Reframing Me - Self-Development & Parenting Teens for Midlife Moms

Send us Fan Mail Pick your battles. Siphon your power. Choose your hard. Ration your F.... As parents of teens, we often hear the phrase "pick your battles." Join me for a conversation on why this is such an important concept for parents to understand and follow, and how following this mantra can help your teens grow and thrive AND bring your family more peace. The Law of Attraction - th...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you for joining me again for another Jen is Zen episode. Today, I'd like you to reflect on this: The beauty of realizing that you’re the problem comes in realizing that you are also the solution. This would've been the best advice that I could have followed at 18 - or 30 or 40, really. My ego definitely wouldn't have accepted being the problem, but when you do...

Send us Fan Mail Happy summer! As we start the summer season, many of us are planning travel with teens, which is definitely always an adventure. So let's revisit our conversation on traveling with teens and 10 universal reflections we experience on those trips.  In this conversation, we'll explore valuable insights and practical advice on traveling with teens, from involving them in the...

Send us Fan Mail The most powerful words that you can say are I am. I am. How are you using them, and how can you use them better and more responsibly? I am. So very simple. Every day, we use them. We use the words aloud to others and in our heads to describe who we are, how we see ourselves, and how we present ourselves to the world. According to the Law of Resonance, The frequency of any materia...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you for joining me to have a conversation today! I’m so happy you’re here. Today let’s talk about frustrations that we have with some of our teenagers' behaviors, such as impulsivity, forgetfulness, and emotional intensity. These behaviors, as frustrating as they can be, aren’t really their fault. They can be attributed to ongoing development of their brains. By delving...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you for joining me for another Jen is Zen episode. Lately though, I haven't been feeling all that zen. I've been feeling overwhelmed. Just noise - My head is full of stuff, I’m full of lots and lots of feelings, and I have so much to do, yet I feel like nothing is getting done. It's in moments like this, that I can lose my zen, but it's when we need to re...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes it’s almost as if your teens didn’t see your parenting vision board, isn’t it? What happens when they deviate from the plan? This isn’t how it was supposed to be. This isn’t how I planned or what I thought. Delve into a thought-provoking exploration of the challenges and complexities associated with deviating from societal and familial canonical storylines. Let’s have a...

Send us Fan Mail Our discontent often comes from our desire to control the situation and to predict the outcome. Acceptance that we can’t do that can be a huge relief and an opportunity to move forward. Maybe it’s not from where you want to be, but it’s from where you are. What would happen if instead of putting that positive or negative frame around it, you just accepted it? But we have spent so...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you for being here - for listening and being a part of this community! Our teens are faced with decisions every day, and because our families are a social system, we all feel the weight of these decisions. It's three days before college decisions are due, and my son still hasn't made one. This inspired me to create a fun, theoretically-based decision-making activit...

Send us Fan Mail You need to be present to fully experience life’s beauty and meaning. This moment right now, is the only one you can experience now, and the only one you have for sure. How might your life be different if you saw more aspects of your life as a practice? What areas would benefit if you looked at them through the lens of practice? When we see something as being a practice, we recogn...

Send us Fan Mail Well, well, well - here we are again. The end of another sports season, and for many seniors - and senior parents - this is the finish line. For us, my senior wraps ups his fourth track season, and it's hitting me harder than I expected. Join me as we revisit the end of sports grief for parents, the end of sports loss and confusion for our athletes, and ambiguous loss. When y...

Send us Fan Mail If you needed to choose between optimism and pessimism? Between beautiful or ugly? Between peace or angst? Which would you choose? Which stories do you want to cling to? Given the option, w e choose the more positive of the outcomes when we have no other information. And yet, every single day,  we choose to cling to the bad.  But what if we didn’t do this? What if instead we reali...

Send us Fan Mail Join me on my birthday for a conversation about contextual age and its profound implications on our sense of self and well-being. Delving beyond mere chronological age, we explore how factors such as biological age, social roles, perceived age, and subjective age shape our identity and outlook on life. Let's challenge conventional notions of aging and embrace an ageless minds...

Send us Fan Mail Hike your own hike. Can you embrace equifinality in your Family and accept that there is no one right way? Are you navigating the twists and turns of family life? These turns and decisions come from families of every background and upbringing, illustrating that there's no one-size-fits-all approach to parenting or growing up. Equifinality in family communication is the idea t...

Send us Fan Mail Is it possible that your boundaries are too rigid? What could you start today that makes you uncomfortable? Can you come to terms that it is going to be uncomfortable and sit with it, knowing the benefits are worth it? In life, it’s often the things that we are avoiding that we need the most. We’re usually avoiding them because we know that they’ll be uncomfortable. It’s out of ou...

Send us Fan Mail This is all so hard. So very exhausting. I hope that you are taking time for you because you can't pour from an empty cup. Taking care of your family starts with taking care of yourself. Once you make it through my spiral with me, we'll have a conversation on one of the many roles that some of us play and the consequences of that role - i.e., Oldest Daughter Syndrome.  A...

Send us Fan Mail The concept of "Garbage In, Garbage Out" originates in computer science, but holds true in various aspects of our lives, including personal health, decision-making, and relationships. In essence, the quality of our input directly influences our output. This principle suggests that poor quality inputs, such as negative thoughts, misinformation, or unhealthy foods, inevita...

Send us Fan Mail Confidence is more than just a feeling; it's a fundamental belief in oneself and one's abilities. This belief in personal abilities, knowledge, and strength is not simply an outcome of success or external validation, but rather a driving force behind it. The realization that confidence is a predictor, not a consequence, of success, can be a game-changer. We want to culti...

Send us Fan Mail Hindsight will teach you everything you need to get through this. It’s often the one thing that you are avoiding - or the one obstacle that you feel like you are up against – the one challenge that life has thrown at you that you are certain you will never get through – it’s often that one thing that is all that is standing between you and everything that you want – between you an...

Send us Fan Mail Discover the transformative power of goal setting in this insightful 6-part journey through various aspects of the life wheel. Starting with the importance of setting deadlines for dreams, each segment of this goal-setting series delves into practical strategies for success. In this final part, we address financial independence, personal growth, wellness, environment and pleasure....

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we have a conversation about popularity and the teenage quest for popularity. We also look at the lasting effects of teenage popularity on individuals as they transition into adulthood. Drawing on psychology, the discussion explores how popularity dynamics in adolescence shape our lives. We emphasize the link between teenage popularity and the development of stabl...

Send us Fan Mail In Part 5 of our goal-setting journey, we look at career goals. Setting career goals is crucial for creating a fulfilling professional life. Just as with personal goals, career goals provide focus and motivation, guiding individuals toward the experiences they desire rather than settling for what happens passively. Success in one's career is subjective, so it's essential...

Send us Fan Mail Senioritis, often dismissed as a mere case of laziness in high school seniors, is a complex phenomenon affecting both students and those around them. With symptoms ranging from lack of motivation to irritability, senioritis can disrupt households during the final months of high school. As college decisions loom and the future feels uncertain, seniors may struggle with feelings of...

Send us Fan Mail In part 4 of our goal-setting journey, we take a proactive approach to improving our social relationships by setting SMART goals tailored to our needs. I ask you to reflect on your current social status and consider aspects like communication, compassion, and fostering friendships. Utilize a goal ladder framework to break down your main goal into manageable objectives and actionab...

Send us Fan Mail In part 3 of this goal-setting journey, we'll move beyond our manifesting dreams and our life wheel analysis and discover the power of setting achievable goals for our family's happiness and success. Learn how to set goals that are within your control and how sharing them with others can enhance accountability and motivation. Explore the importance of prioritizing family...