Today’s guest is Sara Yao, a leadership coach who transitioned to self-employment on the birth of her child. While her book doesn’t focus on parenting specifically, the principles are incredibly relevant to parenting. Join us!

“It’s about how often you can be present, not how often you can be perfect.”

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• What is a leader and how does it relate to parenting?
• The value of presence, stability and connectedness relative to skills competency
• Impacts of going on autopilot on parenting and family relationships
• The practice of pausing to break autopilot
• Reactive tendencies (complying, detaching, and controlling) - what they are and how they develop
• The way presence and mindfulness create choice in parenting
• Modeling - how we pass on our reactive tendencies to our kids
• How to take a “presence first” approach to parenting to overcome our own reactive tendencies
• Cultivating presence – how to become more mindful
• “Survival fear,” sleep deprivation and hormones and the impact of an adrenalized state on our parenting
• How to start small to create more awareness more often to build a habit of mindfulness.
• Mindfulness, perfectionism and self-compassion: recognizing increased presence shouldn’t create an expectation of perfection
• Tuning into body sensation to be present and noticing
• Breathing techniques – “box breathing” to calm you down when your nervous system is riled up

What does Joyful Courage mean to you?

“I have such deep respect for myself and for others when they are just willing to examine and question – when they do, the liberation that comes from moving out of a pattern or coming to and waking up, that to me is the epitome of joyful courage. Have the courage to look, feel free and at choice again.”

Resources:

Her book, “Drop in: Leading with deeper presence and courage”

Her book, Get Present

Where to find Sara:

Facebook l Twitter l Her website

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