Stages of play | Divorcing alcohol | Sleep |
Good morning,
I hope your week has started well. Some fabulous content on the blog for you this week.
Stages of play
First up there is a guest post from Kobie Bloomfield who is a paediatric speech therapist who specialises in childhood language development and most recently founder of the brilliant start-up ToyCycle.
In her post The stages of play and tips for playing with your child Kobie shares:
The many benefits of play
The stages of play
Tips for playing with your child
The importance of toys (and you don’t have to be the one coming up constantly with new play ideas for your kids)
Toy rotation – less is more
If you have preschool aged kids or lower, this post is definitely for you!
On divorcing alcohol and gaining clarity and confidence
In episode 76 of this family life, I have the pleasure of interviewing Amy Armstrong. Amy calls herself a former boozy tragic on a mission to review the best non-alcoholic libations. In June 2020 Amy decided that it was time for her and alcohol to get a divorce. She had tried previously to go alcohol-free without success, but this time it was different. This time her head and her heart were really into saying goodbye to grog for good.
Amy shares honestly about how divorcing from alcohol required a change in mindset. Amy stopped focusing on what she would lose from not drinking alcohol and began focusing on what she would gain.
Throughout the interview, Amy and I discuss:
How family organisation/life has improved since she divorced alcohol
How family relationships have improved since she divorced alcohol
How finding non alcoholic drinks kicked off a passion that is now a small business for her – Dry but Wet
The additional learning Amy has undertaken to help her grow her business
What made Amy decide to take the leap and leave her full time position to focus on growing Dry but Wet
How Amy takes time to look after herself to keep her relationship with alcohol a healthy one
What resources have been helpful to Amy on her alcohol free journey
Advice Amy would give to a mum who thinks that alcohol is no longer serving them well
You can listen to the podcast via a player on the blog post here or head to Spotify to listen here and here on Apple Podcasts.
Sleep
Do you have trouble with getting to and staying asleep? Then Adapt Drinks Relax might help you! L-theanine is a key ingredient in Adapt Relax that has studies showing a positive effect on sleep.
In one study, 30 healthy adults were given either 200 mg L-theanine or a placebo daily for four weeks. The participants taking L-theanine took less time to fall asleep, had fewer sleep disturbances, and took fewer sleep medications, compared to the placebo group. One bottle of Adapt Drinks Relax contains 132mg of L-theanine.
If you are not familiar with what L-Theanine is, it is an amino acid that is not common in the diet which promotes relaxation without drowsiness. L-theanine works to help you with sleep as it:
Boosts levels of GABA and other calming brain chemicals. L-theanine elevates levels of GABA, as well as serotonin and dopamine. These chemicals are known as neurotransmitters, and they work in the brain to regulate emotions, mood, concentration, alertness, and sleep, as well as appetite, energy, and other cognitive skills. Increasing levels of these calming brain chemicals promotes relaxation and can help with sleep. {source}
Also, just the act of substituting Relax for your usual glass of alcohol at night might help improve your sleep. Alcohol is a sedative and as a consequence when we drink alcohol and then attempt to go to sleep it actually sedates us. We lose consciousness but don't fall into our natural sleep cycle.
Alcohol also makes us wake up more frequently during the night (even if we don't remember it) so we have greatly disrupted sleep - a reason why we often wake up feeling very tired after drinking alcohol. This 90 second video from Dr Matt Walker, Professor of Neuroscience at UC Berkeley and author of the best-selling book Why We Sleep explains in more detail the negative impacts alcohol has on your sleep.
Click here to head to Adapt Drinks to order your carton.
Have a great week!
Nic