Just yesterday, my granddaughter Anna came to me and said, “Let’s go for a bike ride.” While this is an activity that she always enjoys for its own sake, I could see that the suggestion was coming from a place of stress. Some bullying had been happening in her...
As a child growing up in a home suffused with trauma, life always felt uneasy – like something bad was about to happen. Always. This ever-present fear often got expressed through impatience, rushing, and urgency. It was a defense against instability and...
Even though Thanksgiving has passed, the importance of gratitude goes on. One thing we can be thankful for this holiday season is a COVID vaccine on the near horizon. While it won’t bring an instant return to normalcy – Dr. Fauci has said it may be mid-2021 at...
Some things seem meant to be. What happened had to happen and couldn’t have happened any other way. When RJ Swanson, founder of New Hope for Children, contacted Lynea about sharing the practice of TRE (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises) with children in Africa,...
“Knowing just burdens my heart,” said my longtime friend, an elementary school teacher in eastern Oregon. “I have 26 other babies to take care of!” Over the years, I’ve heard many other teachers express the same sense of overwhelm. With all the demands placed on them...
When you’re an adult who’s stressed, you can articulate it. You have the language and experience to do so. For kids, it often gets expressed only with behavior. Sometimes that looks like defiance, acting out, causing trouble; other times, as withdrawal or even...
