How to emotionally keep it together while emptying your nest.

Gracefully send your child off into the next stage of life

without anxiously worrying about them, feeling like a sentimental hot mess

or wondering what your everyday life will look like without them.

You’ve committed a large part of your life to raising your child - supporting, nurturing, teaching, feeding, coaching, driving, sacrificing, loving and so much more. You’ve given them the best of yourself for many, many years. So much so that your child’s transition into adulthood feels like your accomplishment and celebration as much as it is theirs.

You’ve been relishing every “last moment”. You’ve been hustling through the preparations for what is next. However, you’re also honoring that now more than ever, this is truly THEIR journey.

And while you’re enjoying the overwhelming sense of pride, there’s also a subtle inner relief that you’ve done it. That feeling comes across your face with a soft sigh and tiny smile of content. YOU have safely delivered them to this milestone.

But let’s be real – it can feel like a lot. As much as you want to cherish this process, you end up having to shut down emotionally in order to not explode with tears or sobbing at any given moment. In fact, the worry of not being able to hold it together is almost taking away from your special moments.

Even though this seems to be a common struggle, it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to sacrifice being fully present in order to remain calm and composed. You simply needs a safe, gentle outlet to regroup, which is as easy as TEA. I’m not talking about the beverage but rather your natural ability to process.

TEA stands for the 3 things you need to process and discharge the waves of emotion that you fear will uncontrollably surface: time, energy and ability.

T – Conscious, dedicated time to be present with your feelings.

E – The energy to calmly breathe through the emotions to dissipate the charge.

A – Accessing your innate ability to integrate the mind-body (nervous system) layers and feel like yourself again.

And even thought this appears to be purely a mental process, TEA will actually release physical tension for therapeutic relief you can feel. The only difficult part of TEA is deciding which benefit you enjoy most – the emotional balance, the mental clarity or the physical tension relief. 

So if you’re the parent of a HS graduate looking to be peacefully present during the college transition while also acclimating to your new normal, are you ready to find that much needed personal time to gather and reorganize? I know it can be hard to squeeze in space for yourself right now but that doesn’t mean you can’t get started in small ways. And yes, those small steps will add up to make a BIG difference.

If you need a little help brainstorming some ways to get started, click here to sign up to get my cheat sheet, How To Transform 5 Ordinary Moments Into Therapeutic TEA. It’s getting some final touches but will be released this week. Also, I’ll be breaking the cheat sheet down for you in this week’s live on Wednesday at 2 PM. You can watch on our Facebook page or register to watch via Zoom. If you’re reading this after the live, click here to join our private community to access the recording.

Health and happiness,

Aimee