Amid the current events of the COVID-19 pandemic and other natural disasters, we have had so many listeners reach out about how to cope as parents during this time. In this episode, we discuss the balance of feeling and processing our own emotions authentically, while not overburdening our children with the full force of our fears. This allows them to also feel all of the big feelings that will come up for them during this time as we offer them a safe space to experience them.

We also share with you strategies that are helping us in our daily lives as we have adjusted to the new changes that has accompanied school cancellations and social distancing. Whether you are currently fully isolated or distancing from others, this pandemic has created unrest in our homes. We have tips for you on how to manage homeschool and being together 24/7!

We can do this together! Thanks for all of your wonderful support; we have a pretty fabulous worldwide community, and we are so grateful for you!

Our Website (You can find all show notes here, along with book recommendations and links to all past books):

https://www.findthemagic.co

Find us on instagram:

Felica: https://www.instagram.com/felicaallen/

Taralyn: https://www.instagram.com/taralyngriffin/

p.s. Our secret to reading so many books is this little baby, a magical wireless earbud:) https://amzn.to/36d89Zj

Get full access to Her Mother Tongue at hermothertongue.substack.com/subscribe

Wow world! As we live this beautiful life alongside the current events of our world (you know, like the pandemic we have happening), we have a really wonderful opportunity to deepen our compassion practice to help make the world, and inside our own hearts, a better place. We discovered the power of a practice called Tonglen from Pema Chödrön’s book, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, and we have LOVED incorporating it into our lives! It is a practice that helps you process negative emotion (anyone feeling any of those right now?:) in an amazingly loving way.
In this episode, we walk you through the practice, and share how we have found it helpful in our own lives. When it is often so challenging to melt together compassion and kindness that we feel personally into the anxiety of every day. It is so powerful, and we hope you love it as much as we did.
If you’d like summary of the steps taken from Chödrön’s book to refer back to after listening, here is the link to our website: https://www.findthemagic.co and click on episode 65.

Books that inspired us:
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times // Pema Chödrön
Gifts of Imperfection // Brené Brown

Find us on instagram:
Felica: https://www.instagram.com/felicaallen/
Taralyn: https://www.instagram.com/taralyngriffin/

Lastly, here is the link to the Gentri music video that opened Taralyn’s eyes to actually SEEING the need in homeless people without turning away.

Get full access to Her Mother Tongue at hermothertongue.substack.com/subscribe

Sometimes in life, but especially in parenting, we just feel like we don’t measure up—at all. We can end up feeling like we are failing at one of the most important things we have ever done, and it is disheartening, to say the least. This episode is for all you parents out there who, at the end of some days, have worried that you aren’t enough as you wrap yourselves in blankets of worry and overwhelm.

In a world full of beautiful and helpful (and also some not so great) advice, with countless books on every subject, it is possible to sometimes have our efforts to become better parents simply feel too hard, too much.

In this episode, we use one of our listener’s example of having a toddler not behaving (hitting, in this case) to explore the path that leads to parent shame, and how we can turn away from that path and find inspiration and peace instead.

Books that inspired us:

Gifts of Imperfect Parenting // Brené Brown

Power of Showing Up // Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

Our Website (You can find all show notes here, along with book recommendations and links to all past books):

https://www.findthemagic.co

Find us on instagram:

Felica: https://www.instagram.com/felicaallen/

Taralyn: https://www.instagram.com/taralyngriffin/

p.s. Our secret to reading so many books is this little baby, a magical wireless earbud:) https://amzn.to/36d89Zj

Get full access to Her Mother Tongue at hermothertongue.substack.com/subscribe

We all know that habits are a huge part of any amount of success. In his book, High Performance Habits, Brendon Buchard shares what habits he has found to be the highest contributors to success of all kinds in life during his career as a high performance coach and from studying countless high performers.

We have adopted several of his habits in our own life, and we have found them to be immensely helpful. In this episode, we give you an overview of Buchard’s game-changing findings, and share with you which of his habits we have found the most beneficial to us. Some of them are so small, you will be able to immediately work them into your life and hopefully see the profound shifts that follow.

