Breathing out the Grumps

For a few reasons we’ve had what my sister would call a ‘struggly’ week… I’ve been a little low on ‘mum juice’ to be frank and despite practicing love and patience to the best of my ability, I didn’t know what on earth to do with the ‘grumps’ and whinging and boundary pressing that has been a bit of a feature this week!

I walked out of yoga class yesterday having taught some beautiful pranayamas (breathing techniques) to greet my son . Half way home, in the middle of the street, the bottom fell out of Mabon’s world out of nowhere… the skip morphed into a heavy legged slump, shoulders drooped, and the chatter went to whine in seconds – ‘I’m too tired to walk the rest of the way home.’ Hmmm. Ok. How to deal with this one? I am always amazed at how much creativity is needed in parenting. Pranayama I thought… So I squatted down in front of Mabon, giving him eye contact and repeated what he had told me he was feeling so he knew I had heard him.

‘Oh no! Sounds like those mean grumps have sneaked into you… the only solution I’m afraid is for you take a big breath in and breath them all out into my hand, I’ll catch them and chuck them away.’

So that’s what we did for five minutes… and a few times more that day – accompanied by squeels, exclamation and ‘ouch’s’ from me as the ‘nasties’ spiked and slithered onto my hand and we dramatically wiped my hand and flicked out the whinges. Phew! 

Oh… and a little late this week I remembered my mothering strength is totally dependant on my attention on deep breathing, cooling the reactive fire and breathing in presence, lightness of mind and the much needed gentleness and humour!