Day 26 Inspirational Parenting autism Real and Raw with Siobhan Wilcox

Hey everybody, it's Siobhan Wilcox here, the founder and creator of Autism Experts alliance and the author of the new upcoming book the Thrive Now Blueprint, which I am so excited about. I am creating this self care book for parents with special needs children. And it's not just my years of experience that I'm putting in there as a stress management consultant and a life coach, but I'm gathering heart centered wisdoms from other moms and other dads parents parenting special needs. I initially thought I was going to just have parents of autistic children in there, but then I started to meet the most incredible people along this pathway and I met magnificent moms and dads with down syndrome children and children that were developmentally delayed in different ways and had sight vision issues, blindness and cerebral palsy and just lots and lots of different challenges. So I decided to create a book that encapsulates all of our wisdoms together. You know, I'm looking at how the challenges that we meet on an everyday basis that sometimes feel so dark and so overwhelming to us, that have another side. So I'm finding people that have made it to the other side that have climbed that cementable wall and have found ways of finding inspiration. I found tools and strategies to assist their family themselves. And I want to bring all that to you guys. I'm really, really excited about it. I feel as I'm interviewing these wonderful parents, I'm shifting, finding great inspiration. I'm finding great value in the information and knowledge so I know others will too. So one of the things that I was reading and preparing for this is I've just been reading a lot of books on inspiration and reading through a lot of blogs. And one of the books I picked up to read was by Yogananda. And I just love his quote to go through life with natural ease and grace. And I had always kind of in the last few years adopted that line, ease and grace. If it feels like it has ease and grace in it, then that's the flow pathway. That's the way to go. But I love the natural piece. The natural ease and grace even expands it to a different level. It's more balancing, more inspirational when you add the natural in there. And I've noticed that if I tune myself inwards and I say where my natural ease and grace in my day, what is it that feels enlightening to me, expansive to me, exciting to me, and what is it that feels dull to me? Obviously there are always parts of your day that you need to do the things that feel a little dull to you. Perhaps that's the housework. Perhaps that setting the routine for your child, perhaps that's the driving to all the therapists or having all the therapists come to your home. Perhaps there are always parts of our day that feel a little de energizing to us. There's two ways of looking at that. You either focus on those parts of your day and you let those parts of your day rule the whole day, or you fill the rest of your day, even if it's only another 30 minutes in your day, with inspiration, with excitement, with something that you're passionate about. Not necessarily Haagen Daz chocolate ice cream. I'm talking more about that inspiration that fills your heart space, that fills your mind, with excitement, that sends tingles through your body. I love listening to inspirational speakers, reading their books, watching their videos, going to events. And going to events is not always the easiest thing for me because it's very hard without family to find babysitters, etc, etc. But I figure it out and I go and I get inspired and I feel expanded and I learn constantly. And that's what fires me up. When I'm cooking and watching an inspirational speaker on my computer, when I'm walking the dog, listening to an inspirational speaker on my headphones, I'm driving the car, I am in a place of meditation myself. I'm chanting, I'm expanding my own mindfulness. I'm consciously and constantly including inspiration, self care into my day. And yet I don't have any more time than anybody else. But I make it flow with natural ease and grace. So I'm going to ask you today if you were to just include one more thing to inspire you for your day, to enlighten yourself, to, you know, feed that fire in your belly, as they say, or that enlightenment, it's to light yourself up. What would it be? Would it be maybe watching a blog like this every day? Would it be going to a yoga class, watching a yoga DVD for 15, 20 minutes, going through the sequence with the person on the screen meditating for 20 minutes? Would it be walking in nature consciously being grateful for every blessing in the As I walk, I bless each flower, I thank the trees, I look deeply at them, I look at the scenery around me. So what is it that you can do with natural healing and grace? So as always, everybody, if you want to connect with me deeper, I would love to hear from you. I'd love to hear if there's anything you want to know about. I'm interviewing people right now, so this is a great time to send me requests of I could do it figuring this piece out in my life. So you can email me at Siobhan S I O B H A n@autism expertsalliance.com and you can register for our upcoming tele series with interviews@autismexpertsalliance.com it's just a little box there. You put your email in your name and that's it. We don't sell that details, we don't share it with others. It's just for us to send out inspiration to you. So I look forward to connecting with you. I will be back here. I've been on my vacation. That's why I haven't been around for a couple of weeks. But I'm back and I will be back again at my desk every few days, talking, chatting, connecting, inspiring. Hopefully. Love you all. Have a blessed, blessed day.