Books that inspired us:

High Performance Habits // BRENDON Buchard

Stillness is Key // Ryan Holiday

Links to things we mentioned:

-High Performance Habits Planner

- Podcast on sleep we loved with Dan Harris and Dr. Matthew Walker

Our Website (You can find all show notes here, along with book recommendations and links to all past books):

https://www.findthemagic.co

Find us on instagram:

Felica: https://www.instagram.com/felicaallen/

Taralyn: https://www.instagram.com/taralyngriffin/

p.s. Our secret to reading so many books is this little baby, a magical wireless earbud:)

Get full access to Her Mother Tongue at hermothertongue.substack.com/subscribe

Many of us often hear the well meant advice to “enjoy every single second because it all goes by so fast!” Although there is so much wisdom in this advice, sometimes it makes us feel guilty when we are in moments that seem at best a drudgery and others that are downright miserable. This episode we hear a listener question about what do when our dreams seem to be deferred while we are in certain seasons of life. Parenting young children is a season that seems to be fraught with many of these dilemmas and questions.
In this episode, we address these questions and talk about how to incubate and still develop our dreams WHILE we slow down in the caring for young children. Also, we talk about how to feel the moments of pain, allowing them to flow through us so we are also able to fully embrace the moments of rapture and fulfillment that also come. Both sides of this emotional spectrum are part of every season of life, and there is a courageous beauty to staying open to all that life brings.
Our Website (You can find all show notes here, along with book recommendations and links to all past books):
https://www.findthemagic.co
Find us on instagram:
Felica: https://www.instagram.com/felicaallen/
Taralyn: https://www.instagram.com/taralyngriffin/
p.s. Our secret to reading so many books is this little baby, a magical wireless earbud:) https://amzn.to/36d89Zj

Get full access to Her Mother Tongue at hermothertongue.substack.com/subscribe

Do you approach the dinner table with hesitation, anxiety or perhaps even dread? Food is an integral part of our lives. We feed our kids multiple times a day and yet it is often a source of contention for many families. We hope this episode can alleviate some of the stress surrounding mealtimes. We get into our favorite tips for cultivating a beautiful, joyful relationship with food. From our daily routine to tips and hacks that have helped our kids become willing and happy eaters. We have a listener question that I am sure all of our listeners have experienced with keeping our kids at the table and we breakdown our theory on food introduction to infants! We hope this deep dive can further guide you in what seems like a simple daily task but can weigh on us so heavily!

Books we mention:

French Kids Eat Everything // Karen Le Billon

Intuitive Eating // Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch

Here is a link to the baby food website we love to use to introduce our babies to many different flavors: https://babyfoode.com

Our favorite recipe is this one:

Ingredients

3 medium sweet potatoes

1/2-1 cup canned coconut milk – full fat

1/4 tsp coriander

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degree. Line a baking sheet with tin foil or a silicon mat.

Prick sweet potatoes several times with a fork and place on baking sheet. Roast in oven for 45-50 minutes or until tender when priceked with a fork. Let cool to touch.

When cool, peel away skin and add sweet potato meat to a blender or food processor.

Add in 1/2 cup coconut milk and coriander to the blender and puree for 1-2 minutes or until smooth. If puree is too thick, add in additional coconut milk or water in 1/4 cup increments until you have reached your desired consistency.

Our Website (You can find all show notes here, along with book recommendations and links to all past books):

Find us on instagram:

Felica: https://www.instagram.com/felicaallen/

Taralyn: https://www.instagram.com/taralyngriffin/

p.s. Our secret to reading so many books is this little baby, a magical wireless earbud:)

Get full access to Her Mother Tongue at hermothertongue.substack.com/subscribe

In part two of our discussion about raising boys, we review the four pillars of connection, getting outside, sleep, and nutrition, and we tackle the challenges and opportunities that boys face at school and learning. We also address the research on screen time and boys’ brains, and give you all sorts of tips to make screen time a pleasant activity with boundaries instead of an unlimited source of distraction and dependency. We have such an AMAZING opportunity as parents to really create a community where they can thrive with their own natural strengths, and we can help create a world where boys are taught to have emotional intelligence and access their internal world with confidence and love. Thanks for joining us for this conversation!

