Returning to Us

When a person is under stress, especially chronic stress, they struggle to focus, can’t make smart or wise decisions, and have trouble remembering information they learn. In this episode, Lauren starts by walking through how the brain takes in and stores information. She uses that as the explanation for how the amygdala short circuits that process when under stress or trauma.  All of this affects...

Today’s Q&A continues the discussion around stress, trauma and emotional regulation. How to recognize it and how to help those who are struggling with their emotions and stress.  How do you guide the student that uses the stress as a way to avoid work?  What are some suggestions for self-regulation curriculums and coping strategies for students? What are some strategies we can use with our stu...

Today’s episode is a shift from the last two. In this episode, Lauren focuses on the “continuum of self-values” created by Ross Rosenberg in his book “Human Magnet Syndrome.” This continuum orders human behavior based on 11 numerical values to represent the full range of self in relationship to others. These numerical values range from -5 to +5. A zero is the perfect balance of one’s self and anot...

Last episode Lauren discussed the five ways to solidify content in your students’ brains. This episode follow-up on that knowledge with a teaching model which prepares your learners and creates an optimal environment for learning using the before, during, and after teaching model.  Before: prepare for your diverse students’ needs in advance, visualize your lessons and how you'll engage your s...

This episode switches gears a bit in order to focus on how to teach people to listen, attend, engage, learn and remember. There are 5 steps to this:  Pre-exposure: covertly preparing students for future learning of content. This is done days, weeks or even months ahead of the teaching. Preview: this involves setting the stage for the content minutes or hours ahead.  Priming:  introducing words, co...

After a summer break, Lauren returns with a question and answer episode focusing on stress in both kids and adults and how to process, deal, and return to stable emotional regulation after increased stress and trauma.  How do we help students cope with stress and/or trauma so that they can learn as well as process their stress/trauma? How can we limit our stress as teachers to better serve our stu...

In the second part of our book study on Limitless by Jim Kwik, Lauren discusses how to make new habits stick.  Want to know which activity you do everyday is worse than smoking? How to unlock your limitless brain?  Do you give speeches and want to know how to remember your talking points so you don’t have to read from a script?  This episode covers all that and more.  Lauren answers this week’s li...

This episode continues our book study series. Today Lauren discusses Limitless by Jim Kwik. This book discusses brain development, how to make the things you learn stick, why multi-tasking is possible but not a good idea, why holding on to emotions is detrimental for your health, and how emotion and irrationality influences your long-term memory.  Lauren answers this week’s listener question durin...

In today’s episode Lauren discusses how trauma travels through families and through generations. Trauma and the relationships that create trauma are passed on from one generation to the other. However, these patterns can be broken and today’s episode helps you begin the journey of breaking those patterns. Lauren answers this week’s listener question during the episode: How do we recognize that a s...

Today is the third, and last, episode with Lauren discussing some of, “What Happened to You: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing” by Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey.  Today Lauren highlights some passages she found interesting and insightful. She focuses on how our modern society has created a stress response in all of us and what that looks like. She talks about connecting with people...

Today is the second episode in our “Book Study Series.” We are continuing our discussion of “What Happened to You: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing” by Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey.  In this book study episode, Lauren discusses narcissism and how changes in our societal belief systems have made us more narcissistic, more distracted, and less present in our lives. This leads to les...

Today is the first episode in our “Book Study Series.” We are kicking it off with a book released in 2021, “What Happened to You: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing” by Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey.  In this episode Lauren connects Dr Perry’s thoughts on trauma with her experiences. She discusses divorce as a type of death for kids and the importance of attachment and relationship b...

Today is the third, and last, episode in a mini-series of teacher questions and Lauren saved the toughest questions for last. Lauren reached out to different school districts and teachers for a list of their most pressing questions to answer. While these were asked by teachers there is a lot of information that relates to parents and other caregivers. Don’t miss this episode.  Today’s Listener Que...

Today is the second episode in a mini-series of teacher questions. Lauren reached out to different school districts and teachers for a list of their most pressing questions to answer. While these were asked by teachers there is a lot of information that relates to parents and other caregivers. Don’t miss this episode.  Today’s Listener Questions:  How do you tell the stress level of your students?...

Today is the first episode in a mini-series of teacher questions. Lauren reached out to different school districts and teachers for a list of their most pressing questions to answer. While these were asked by teachers there is a lot of information that relates to parents and other caregivers so don’t miss this episode.  Today’s Listener Questions:  How do you de-escalate a child who is losing comp...

Today is the last episode in our series on how other cultures raise children. Throughout the world parents use a whole network of people to help raise their child. In this episode Lauren discusses how you can create that network. This not only gives you a break from your kids but exposes your kids to people of all ages.   Ideas discussed include:  Allo parenting - allow older kids to help parent t...

Over the last few episodes, Lauren has discussed how other cultures teach cooperation, helpfulness, motivation, and emotional control. Today she discusses building self-esteem in our kids which leads to more resilient and less anxious children.  In the last few years we have moved away from a strict authoritarian approach to parenting.  The US has embraced giving kids a little more control while,...

Over the last few episodes, Lauren has discussed how other cultures teach cooperation, helpfulness, motivation, and emotional control. This is the third episode in a three part series on how other cultures handle children's misbehavior. You can find the link to the first two episodes in the show notes.  Lauren does a quick review of the strategies discussed in the first two episodes and then...

Over the last few episodes, Lauren has discussed how other cultures teach cooperation, helpfulness, motivation, and emotional control. This is the second episode in a three part series on how other cultures handle children's misbehavior. You can find the link to the first episode in the show notes.  Lauren does a quick review of the strategies discussed in the first episode and then adds a co...

Over the last few episodes, Lauren has discussed how other cultures teach cooperation, helpfulness, motivation, and emotional control. This is the first episode in a three part series on how other cultures handle children's misbehavior.  She discusses six different ways to correct misbehavior A strong “No” or “The Look.”  Consequence puzzles Questions Responsibility Actions and not words Igno...

In this episode Lauren continues her discussion of how other cultures raise their children and teach them emotional control.  She talks about the use of “awe” in calming down yourself and your kiddo. There are things we see everyday and don’t notice, beautiful views for instance, that if you open your eyes and look at them with awe bring you back to the present. So, take your kids outside to calm...

In this episode Lauren continues her discussion of how other cultures raise their children to be a part of the family unit in a helpful and cooperative way. To raise helpful, cooperative, and motivated kids you have to teach them emotional control and how to return to a calm, neutral state.  The first way we do this is to model calm to our children. How do we do that when they are pushing our butt...

Many parents and teachers use bribes to get kids to do tasks that are unappealing to them.  But, bribing kids doesn’t teach them how to be intrinsically motivated to do a task which is a skill they’ll need as they grow older. So, how do we motivate kids to do unappealing tasks without bribing them?  Lauren walks you through the do’s and don’ts of motivating your kids without bribing, overly praisi...

Today Lauren discusses getting your kids to cooperate. She talks about merging the world of kids and adults so that your kids are a part of your life and understand their responsibility. The podcast looks into creating independent and autonomous kids so you can have your own life and your own identity. This is a can’t miss episode for anyone feeling like they have become lost in being a Mom.  Laur...

The first in a three part series discussing how other cultures raise their children. In this installment, Lauren discusses how cultures raise helpful children and how to incorporate that into your family, whatever the age of your kiddos. She discusses the view of a family as a team, acomedido, and how to start these practices in your own home.  There are only three rules:  Make the request clear....