Today I Just Want To Encourage You

Podcast Transcript

Hi. I’m Dr Brenna Hicks, The Kid Counselor.
Today I wanted to encourage you a bit. I know with everything that is going on in this world right now, with so many of us stuck in our homes not going to work, not going to school We’re all quarantined and sequestered together. I know that it is such a change. I know that it has disrupted our schedules and are normal Our sense of the way that the family normally operates and what we normally do. I know how a peeved that has become. I know how challenging it is when nothing feels like it was just several weeks ago Wanted to offer some encouragement.

I wanted to share with you some thoughts. I’ve had some observations I’ve made and maybe just to give you some encouragement and a light at the end of the tunnel because I do believe that we can see it. We just have to be patient to get there.

I have been reading that millions of families are in their homes and not leaving and not going anywhere. So I know that so many of us are in that same situation. We have been in our house for more than a week now, and we are navigating this new normal together as a family. One of the things that we have been doing to make sure that we stay mentally healthy, emotionally healthy, physically healthy. We’ve been making sure that as a family we get outside and do something together, active.

Every day we have gone kayaking. There are quite a few lakes around where we live. We’ve been kayaking several times. We’ve gone on bike rides, we’ve got on family walks. We’ve gone to a few beaches and areas where we could just be in the water. We have gone to play tennis.

We’ve tried to make sure that on a daily basis we carve out some time to get out of the house and do something together. As a family that’s active, it’s fresh air and it allows us to blow off some steam.

I was actually so heartbroken yesterday. I read an article that in Texas, cases of extreme child abuse have skyrocketed in the hospitals there, and they’re attributing the spike in the child abuse cases and the severity of the child abuse to the stress from the Corona virus and I know that it is stressful. I know the world is in a stressed place right now, and I want to encourage you.
This is an opportunity to model for your kids what it means to regulate and what it means to stay positive and what it means to be gracious and forgiving and patient, even when we don’t feel that we have a whole lot of that when we are tested and when we’re tried, that is when we are refined and that is when we are made stronger. And I believe that as families, as parents, as caregivers and as a country as a whole as a world, I think this is an opportunity to rise up and realize that we are capable of maintaining happiness and health and peace and calm in these moments of trial.

I’m very encouraged by the stories that I’m getting about what families are doing together. They’re starting to exercise more together. I know online videos for how to do exercises at home. They’ve been through the roof, watched and there’s a lot of people that are trying to be more active and finding new things to do.

Our son has been reading a ton of books. He’s been working on puzzles. He absolutely loves Rubik’s Cubes right now. So he’s been working on solving Rubik’s cubes, and we are just finding ways to entertain ourselves and spend time together as a family. And I love sitting down every night at the table and eating together as a family.

The rush and the schedule and the crazy and the busy that most of us have on a normal basis has been taken away from us, and it gives us an opportunity to spend time together quality time, intentional time, purposeful time and even in the midst of the stress in the midst of the unknown. In the midst of the struggle, we can come together and support each other and love each other and realize that there’s always good to be found.

I’ve been so excited to spend more time at home, spend more time with my son and with my husband, so I just wanted to encourage you. This is an opportunity for us to rise up and be the family that we should be that we can be. And every time we go through things as a family, it makes a stronger It makes us better.

So please take time to love on your family. Take time to spend time with them. And even though you’re all together all the time, it’s still such an incredible opportunity that sometimes we don’t get because our lives and our schedules are so hectic.

So thank you for being a part of The Kid Counselor. Thank you for being a part of Play Therapy Parenting. I’m honored to share a tiny little bit of life with you. So be strong. Believe that this is going to get better. We will get through it. And I know that good things will come out of it for you and your family.

Thanks so much for watching, bye.