Books that inspired us:

Calmer, Easier, Happier Boys // Noel Janis-Norton

Boys Adrift // Leonard Sax

Wild Things // Stephen James and David Thomas

Link to resources we mentioned:

Wim Hof Method: https://www.wimhofmethod.com

Tim Ferris’s interview with Wim Hof: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tim-ferriss-show/id863897795?i=1000351593298

Our Website (You can find all show notes here, along with book recommendations and links to all past books):

https://www.findthemagic.co

Find us on instagram:

Felica: https://www.instagram.com/felicaallen/

Taralyn: https://www.instagram.com/taralyngriffin/

p.s. Our secret to reading so many books is this little baby, a magical wireless earbud:)

Get full access to Her Mother Tongue at hermothertongue.substack.com/subscribe

This AMAZING time we live in offers so many opportunities for us and for our children. However, it also presents many unique challenges as well. Girls growing up now face specific difficulties, and boys do too. In this episode, we address some of the issues that accompany raising boys, and what we have seen in our sons’ lives. We also bring in a lot of great info from authors who have done far more research on the subject of boys.

We address issues like how to cultivate  respectful, strong, and kind boy by channeling his natural strengths (as opposed to simply suppressing all of their tendencies and making them feel like they are terrible all the time). We explore some fascinating psychology and hopefully help all of us raise boys who become men who are whole, respectful, humans who make this world a better place:).

Books that inspired us:

Calmer, Easier, Happier Boys // Noel Janis-Norton

Boys Adrift // Leonard Sax

Wild Things // Stephen James and David Thomas

The planner that was Felica’s high five: High Performance Planner // Brendon Buchard

Our Website (You can find all show notes here, along with book recommendations and links to all past books):

https://www.findthemagic.co

Find us on instagram:

Felica: https://www.instagram.com/felicaallen/

Taralyn: https://www.instagram.com/taralyngriffin/

p.s. Our secret to reading so many books is this little baby, a magical wireless earbud:)

Get full access to Her Mother Tongue at hermothertongue.substack.com/subscribe

In this mini episode, Taralyn guides us through the meditation we do every day. She was originally inspired by several different meditation teachers, and has adapted their techniques using other practices that people have used for thousands of years to what works well for her. After listening to this audio every day for a couple weeks, you’ll find that you can do the sequence on your own without any guidance. Anywhere you find yourself, you can do this practice. 

Here is the sequence for reference: 

Breathing (where your exhale is twice as a long as your inhale) -2 deep breaths with your fingertips pressing 2 inches below your belly button -2 deep breaths with your fingertips pressing over your heart -2 deep breaths with your fingertips pressing in the center of your forehead just above your eye 

Body mindfulness: Tap into what you are feeling, hearing, tasting, and smelling, and seeing 

Mantra Meditation: Focus on the word one, and come back to it when thoughts come 

Gratitude/manifestation: Think of something you’re grateful for, then feel gratitude for something you are hoping to manifest, and then detach from the outcome and be open to inspired action you can take to make it happen.  (I like to connect them—for example: if you want flat abs, 1) Feel gratitude about the core strength you have already, 2) feel the feeling of gratitude and whatever emotion you would feel with amazing flat abs, and then 3) detach from the outcome (realize your happiness isn’t dependent on it), and be open to whatever inspired action you can take).

Love/Metta Meditation: focus on imagining someone or something you love in front of you, then you gradually expand that love 

Get full access to Her Mother Tongue at hermothertongue.substack.com/subscribe

We all know that setting aside time to feed our souls is important, and it’s no secret that one of our core habits that we use to get this time is our morning routine. This habit has literally been the biggest game changer in our own fulfillment and wholeness, and so we really can’t say enough good about it.
This subject remains one of our most frequently asked listener questions, so in this episode, we delve deep into some tricks to really help cement this routine into a long term, non-negotiable habit. We also introduce you to a really accessible form of meditation, and will give you tools to get you started on this life changing habit, or give you ideas to improve what you already have going.
Books that inspired us:
Stress Less, Accomplish More // Emily Fletcher
The Miracle Morning // Hal Elrod
Our Website (You can find all show notes here, along with book recommendations and links to all past books):
https://www.findthemagic.co
Find us on instagram:
Felica: https://www.instagram.com/felicaallen/
Taralyn: https://www.instagram.com/taralyngriffin/

Get full access to Her Mother Tongue at hermothertongue.substack.com/subscribe