to Empty Nest Success Membership, powered by SupaPass

Episode Topics & Their Minute Markers

  • 00:42 Skip the intro & jump into today's topic
  • 05:26 Journal Prompt

💚 Send audio feedback to Coach Christine now: voicemail/text to 920-LIFEWIN (920-543-3946). 

You may be interested in…

For those who are freaking out about the empty nest years. It is time to make the rest of your life the best of your life!

Coach Christine,

Your Empty Nest Coach

"But, what if..  you become the boss of your own life - the Conscious Effective Olympian - by taking the time to get to know and train your Protector?

Subscribe To This Podcast

It is FREE!

Want to get notified of new episodes directly on your phone? Subscribe to this podcast using your favorite app!

The Your Empty Nest Coach Podcast, Episode 181

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success: Your Protector - Who's the boss?

FULL TRANSCRIPT

[level-up music]

Your Protector: Who’s the boss the boss, anyway? is our topic for today (Day 13) in the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success. 

[level-up music]

If this is your first time listening,  know we are diving into the challenge content. If you like what you hear, jump back to the episode titled “Getting Started with the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success” and then work your way through from the beginning - or visit EmptyNestSuccess.com to sign up for daily or weekly email delivery of this challenge that will lead you to companion videos, additional journal prompts, resources and more!

Here we go: 

00:42

Amazing human and beautiful soul, we are continuing to build our analogy with those building block concepts. What if the part of you that some call ego, you begin to think of as your protector? 

Let me first share where this analogy came from …. I was working through reading “The Power of Now.” I talk about that in our episode about presence, and in that book Eckhart Tolle mentions the ego quite a bit. No matter how many times I read it, the word wasn’t resonating with me, personally, as positively as I believe he was intending it. I always associated the word “ego” with negativity, even though I know in different contexts it has different meanings. Being a person focused on finding ways to love all the parts of myself, this wasn’t going to work for me. This put me on a journey to discover a way to think of the ego so that I loved it and cared for it as it is part of me. 

I tried different concepts and, finally, one resonated with me: the idea that this ego part of me was, actually, trying to do their best: it was overwhelmed, it’s untrained, and it’s working incredibly hard with barely any resources. I don’t know about you but I’ve been in job roles where I’ve felt that way and the way I show up is entirely different from the times when I feel confident in my role; I feel well trained;  I feel my boss has my back; and if I have a question, it’s okay because then, we can work it out together. 

I began to play with this concept, adjust it and eventually landed on the name of a Protector - a security guard of sorts but one that I simply need to train. I’ve been told by some clients and podcast listeners that the analogy works well for them too! So, here we are, years later and it still fits.

Now back to the analogy we’re building: although your Protector will be different from mine - let’s add yours to your mind’s house, yard and fence.  Imagine adding on a security space just outside of your fence. This may be as intimate or as large as you like - be it a person standing there with locks on the gate and you need their intervention or a full blown security building with tv monitors, and a really nice chair for your Protector. 

I’ll share a little bit about mine: I imagine mine in a hut just to the side of the fence. Now, they are trained enough that most of the time, they get to chill out. They’ve earned this chill out session: they get to drink  their coffee and watch all the monitors where they easily know which thing can pass on by my fence without me giving it a second thought. 

We’ve gone through some significant training to get to this point, too. 

If you’re starting to question where we are, pop back an episode or two and re-listen to the building of this analogy, or check the extra resources I have in the show notes!

If do you find this Protector concept resonates with you, spend some time getting to know your Protector, begin to consider what your incredible part of you would look like. 

Remember the idea here is that they take their job of protecting you super seriously. And absolutely everything that comes near the fence, currently, puts them on high alert. EVERYTHING. It's not their fault. They haven't been trained  - ever. They have been doing this job for decades and you haven’t paid any attention to them. They are under the false assumption, also, that they are the boss. 

They have no reason to think otherwise. All they know is if they don’t do their job well, bad things happen to you, and their job is to protect you. 

But, what if.. (you know how I like that) what if you become the boss of your own life - the Conscious Effective Olympian) by taking the time to get to know and train your Protector to handle thought deliveries to your specifications. Specifications, that honestly, you don’t know yet because you still need to declutter your house - that’s all good!

Your job right now is to appreciate and love your Protector part of you for doing the best they could, up until now. 

This challenge is a perfect example of a training resource that you can use to train your protector.  And this challenge is one huge introductory training program.

05:26

[level-up music]

Your journal prompt for today is …. How do you imagine your Protector and where they reside as they do their job?

[exit music - upbeat]

Thanks for listening today! For the opportunity to get to know you might have a Protector and don’t you dare forget that you are amazing! 

Chat next time!

[end]


Your Empty Nest Coach Christine has her arms out wide and looking up to the sky while in nature, text leads to the online home for the 30-Day  Challenge to Empty Nest Success

30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success

It's time to take control of your new reality and turn it into a positive experience. Do the 30-Day Challenge to Empty Nest Success and get started on your amazing new chapter in life! All are welcome - whether the empty nest is ahead or you've been in it for years and anywhere between. 

142: 5 Things To Remember As Your Child Graduates from High School 💚

142: 5 Things To Remember As Your Child Graduates from High School 💚

Hello, my amazing friend!

Coach Christine,

Your Empty Nest Coach

"I know you have a million things you want to tell your child to make sure they are prepared for what’s ahead but don’t lose listening to their hopes and dreams as you navigate this transition."

Take a listen or read the full transcript at the bottom of this post.

