empowering encouragement

The moms in my parenting community call Empowering Encouragement MAGIC.

Picture this: no matter what is going on in life, you have this well of unconditional belief, faith, and trust in yourself.

Empowering Encouragement builds that level of confidence in your discipline practices, and thus the inner voices of yourself and our children.

Empowering Encouragement is simply magic for what you believe will be.

Empowering Encouragement is one of my favorite Positive Discipline tools.

The sentence starter is:
"I believe/have faith/trust..."

For two children arguing: "I have faith you two can work this out."

For clean-up time: "I believe we can get everything put away."

For the teen in your life: "I trust you'll make the decision that's best for you."

The key to Empowering Encouragement?
Really believe it's true!
Remember your children are just little sponges off of your thoughts and feelings.

So you've used Empowering Encouragement, there's a few things that may follow:

1) Give space...
You trust your children can do this. Give them the space they need to make it happen. No micro-managing. Although peaking over your shoulder is allowed. 

2) Offer a helping hand...
You have faith they can do it, but they still might need your help (modeling and doing the behavior with them) or you might need to break done into smaller, doable action steps.

3) Use Noticing Encouragement...
Say back what you see happening to give that positive feedback your children's brains need to grow.

Have fun with the magic of Empowering Encouragement!