In the helpful book called The Whole-Brain Child, Dr. Dan Siegel and Dr. Tina Payne Bryson encourage parents to “increase the family fun factor.” Today Erika shows us how her entire family does this.
Increase the Family Fun Factor
Good morning, guys and welcome back to Coffee with Chosen I’m Erika. We have talked before about the emotional benefits of exercise, and today I am outside because I’m going to walk you through how you can use exercise to help your children and yourself regulate and build attachment. So, some data about exercise a recent study showed that 15 minutes of vestibular input can provide up to 12 hours of emotional and physical benefit. In another study on aerobic activity participants who exercise for 30 minutes reported being less sad at the end and that is because aerobic activity releases endorphins. Proprioceptive exercises can help with balance and stability, and also doing certain exercises can even help bring balance to the left and right sides of your child’s brain, which is amazing.
We know that kids with heart histories can really struggle with mood and regulation and brain integration and sensory input. So, providing daily opportunities for exercise can really help your child’s brain heal, and can help some of their behaviors improve, and if that were not enough to get you out there just remember that doing all of this with your child promotes attachment.
So, I challenge you to try to do some of these exercises and not smile a little. So, we have created a principle for you that lists a lot of these exercises and divides them into groups, like aerobic or proprioceptive or best if you. You can print one off every day and just check off the ones that you want your kids to do or that you want to do with your kids, and lastly, I’m going to just encourage you as mom’s, sometimes we can make this our own workout time. Bring some weights outside or bring your yoga mat or whatever you would like to normally get exercise with and just incorporate it into this play time with your kids. Thanks for joining us this morning please be kind as I put myself out there to do these exercises for you guys and we will see y’all again in the morning.
