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Natural Awakenings Central New Jersey

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Strategies for Soulful Parenting

Oct 30, 2020 09:30AM ● By Renée Peterson Trudeau
Soulful Parent Raising Mindful Child

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Renée Peterson Trudeau, the author of Nurturing the Soul of Your Family and The Mother’s Guide
to Self-Renewal, offers these suggestions for soulful parenting:

Parent from the inside-out. “Decide what three qualities are most important to your family during these difficult times and then orient your decision around those values. When it comes to decisions such as whether to send your children back to a classroom, don’t let the media, extended family, friends or others dictate what you should or shouldn’t do. Pause, reflect, go inward and connect with your own internal GPS and you won’t go wrong.”

Start the day intentionally. “How you begin your day is how you do your day. A few minutes of meditation, journaling, voicing gratitudes or simply reflecting on how you want to be during the day has an enormous impact on how we parent and show up for others.”

Attend to self-care. “We are constantly relating and parenting from our current state of being. Taking time to attune and respond to our own needs and desires helps us cultivate a more wise and grounded presence. Self-care is not about adding something to your to-do list; it’s about cultivating a new way of being with ourselves—a kinder, more compassionate way.”

Be creative about healthy family food. “Food is medicine, and food choices have an enormous impact on our mood, energy levels and ability to weather stress. That said, be easy on yourself—these are challenging times. Try making meals with your kids, growing your own food as a family and engaging your kids in food-based creative projects like canning or baking bread.”



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Tick Talk

Spring officially sprung on March 21. We have turned our clocks ahead. We are looking forward to warm winds, sunny skies and the smell of fresh cut grass. The daffodils and tulips have recently bloomed and we are just starting with the yard work that comes with the warmer weather.  Sadly, another season has started ramping up.  Tick season.

•             The best form of protection is prevention. Educating oneself about tick activity and how our behaviors overlap with tick habitats is the first step.

•             According to the NJ DOH, in 2022 Hunterdon County led the state with a Lyme disease incidence rate of 426 cases per 100,000 people. The fact is ticks spend approximately 90% of their lives not on a host but aggressively searching for one, molting to their next stage or over-wintering. This is why a tick remediation program should be implemented on school grounds where NJ DOH deems high risk for tick exposure and subsequent attachment to human hosts.

•             Governor Murphy has signed a bill that mandates tick education in NJ public schools. See this for the details.  Tick education must now be incorporated into K-12 school curriculum. See link:

https://www.nj.gov/education/broadcasts/2023/sept/27/TicksandTick-BorneIllnessEducation.pdf

•             May is a great month to remind the public that tick activity is in full swing. In New Jersey, there are many tickborne diseases that affect residents, including Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, Powassan, and Spotted Fever Group Rickettsiosis.

•             For years, the focus has mainly been about protecting ourselves from Lyme disease. But other tick-borne diseases are on the rise in Central Jersey. An increase of incidence of Babesia and Anaplasma are sidelining people too. These two pathogens are scary because they effect our blood cells. Babesia affects the red blood cells and Anaplasma effects the white blood cells.

•             Ticks can be infected with more than one pathogen. When you contract Lyme it is possible to contract more than just that one disease. This is called a co-infection. It is super important to pay attention to your symptoms. See link.

https://twp.freehold.nj.us/480/Disease-Co-Infection

A good resource from the State:

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/topics/tickborne.shtml

 

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