Hello Gardeners! Today we are going to take a closer look at therapists - who they are and what they do. A therapist is someone who helps you improve your overall mental health, but can also help you sort through problematic behaviors or personal relationships, work on self-esteem and confidence, and even move forward from trauma experiences. ----------------------------- Think of a therapist as your gardening assistant. ----------------------------- Sometimes our gardens are just a little too overwhelming for us to manage on our own. It's nice to have a someone to help sort through things, remind us to water our flowers, and help us pull our weeds. Also, don't underestimate the power of talking to a great listener! Therapy helps us do and conquer lots of different things, but arguable one of the more important outcomes is to have the ability to communicate about how you are feeling and why. Opening up and being vulnerable is really difficult no matter what age you are! So all you gardeners out there working with a "Gardening Assistant" - be proud! Your ability to ask for help and work on your mental health shows so much growth and emotional maturity - because let's be honest, each and every one of us could benefit from having someone to help us sort through the pots and planters cluttering up our sheds, pull the weeds that crowd our gardens, and appreciate the flowers we are given every day. Thank you to all of the wonderful, helpful therapists out there - you truly are spreading seeds of honest & open communication! Some of the best seeds out there, if you ask us 😉. And to all you gardeners out there, never feel ashamed of the work you do to be your best self, and as always, continue to #PullYourWeeds!

Hello Gardeners! In our very first episode of Hello Gardeners, we received a weed from Alexandra that said: We hear about this a lot - classmates invading personal space, annoying us by touching us, or getting in our faces. Understanding the value of personal space is a lesson that everyone learns on their own time, but it is an essential lesson to learn nonetheless. We all have different boundaries - some of us show affection and friendship through holding hands or giving piggy-backs, while others don’t really like being touched. Until we understand our friends’ boundaries, it’s important we ask permission when we want to get in his or her personal space and respect their decision whether it's “yes” or “no”. What does permission look like? Well, it can be as simple as asking, “can I hold your hand?” or “can you give me a piggy-back ride” - rather than just grabbing someone’s hand or jumping on their back. If someone is invading your space and you don’t like it, you can always say “I don’t want to” or “no, I don’t like doing that”. ------------ ------------ Learning to respect other peoples’ boundaries is just as important as learning to respect your own! ------------ ------------ ----------- As an educator, you can always offer your students alternative actions - for example you could say, “It looks like Chris doesn’t want a hug right now, how about you wave good-bye instead?” Or, “Alexandra doesn’t like it when you bump into her - would you mind giving her a little more space and saying ‘excuse me’ when you want to get past her?” Another great way to plant the seed of permission, is with “Morning Greetings”. Many of us have seen these videos - teachers place signs outside their doors that say wave, fist bump, high-five, dance, hug, etc. Have the students line up outside your classroom door and pick a greeting. The kids then get to choose how they want to engage with you - some days they may want to hug, other days they may want to wave. Here is an example of Morning Greetings if you haven't seen it! Teaching our young gardeners these lessons now will not only help them respect others more, communicate more clearly, and avoid misunderstandings when they are older, but it will also allow them to understand their own boundaries! 👈👈👈 Feel free to use these signs to start your own morning greetings! We would love to see your Morning Greetings! Send them to us at flowers@youareagardener.com or tag @youareagardener. Don't forget to #PullYourWeeds!

🌱🌺 Hello Gardeners 🌺🌱 Self-portraits can reveal so much about how we see ourselves. Do you draw yourself using the majority of the paper, with a big smile, in a pleasant setting? Having your students draw #SelfPortraits is a lesson in #ArtTherapy. Art therapy is the practice of using art to express and understand one's feelings. Using art therapy techniques in the classroom can be extremely beneficial not only for checking in with your students, but also providing them another route for reflection and expression. Assign your students the task of drawing their self-portrait. Don't provide them with mirrors or photos of themselves, but encourage them to spend time reflecting on how they carry themselves, highlighting their best qualities, incorporating the emotions they feel currently, maybe asking them to draw themselves in a specific environment. These self-portraits are not for grading, but review them! Take note of the students who may need to gain more confidence or the ones who really responded to this prompt! Repeat this activity and see how your students' confidence, self-awareness, and outlook shift throughout the year! Give it a try! While it may not engage every student, it's at the very least 10 minutes of structured, quiet time and just another way to #PullYourWeeds!

