Kristin Brenner

How do you treat yourself in times of struggle? Are you kind? Are you compassionate? Would you speak to your children the way you speak to yourself? . Mamas, I want to remind you that you need compassion too. ... . As moms we can explore our own unmet needs. We can slow down. We can get quiet. We can turn inward. . What do I need right now? How can I meet my needs in this moment? . The bonus is that when we explore in this way, we are teaching others, including our children how to treat us. We are also teaching our kids how to take care of themselves in their moments of struggle. . It is all about connection. . Connection to self. . Connection to our kids. . Interconnectedness between self and other. . What do YOU need right now? What is the simplest, most accessible way you can meet that need right now?

This sweet one does not like it when I practice kapalabhati breath. He tries to get all 52 pounds of himself into my lap to help calm me down. He succeeds in making me stop, because you can’t practice the breath and laugh and snuggle your pup at the same time. ... It’s just another kind of yoga, the yoga of puppy love, and we all need a little of that, right?

When asked about self-care, you may sheepishly smile, trying to hide the weird sense of guilt you feel inside because this is yet another thing you are supposed to do that you can't seem to make happen. Ugh. I know that feeling so well, and I am asking you today to release it. Take a big deep breath and just let it go. That feeling is not serving you. At. All. Why does self-care even matter? Oh, mama, let me tell you the ways. ... Self-care matters because these simple acts help to keep your nervous system in alignment. They serve to get you off the bad roller coaster ride of getting stressed out, yelling at your kids, or numbing out with wine or Facebook or the Gram, eating the gallon of ice cream, and feeling all around bad about yourself. That is not really how you want to spend your time. I know because I hear from moms all the time who talk about getting off the crappy roller coaster and wanting to feel grounded, joyful, and alive. You deserve all of that. You are worthy. It is your birthright. I work with moms to help them tune into their own inner resources to learn some simple practices and strategies to stop the overwhelm and create a life that they don't want to check out from. Click the COACHING link in the bio for more information See more

I am excited to be offering this new MSC program for Medical and Mental Health providers in the New Year! Know anyone who might be interested? Please share this information with them! I would love to connect!

I will be teaching Chair Yoga at the library this Friday at noon. Join me! It's free!

The number one thing your kids need from you is to feel your loving, connected presence in their lives. In 2000, Toni Morrison was on Oprah for her book club. Oprah had chosen Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye for her book club and Morrison was there for the book discussion. She said these words, "When a kid walks in the room, your child or anybody else's child, does your face light up? That's what they are looking for." At the time, I wa...s pregnant with my first child. I knew in that moment that much of what I thought was important really didn't matter. The most important thing I could give to my child was to have my face light up when I saw them, for my children to know that they mattered so much to me that they brought me joy by their very presence. My reaction to seeing my child would become a mirror for them to recognize their own self-worth and value. It was a life altering moment. What a tremendous gift for us to be left with by this amazing woman. It was the truth bomb that I needed to learn to parent my children wholeheartedly. It allowed me to be vulnerable with them and myself and to teach them how to do the same. What I learned later in life was that self-compassion and mindfulness are the skills needed to help you stay present and heartful so that you can build deep connections with your kids. Want to learn more about mindfulness and self-compassion? Grab my Guide to Staying Grounded in Difficult times by signing up for my email list. Bonus: you'll get lots of great info about taking care of yourself and taking care of your kids! Link in the bio. See more

Two of my children are of voting age, able to participate in their first presidential election this year. I have always been a political person. It has been a value of mine to stay informed and to educate my kids about the issues, both historical and current, that we face as a nation and a world. The last four years have given us plenty to talk about. It was heartening to me to see that my kids registered to vote as soon as they were of age, and were excited to vote in their... first election. My daughter came home from school so that she could vote at home with us. We stood in line for close to two hours, waiting to exercise the right most important to living in a democracy - the right that forms the basis for all other rights. But voting is not simply a right. It is a responsibility. We owe it to ourselves, to those around us, to those who came before us, and to those who will follow us to cast our vote. It is a sacred act, one that connects us to our communities and to the world at large. I am going to make a bold statement here, but it needs to be said: You can not be an embodied being and vote for the current president. Embodiment is about connection, deep inner knowing, and most of all, love. This president actively fights against all of those things. He encourages hatred, divisiveness, and really, worst of all, forces us to question and doubt our own deep knowing. Allow yourself to turn deeply inward. Would you allow your children to behave in the way the president has? Would you willingly and knowingly teach them to be the way the president is, to say the things he says? If the answer is in anyway no (and, frankly, it should be a big, loud, halting NO) then you can not stay connected to your inner knowing, to your inner sense of love, and vote for the incumbent. Get out today. Cast your vote. Exercise your right. Take your responsibility seriously. And please, vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Be embodied. Be the living embodiment of LOVE.

