Being a parent is one of the most important jobs in the world. It can also be one of the most stressful.

 

If you ever find yourself struggling with the stress of parenthood then it's important to know that this is absolutely normal and makes complete sense. Our current social, cultural, political, economic climate is literally the perfect storm to push us all to our edge in terms of stress. On top of this, our nervous systems were designed to live, and to parent, in very different conditions to our current day arrangements. So I’d just like to reassure anyone finding things particularly difficult right now, that you are not an anomaly, in fact you are probably in the majority.

 

So, given that we find ourselves parenting in this perfect storm, it’s essential that first of all - the storm is acknowledged and we give ourselves a break. And that second of all, we are given the practical tools to be able to do something immediately effective about it.

 

Applied Relaxation is a psycho-therapeutic technique that was originally designed to treat conditions such as Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and panic disorders. However, it is now becoming more widespread as a highly effective tool to help us manage everyday stressors, and can be incredibly useful for things like parenting stress.

 

In Applied Relaxation sessions we teach your nervous system to access its primal relaxation response, which is its natural state of balanced equilibrium. We then use the principles of classical conditioning, which is the natural way our brain learns by association, to create a neurological connection in the brain between this state of calm and a ‘trigger’ or ‘cue’.

 

So, when you find yourself edging towards a stress response while parenting, you can use this trigger to shift your nervous system into its relaxation response. This means you can deal with melt-downs, conflict, and other high-pressure parenting moments in a calm and mentally resourceful state. Which not only helps to radically improve your everyday experience of parenting, but can also  have a significantly positive impact on the emotional and behavioural well-being of your whole family. 

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