Hello Gardeners! For some of us, the hours before bedtime or the hours that start the day are tough. Maybe our stomach starts to hurt, our hearts start to race, either while we are winding down or just starting our day. #GardenerShanna likes to take this time to "pick flowers". She asks #GardenerAnna & #GardenerAidan to carve out a little bit of time before bed to walk through their day and recognize all of the good moments and positive experiences. These moments could be as small as finding a penny on the sidewalk, to having an amazing playdate with a friend! This simple exercise of focusing on the positive can actually have the power to completely transform your outlook on the day-to-day. When we focus on the positive, we take power away from the negative and sometimes attract more friendliness, laughter, fun, and happiness.. Think of it like this, flowers have a really hard time growing in neglected soil. When we take the time to keep our soil moist, keep it aerated, and looking healthy, our flowers have a much easier time growing and thriving. Similarly, when we neglect the good & positive things that happen in our lives, our soil becomes dull & dry - not the best place for flowers to grow. When we recognize the good and balance that with the bad - our soil becomes a much better environment for flowers. REMEMBER, life is a balance of good and bad. We ride that roller coaster throughout our lives. Something we tend to do is focus on & question the bad things, rather than focus on & appreciate the good things! Give it a try! Take 10 minutes to sort & pick out your flowers, by the end of that time you will have a beautiful bouquet. Did you try this in your classroom? Let us know how it went - we would love to know how your students responded to making their 💐 bouquets 💐 and you can ALWAYS let us know how you #PullYourWeeds!

Hello Gardeners! Gym class and recess aren’t just great opportunities to get fresh air, some exercise, and take a much needed break from academic learning. As we’ve said before, exercise can do wonders for decreasing stress, clearing the mind, and getting the endorphins flowing - but PE, recess, and team sports also organically foster social and emotional learning (SEL). Let’s take a closer look! Team activities and games require focus & observation, teamwork, emotional regulation, and the ability to overcome obstacles - all key elements to developing social & emotional literacy. Focus & Observation Individuals are required to take a step back and look at the whole scene - where their teammates are and where they should be in relation to their teammates, what strategy can be used based on what's going on, etc. Teamwork As the saying goes, “there’s no I in team!” We learn to share space, take turns, and work together to succeed! Emotional Regulation We practice this every time something doesn’t go our way in a game or as a way to shake those pregame jitters. It’s that moment when we remember it’s just a game, it’s supposed to be fun, and that sometimes we win and sometimes we lose! Ability to Overcome Obstacles With games and sports, we don’t become pros overnight! When our goals aren’t met, we focus, practice a little harder, and try again. Gym class, recess, and team sports are sort of like invisible learning time. When we are playing games and running around, it just feels like fun, but we are still absorbing so many lessons and developing major skills socially and emotionally. Doesn't matter if you are a science teacher, PE teacher, recess monitor, or coach - we can always plant new seeds to make our gardeners flourish! There is still time to book You Are A Gardener™ for you students or teachers this Fall & Winter! Shoot us an email at flowers@youareagardener.com to book now!

Hello Gardeners! We have recently launched Season 2 of our web series, Hello Gardeners. To catch up and see what we’ve been doing in the greenhouse, click the image below! With school starting up again, we are introduced to new teachers, new classmates, new schedules, and sometimes new schools! When new people are put into new places, that can lead to new conflicts. Because we are all unique people with differing goals and opinions, conflict is bound to arise in any situation involving more than one person. Managing conflicts in a healthy way not only provides us with the opportunity to learn and grow, but strengthens the bond between the people involved. ---------------------- Here are some tips to resolving conflict in the classroom, on the playground, at home, or at practice! ---------------------- Keep calm It’s best to approach resolving conflict with a calm demeanor. When we approach a conflict feeling annoyed, impatient, or angry, we can actually do more harm than good! ---------------------- Ignore the bad behavior and walk away If someone is just trying to get a rise out of you, sometimes the strongest response is to stay calm and walk away! It shows them that you are not interested in engaging with that behavior and you aren’t going to give them the satisfaction of seeing you get upset. Read our post about walking away to learn more! ---------------------- Ask for help Sometimes you need a 3rd party to help mediate the conversation - ask a friend, teacher, babysitter, coach, or parent to help! ---------------------- Use a game of chance to decide Using games like Rock, Paper, Scissors, a coin toss, or picking a piece of paper out of a bowl eliminates indecisiveness and arguing over what to do! Do this when struggling to pick a movie, a board game, what to eat for dinner, etc. ---------------------- Share and take turns Sharing teaches us patience, manners, and respect! By sharing or taking turns with others, you also have the opportunity to make new friends. Read our post on the value of sharing to learn more! ---------------------- Compromise Brainstorm all the different ways to resolve the problem and agree on the one that makes everyone feel included! ---------------------- Say “no” and stand firm If you see something or experience something that makes you feel uncomfortable, attacked, or teased, it is 100% okay to say “no” or “stop”. A huge part of maintaining relationships is learning the other person’s boundaries. We all have different limits! Be firm, stay calm, and ask for a help if the bad behavior continues. ---------------------- Apologize Sometimes all someone needs to hear is an apology to feel respected and move on. Recognize when you need to apologize or ask your friend for an apology. If you need help forming your apology, read our post here! ---------------------- Use an “I” message Instead of saying “you keep on bothering me” or “you are so annoying”, form a statement that explains how you wanted to be treated. Something like, “I don’t like it when people get in my personal space, because it makes me feel ____” or “I feel really disrespected when you shout over me in class”. ---------------------- Listen & be open It’s important to hear the other person out - you don’t know how they experienced the situation and if you hear them out, they will hear you out. Be sure to not interrupt them and try to see the situation from their point of view. ---------------------- Conflicts arise out of lots of different situations. Whether it’s two people who want to do different activities, classmates picking on one another, or fights between siblings, there is always a way to solve the problem! We can all learn to be a little more open, patient, and understanding by working through conflict rather than running from it or responding with an attack! Remember, if you have a weed you can always reach out to #GardenerAnna & #GardenerAidan to help you pull it! Email us at flowers@youareagardener.com or tag us @youareagardener. We have renamed Wednesdays, #PullYourWeedWednesdays - so if you are ever looking for a little help with you conflict, tune in and we’ll help you #PullYourWeeds!