The start of our latest Mindful Self-Compassion Series is coming up in just a few days! We would love to have you join us! In this series, you will learn how to treat yourself like a dear friend when you are struggling. Most of us are not very kind to ourselves when we have made a mistake or have failed in some way. In this series you will learn skill that you can put to use right away to learn to be kind to yourself. Why does it matter? The research has b...een very clear on this! Learning to treat ourselves compassionately is strongly associated with emotional well-being, lower levels of anxiety and depression, a healthy relationship to body and food, and more satisfying interpersonal relationships. Maybe you are feeling Zoom Fatigue. Seriously, the struggle is real!! This will be different, we promise. We work hard to create deep connections, even through this virtual format. Through the 8-week series, we are able to build strong bonds and learn from one another. And what better time? We are in the middle of this pandemic. We are feeling the unrest and struggle within our communities here in the US and around the world. And, oh man, the holidays are coming. Now is the time that you need to feel grounded, secure, and settled in your own inner resources. In this 8-week series, you will learn how to tune into what is already there. We are now offering a tiered scholarship, where you choose the price that works for you, no questions asked. We will gladly work with you on a payment plan as well. DM with any questions you have. We would be happy to set up a free call to work through your questions. We truly hope you will join us. Now is the time to learn to treat yourself with kindness. The world needs you to do this. See more

This is the practice of Soothing Touch that we teach in the first session of the 8-week Mindful Self-Compassion series. It seems simple, but it is a powerful practice that taps into the part of the brain that is designed to respond to touch - the mammalian caregiver system. It is powerful, and it is available to you whenever you need it. Take a moment to take a few deep breaths in. Notice the grounding points of your body, feeling gravi...ty's affect drawing you down to the earth, the heaviness in the body. Now, allow yourself to explore some simple touches, moving through these gestures slowly, really allowing yourself to feel the effects. To start, simply hold one hand in the other. Then maybe gently rub the skin on the back of the hands. Bring one hand to the heart and simply rest it there, feeling the weight and warmth of your own hand. Bring the other hand to rest on the first, two hands on the heart. Next, make the bottom hand into a soft fist, and allow the top hand to rest over it at the heart. Let one hand come to the belly while the other stays on the heart. Allow the hand on the belly to fall away, and gently rub the heart area with the other hand. Next, bring one hand to the cheek. Now the other hand to the other cheek, cradling the face in the hands. Let the hands come to opposite arms. Rest for a minute there and then gently rub the arms. Both hands now come to the belly. When you have completed all of these iterations of soothing touch, go through them again, paying particular attention to the ones that felt really good. You can use Soothing Touch any time to provide a moment of self-care. Try this practice and let me know in the comments how it was for you. Which touch felt most soothing to you? See more

My mission is to bust through the myth of unattainable self-care and to remind you that self-care is not something only available to "those" women, the mythic creatures that seem to have it all together. I talk to moms all the time, and let me tell you, the have-it-all-together-mom does not exist. What does exist in all of us are moments of wild togetherness where we feel like we can take on the world, and then moments of falling-apartn...ess where we wonder how we have managed to keep our kids alive this long. Honestly, I often look at my kids and think, wow, I am so glad we have all made it this far! And real life is what happens in between those two extremes. It's hard and it's messy. I wrote a list of 5 practices you can do to stay grounded and take care of yourself to help show that self-care is something that is always with you. These things will cost you nothing, and they take little time, but the payoff is big! You will gain a stronger connection to your own inner resources and begin to be able to connect to self-care any time. Click the link in the bio to sign up for my email list and get the free list! See more