Be Brave Press

06/04/2024

05/11/2024

Anxiety Toolkits are now available at in Sarasota! Say hi to the lovely owner, Jen, and pick up a plant or gem or salt lamp, too. 🪴👌

04/22/2024

Thank you, Dr. Kate, for your review and support of the Anxiety Toolkit! 🫶

04/17/2024

Reading Monster Tea Party in classrooms and hearing from kids about their “monsters,” fears, and coping strategies is so incredibly inspiring 🥰

Sarasota area schools/homeschool groups, let us know if you want us to visit! 💬 👋

01/31/2024

Anxiety can make us feel that we need to try to control something or someone to keep ourselves safe. But attempts at controlling anything outside of our own selves are fruitless. What we *can* do is manage our reactions and behaviors to lead to the best outcome.

Here’s an example: In September 2022, Hurricane Ian came to Florida and was projected to land near us in Sarasota. My daughter panicked, worried that our house was going to be destroyed and nothing would ever be the same. So we took a break together to talk about it. She knew that we had no control over where this hurricane would land, no matter how much she worried. Then we focused on what was actually in our control (reasonably preparing our home and our selves in case of landfall near us, including nestling her large collection of stuffed animals in a cozy location away from any windows in case of water damage)… and she felt immensely better.

A refocus of attention inward increases confidence and reduce panic. It works. 💪

01/23/2024

The Be Brave Press Anxiety Toolkits are ready to be shipped out! The Toolkit is a deck of 50 cards designed to help kids ages 8 through 13 understand and manage everyday anxiety. We’re so excited to get these into the hands, homes, and offices of kids, caregivers, and therapists! 👏😊

11/10/2023

“We each respond to the world in our own way, depending on countless factors including how we take in information from the world through our senses, all of our past experiences, and the state of our body budget. That's why it's so important to personalize our parenting to our child's unique reactions.” (From the book Brain-Body Parenting)

I find this incredibly helpful to think about when a child is struggling with something that seems silly, like it shouldn’t be an issue. All of us experience the world uniquely. A situation can feel minor to us but huge to a child. We can remind ourselves that the child isn’t necessarily being manipulative or overly dramatic… Their body is feeling unsafe or overwhelmed. We can then come from a place of compassion and go from there. 🫶

*Wishing a full and quick return to health for Dr. Mona Delahooke. 🙏

10/23/2023

Ask your child to try this the next time they’re worried about the outcome of a scenario:
Question 1. Start with what comes easiest: What’s the worst that could happen?
Question 2. What’s the absolute best that could happen? Come up with some really fun, wild possibilities.
Question 3. What’s most likely to happen? Here, the rational side of the brain can help you come up with the most logical situations.
💭🤔

These challenges are some of what you can expect in our Anxiety Toolkit, which we expect to be available by December 🤞