Hello Gardeners! Recently, we've been talking a lot about social & emotional literacy and why it's important to teach in the classroom. We found a #WeedsToSeeds story that perfectly demonstrates the power that understanding empathy can have over young students. Karen Loewe is a 7th & 8th grade teacher in Oklahoma and she decided the perfect way to kick off the 2019 school year was with a lesson in emotional literacy. She asked her students to write the "baggage", or the painful, difficult things they carry with them, on a sheet of paper and leave that baggage at the door. These pieces of baggage were really personal - they ranged from family members with cancer to parents going through divorce to depression. The post above shows the bag completely filled with slips of paper. She asked her students to read through the slips of paper - and if anyone wanted to claim their "piece of baggage" they could or they could remain anonymous. The impact this had on her students and herself was incredible. Students broke down reading and listening to their fellow classmates' baggage. It was the first time they really understood that each and every one of their peers was going through their own experience. Loewe wrote, "it was an emotionally draining day, but I firmly believe my kids will judge a little less, love a little more, and forgive a little faster." She explained that the idea to "leave the baggage at the door" is not an invitation to deny one's experience, but rather it is a way of saying this is something I carry, but I won't let it define me - it's a way to move forward. It's lessons like this that give kids, and people in general, that "ah-ha" moment. They experience something that changes how they see things - they become a little more patient and a little more understanding. Do you have a #WeedsToSeeds story for us? Send it our way @youareagardener or flowers@youareagardener.com. Thanks for reading gardeners & #PullYourWeeds!

Hello Gardeners! A favorite phrase among #TheGardeningTeam is: “if you can see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand” Setting intentions for our days, weeks, months, and years, not only helps us determine what we actually want, but it helps remind us to put work towards achieving our goals. Remembering to take time to set those intentions can be the one thing that prevents us from actually doing it. We have a few tips to form healthy, intention-setting habits for kids. 1. Follow a schedule. Whether you take time on the first day of the month, the start of a new moon, or every morning during breakfast, repetition is key to forming a habit. 2. Get an intention journal. Having a journal with one specific purpose helps keep you on track, rather than keeping your intentions in the same journal as poems, doodles, and notes. We have a craft for one below! 3. Date your intentions. Whether you are doing a daily intention or a monthly intention, dating your entries can motivate you to keep going! 4. Make it fun! If setting intentions seems daunting, link it with something enjoyable. Maybe every month, you set intentions over ice cream, or maybe you offer a few extra minutes of recess after setting intentions. Below we have a quick and easy craft to make an intention journal. This is the perfect craft for the first day of school or even for each new moon! What you’ll need: Paper (however many sheets you'd like!) 1 piece of construction paper 1 popsicle stick 1 rubberband First, fold your paper in half horizontally. Then do the same to your piece of construction paper. Place your popsicle stick next to the folded side of your paper, and poke your holes about a half inch from where the top and bottom of the popsicle stick hit the paper. Feed your rubberband through the top hole and place your popsicle stick through the loop. The pull the rubberband down and through the bottom hole, and place the bottom of the popsicle stick through that loop. Adjust and decorate how you'd like! With these new tips and a quick, easy journal to help keep you on track, you are sure to make and keep your intentions!

