Episode 44: Life Changing Gifts for the Whole Family – Jill Stowell

Jill Stowell:

Have you noticed how Amazon Prime tracks are everywhere? I guess that’s just the new normal for holiday shopping. Well, believe it or not, not all gifts come in an Amazon box. On our very quick show today, I’m going to share with you some life-changing gifts for the whole family. This is LD Expert Live. 

 

Welcome to the LD Expert Podcast, your place for answers and solutions for dyslexia, learning, and attention challenges. I’m your host, Jill Stowell, founder of Stowell Learning Centers and author of a brand new book, Take the Stone Out of the Shoe: A Must-Have Guide to Understanding, Supporting, and Correcting Dyslexia, Learning, and Attention Challenges. 

 

This book will help you understand why some bright children and teens have more difficulty than expected in school. It provides simple, practical tools for supporting struggling students at home and in the classroom. Most importantly, it presents real solutions and the science behind them. 

 

Since it’s the holiday season, I’m going to share with you 5 life-changing gifts you can give yourself and your family. 

 

So gift number 1: De-stress. 

 

This has been a stressful year to say the least. Your mind and emotions are bombarded daily with information that reinforces a perception of just how stressed you should feel. 

 

Science has shown that our health can pay a serious price for our stress. So what should we do? Recent scientific research has proven that you can learn not only to manage your stress but even to prevent much of it before it happens. The key is within your heart and learning how to freeze frame or reframe stress. 

 

Here are 5 steps to freeze frame. You can kind of try these as I go through them. 

 

First, take a 5-minute timeout so that you can temporarily disengage from your thoughts and feelings, especially the stressful ones. Then shift your focus to the area around your heart. Breathe in slowly through your nose and imagine the breath around your heart. Breathe out through your mouth and imagine that the exhale is flowing out through your solar plexus. Breathe this way several times. 

 

So let’s just try a couple. So you’re going to breathe in through your nose. Imagine the breath around your heart. Breathe out through your mouth and imagine the breath coming out through your solar plexus. One more. 

 

As you continue your heart breathing, make a sincere effort to activate or remember a positive feeling. This can be a genuine feeling of appreciation or care for someone or something in your life. 

 

Now as you are breathing, ask yourself, what would be an efficient, effective attitude or action that would balance and de-stress the system? 

 

And finally, quietly sense any change in perception or feeling and sustain it as long as you can. 

 

If you would like to learn more about this technique, check out HeartMath.org. 

 

Gift number 2: Play board games. 

 

Here are some benefits of spending family time together playing an actual board game. It builds skills in turn-taking, reading, reasoning, decision-making, and counting. It’s a non-threatening, fun opportunity to learn and even practice executive function skills. 

 

Laughter. My family, when we play games, it always ends in silliness and laughing so hard you’re crying. Laughter is so good for us. 

 

Quality adult-child time is a great benefit of board games. And games can build confidence and sense of accomplishment. 

 

Gift number 3: Spend time in nature. 

 

There are colors and sounds in nature that nurture the nervous system. Take a walk and look for blue in nature, the sky, a lake, the ocean. Blue tends to be calming. 

 

My chiropractor told me on a visit when I was overloaded one time to take a walk every day and look at green in nature because it’s restoring and restful. Natural sounds like leaves rustling and water bubbling in a brook have been shown physically alter connections in our brains, reducing our body’s natural fight or flight instinct or stress response. 

 

If you can’t get out in nature, you can get some of the same benefits by watching nature videos with natural sounds and green environments. But getting outdoors has the added benefit of movement which can release endorphins in the brain and increase your overall sense of well-being. 

 

Gift number 4: Take a break. 

 

Learning to take a break improves health and productivity. Too much work and not enough time out can result in mental health problems, memory failure, and even heart attack. 

 

The secret to managing stress is to build relaxation breaks into every day so that they become a part of your lifestyle. Simply taking a deep breath brings much needed oxygen into the body and relaxes the muscles. It also slows down the heart rate which accelerates when we feel anxious and helps calm the mind. 

 

Whenever you notice that you are getting stressed or anxious, just stop and pause for a moment. Take a nice deep breath and slowly exhale. And notice your muscles relaxing. 

 

As we teach our students at Stowell Learning Center about study skills, we always include learning how to take a break. Study time will be much more productive if students work for an appropriate amount of time for them, then take a short break to relax the mind and move the body. 

 

Gift number 5: Have a good laugh. 

 

Did you know that laughter releases endorphins, feel-good chemicals into the bloodstream? Laughter supports your immune system. The vibrations from laughter shake the stress out of your organs. 

 

Laughter changes our mental state and it’s just plain fun. Milton Berle said, “Laughter is an instant vacation.” 

 

This is LD Expert Live, your place for answers and solutions for learning disabilities, dyslexia, and attention challenges.