Helping your kids to want less and be more grateful this Christmas!

As parents we naturally want to give our children the best and we want them to have more. But studies have repeatedly shown, money doesn’t bring happiness and neither does the accumulation of more ‘stuff’. In fact having too much, which often happens at Christmas can have more stress than it’s worth. (not to mention the stress on poor Mum who has to tidy up all this stuff throughout the year!

So here are a few tips to help your children to want less this Christmas and be grateful for what they do get….

      1. Talk to them about items they desire, will it truly make them happy? Will they get sick of it quickly?   

     

       2. Remind them that cheap toys often break easily, they tire of playing with them quickly and then end up in landfill. Let older children know that Australia is the second biggest producer of landfill in the world!    

         

      3. Suggest to you child that they donate one toy to charity for each toy they receive. (A good way to clear the clutter and encourages them to think of others less fortunate) 

     

      4.Role play with children an appropriate response to receiving a gift before the big day. Talk to them about how the giver has invested time into choosing a present especially for them. (I’m sure we have all experienced a child who turns up their nose at an unwanted present!)

    5.  Encourage children to write a gratitude list after Christmas (or chat with younger ones), listing everything that happened at Christmas or even throughout the year that they are thankful for.

  

      6. And finally when your family does receive an abundance of toys at Christmas (especially if they have a birthday close to the day) do a toy rotation roster. Divide toys into 4 lots and rotate on a fortnightly or monthly basis. With babies and younger kid’s you can do it immediately because they have no idea what they received but with older kids you will have to wait a little while until they tire of their new toys.  This causes them to play with play with the toys that are out as they seem ‘new’ every rotation and are not just strewn everywhere around the room and barely touched.

      If you would like to read more on toy rotation click here   

Merry Christmas. xx

You can train your Kids like robots!

It's true -you could train them to massage your feet and bring you a beer! That's not quite what I discovered whilst on my health mission but it is true that the first 7 years of a person's life controls 95% of the rest of their life.

Why is this you ask?

EEG's taken of babies and children show they are in  low frequency brain waves known as delta and theta. This is the same state as hypnosis (You will change your own nappy, I repeat, you will change your own nappy!) At 7  it changes to our adult brain waves known as Delta and Beta.  We all know that babies and kids learn by observation. In this hypnotic state they are basically just downloading behaviours, beliefs and worldly wisdom from their parents into their subconscious mind. And once its there-

It controls their biology for the rest of their lives!

As an adult, if your conscious mind wanders (that's the part of your brain that controls your wishes and desires) it will default back to the subconscious mind. It is believed that most people spend 95% of their time on their subconscious mind..........

so basically most of the time your living the life of someone else's beliefs. How many times do you think- My God I just sounded like my mother!

So apparently the areas of your life you are struggling with is likely to be a conflict between your desires (conscious mind) and your beliefs (subconscious mind) Is it any wonder that you do everything to be wealthy but seem to get nowhere when as a child you were told

"Money doesn't grow on trees"
"Money's hard to come by"
"You have to work hard and long hours to make money"   and anyway
"rich people are selfish!"

So what can you do to change these beliefs you were fed as a child. The answer is to live more in the MOMENT. Try and stay in your conscious mind and believe me it is hard to do. Try being in the moment for a minute, then in the moment for a Monday and then maybe for the month of  May!

As for my kids- I'm trying to teach them about nutrition and be a good example. I'm trying to train them like a robot, telling them things over and over again like "It's important to love yourself", "You are amazing", " You can do anything you want when you grow up, as long as it makes you happy:" So that when they grow up they Love and respect themselves and their bodies, have a job they Love and if they have any tough times know that they are amazing!

If you want to know more a great book is 'Buddhism for mothers'  by Sarah Napthali or google anything on this topic from Bruce Lipton