Hello Gardeners! This past week, we came across a beautiful Chinese proverb that we would like to share with you. It reads: Weeds happen, that’s just a fact - but we can prevent them from taking over our gardens. After taking the appropriate steps to pull a weed, sometimes we're left with extra feelings about that weed. For example, it could be that we are holding a grudge against our friend even after they've apologized, or we feel some shame or embarrassment about our weed, or maybe we just can’t stop thinking about it! A lesson in the power of letting go might help give us the tools we need to say goodbye to that weed for good. Letting go of your weeds can be as simple as imagining them as a bird passing over you or as a handful of weeds being yanked from the ground. Proverbs like the one we mentioned above are great because they provide us with imagery and symbols that help us practice mindfulness and visualize our ability to physically let go of the complicated emotions we experience. Below are a few mindfulness techniques to help you let go of any lingering weeds. Be sure to let us know which one is your favorite! We love to see photos of all you gardeners with our book and we love getting emails from you too! Tag us @youareagardener or email flowers@youareagardener with all of your photos, your weeds, your seeds, anything! And as always, don't forget to #PullYourWeeds!

Hello Gardeners! Recently, author, Shanna Truffini and illustrator, Kelsey Jordan, had the amazing opportunity of getting in the studio with Richard & Elizabeth Gearhart of the Passage to Profit Podcast. Passage to Profit features interviews with entrepreneurs and helpful advice from accomplished speakers, business coaches, and entrepreneurs. Last week WE had the pleasure of speaking with Dave Anderson (The Business Bully) and fellow entrepreneur, Angie Myers, of the My "Buddy" Towel. If you missed us on air, feel free to listen to the podcast below. This interview hits on everything - how the book was born, how our products and programs help spread our seeds, who this book helps, and how we intend to grow! Our interview starts around minute 30, but if you have some extra time, we highly encourage you to listen to the full show. Thank you so much to Richard, Elizabeth, Dave, and Angie - please show them some love by following @passagetoprofitshow, @businessthebully, @mybuddytowel. Last but not least, to 710 WOR and iHeartRadio for airing this show - it was a truly inspiring and motivating experience! For all you new gardeners, purchase our book here, check out our web series here, and continue to #PullYourWeeds!

Hello Gardeners! It's been a minute since we've shared a #WeedsToSeeds story. We came across this movement based in Newberg, Oregon called the Don't Give Up Movement. Amy Wolff and her family did one simple thing - they placed 20 yard signs with supportive messages around their community. The response was overwhelming and soon people across the country and across the globe were buying her signs to spread the word. You never know what someone might need to hear - and a simple sign that says "Don't Give Up" might be the one thing that person hasn't heard all week, all month, all their life. This movement reminds us that there are supporters and allies all around us. We may not know they exist all of the time, but a movement like this shows us they do! Thank you so much to Amy & her family for planting this seed. We are in awe of how that small seed has spread so far and so wide - we can't wait to see how much farther it spreads! All it takes is one small seed. If you have a way to pay it forward and spread kindness and love to others, know that there are people just waiting to help you spread the message. If you get a chance, so the Don't Give Up Movement a little love by following their Instagram @dontgiveupsigns. We'll leave you with one final thought, borrowed from the Don't Give Up website (because we love it so much!): "Whatever you do or don't do, honor people. Focus more on common ground than differences. Have hard conversations by flexing your empathy muscle. Listen to understand, not debate. Look people in the eye. Be present. Be generous with love (including with yourself). Life is messy but we're in this together!" -Amy Wolff

Hello Gardeners - welcome back to #PullYourWeeds! Today we are going to talk about apologies. All of us have been in the position where we've needed to apologize to someone for something we did or said. But just saying those two words: isn't enough. Most of the time we understand that those two words are connected to an event and we understand that the person apologizing feels bad for what they did or said. By only saying "I'm sorry", we do our friends and ourselves a disservice. We don't put ourselves in our friend's shoes, feel the impact of our actions or words, and then ask to be forgiven - we instead assume saying "I'm sorry" are the magic words to solve our problems. That's why we've come up with this 4-step apology - think of it as a guideline to a genuine, well-rounded apology. If we use this tool to improve our apologies, we not only make the person who deserves our apology feel heard and respected, but we exercise our ability to feel empathy - something we need more of in today's world! Remember, we all make mistakes - we do or say things that can negatively impact other people. The best way to fix it is to own up to what we've done, and offer a sincere apology that tells our friend that we recognize why what we've said or done is harmful and commit to not doing it again. Recently we found this passage that describes empathy and understanding using gardener friendly language. Written by Vietnamese, Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, it reads: 🌱 🌱 🌱 When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason or argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change. 🌱 🌱 🌱