The Importance of Slowing Down - for Us and Our Children With Emily

Emily De La Torre is a mom and therapist who has worked in private practice for over eight years! Now, she uses her online platform to talk about all things slow childhood, reclaiming childhood, and simple ways to scale back on all the noise in the parenting space.

As a parent, it can be incredibly overwhelming to hear all of the things you should or shouldn't be doing. And that's why I love Emily's approach! She focuses on the simple and actionable steps you can take to create more peace and clarity in the lives of you and your children!

In this episode, you'll get to know Emily and why she believes a slow childhood is essential to the mental health of parents and children alike. So let's get started!

The Importance of Slowing Down - for Us and Our Children With Emily

What Is Slow Childhood?

For obvious reasons, I had to start by asking Emily what slow childhood actually means... because I had no idea! She described it as an 80s childhood or a childhood that isn't complicated. In her words, this might look like "Access to independence, access to just being a kid and not being constantly inundated with stuff, messages, screens...". And when Emily shared this, I completely resonated with it! The amount of noise in our world can be incredibly overwhelming, especially for children.

As a parent, you might find that your childhood looked a lot different from the average childhood we see today. Emily is all about fostering an environment that allows children to have a childhood like we might've had. This might look like more time in nature and less time on screens, among lots of other things!

How You Can Eliminate Noise and Distractions

Now you might be wondering... "how the heck can I eliminate noise and distractions in such a crazy world?!" I was thinking the same thing, but Emily has lots of tips to share with us! For starters, Emily shared that therapy is a must for learning to simplify. Going to therapy allowed Emily to realize that she needed to slow down, and a big part of that was learning how to set healthy boundaries.

Emily shared that a major contributor to the noise in her life came from needing to say yes to everyone all the time! Learning to say no sometimes really helped Emily to minimize the amount of noise in her life. It can be incredibly challenging to say no to the people you care about, but these healthy boundaries are essential to slowing down!

Tips to Start Slowing Down

Emily's biggest tip for slowing down is to meet with a therapist. She shared that therapy is essential for helping us to see our blind spots or the pieces we might not notice in our story. Therapy helps us identify those blind spots, while also helping us rewrite and make sense of them. It also helps us to address the root of the issue, which is essential for learning to slow down. Along with therapy, Emily started reducing the amount of commitments she had in a week. This allowed her to prioritize herself and her family, which brought her lots more peace!

I hope you enjoyed hearing some of the wisdom that Emily had to share. To hear even more, make sure to listen to the full podcast episode!

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