⇓⇓⇓ More goodies below, too! Scroll down ⇓, so you don't miss anything! ⇓⇓⇓

@emptynestcoach 's podcast episode today: 5 Things to Remember as Your Child Graduates from High School

Click to Tweet

This Episode is Brought To You By

Episode Topics & Their Minute Markers

  • 00:41 Quick Reminders
  • 01:03 5 Things to Remember as Your Child Graduates from High School

💚Send audio feedback to Coach Christine now: voicemail/text to 920-LIFEWIN (920-543-3946).

First Time Here? Try This Order of Episodes

Episode Resources

* affiliate link to SupaPass - which powers our community - coming soon! Should you purchase using the link, I make a commission.

Subscribe To This Podcast

It is FREE!

Want to get notified of new episodes directly on your phone? Subscribe to this podcast using your favorite app!

The Your Empty Nest Coach Podcast, Episode 142

FULL TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00

Christine: Hi, I’m Coach Christine. This is my podcast, it’s the Your Empty Nest Coach Podcast, and we’re on episode #142.  If you are new here, know that I tend to use terms I’ve used in prior episodes - should you feel a bit lost when this happens, I invite you to use my show notes for a list of earlier episodes to get caught up! High-level, I’m all about coaching you to become the CEO of Your Life and in my world, CEO stands for Conscious Effective Olympian. You’ll do this by leveling-up 

[level-up music]

your life in small increments - those small wins add up to big changes.

I appreciate that you pressed play on this episode today. Here we go…

[short intro music]

00:00:41

Some quick reminders: You’ll find a ton of information, resources and more on my website: YourEmptyNestCoach.com. I love feedback on episodes - see my show notes for how to do that - and if you enjoy this podcast, don’t forget to follow this podcast in your favorite podcast player. SupaPass, who powers our online community, (that’s coming soon) is our fabulous episode sponsor. 

==================================================

00:01:03

[computer game level up music (short)]  

Here are your 5 things to Remember as Your Child Graduates from High School - I’ll share 5 more in my next episode!

I’m gonna count down from ten.

10: This is a Big Deal - and I have ten things to say about this.

10. You raised a Human

9. You Learned A Lot About Parenting

8. You Learned A Lot about Yourself

7. You Cleaned a Lot of Messes  both Physical & Emotional

6. Not a Milestone Everyone Reaches, Sadly

5. You’ve Experienced the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

4. Driving Lessons? If you got through those, those are No Joke.

3. You’ve had to Re-Learned Topics that your Child's Doing in School and You Did Year's Ago

2. You Spent A Little Bit of Money and number

1. And Made it to a New Level in Life

Isn’t that fun? When you have a countdown, and then have a countdown within a countdown?

[small giggle]

Okay, no more of that.

00:002:00

Number 9 out of Things to Remember as your Child Graduates from High School is to Celebrate it!

Whether the celebration is big or small, it’s worth celebrating. I don’t necessarily mean, this has to be a huge party. Think about how not only how your emerging adult can celebrate but also how you can celebrate. This is a milestone, and it doesn’t need to be all food truck in the driveway, magazine quality decor type of thing. You could decide to do a project together that commemorates this moment - one for both of you. Maybe spend a day going through photos of their childhood and seeing what ones they might like in a photo book or frame for their life ahead. Are they moving out tomorrow? Probably not, but for most of us that day arrives and the last thing we are thinking about in that moment is, what photos does my kiddo want for the future? What should I make sure they have? If you don’t have many photos - this is a reality for some -  it would be a good time to talk about big memories and to document them. Maybe having a day or two set aside for that with music and favorite snacks - that sounds like a fun celebration to me. 

If you are into the big parties and can do that - enjoy that - that is how you enjoy celebrating and both ways are valuable. 

00:03:12

Number 8: Appreciate Growth

Some of these may sound like they’re the same - but while this could be celebrating, in my mind, it’s a little different. Taking the time to reflect not only on how much your child has grown but also how much you have grown as a human is a gift worth giving yourself. I’m not talking about height only here - I’m talking about emotional growth, maturity, taking time to try things to discover if they are a good fit for your life - and again, this is for both you as a parent and  child. Think back to the first day they came home with you - who you were as a human and who you are now is different. Would past-you even recognize you now? This is a super fun exercise, by the way. If it brings you down, don’t do it, just let it go. 

00:03:59

Number 7: Look at Life Skills

More than likely one day your kiddo will be moving out of your home. For some of us it is sooner than later - and for others we wonder when they will ever leave. Remember everyone has a different path for their life but this is a great time to take stock on life skills that they could use moving forward. Do you still book their medical appointments for them? Do you order and pick up their prescriptions? Do you remind them to take their prescriptions? Do they have any idea about how to manage their money - or how much rent would cost? Do they understand how credit cards really work? How to make some meals for themselves? You know, all those things that you need to survive day to day. 

00:04:43

Number 6: Listen

Remember to listen to your incredible child now. If they are heading somewhere in the fall (or sooner), you won’t have this luxury soon. I know you have a million things you want to tell your child to make sure they are prepared for what’s ahead but don’t lose listening to their hopes and dreams as you navigate this transition. You’ll learn so much about them, and practice this early. Things like, “What a fun idea, how do you think that will work?” type of questions, rather than statements that shut down their sharing. 

[music]

I’ll be back tomorrow to complete my list of ten things to remember as your child graduates from high school - yes, I’ll share five more things. Remember, I have 141 other episodes available for you to catch up on or relisten to when you are driving, doing chores or taking a walk.

My amazing empty nest friend, a little birdie reminded me that you are amazing!

Talk tomorrow!

[end music]

00:05:44

[blooper]

[end music]

[end]