Calm Your (Communications) Nerves Challenge with Akilah S. Richards
Join this 9-day Challenge & Start Developing More Confident Communication Between You and the Children in Your Life
Do you crave easy, engaging conversation with your child? Or your student? Is that a ‘Yes, BUT words and emotions keep getting in the way? As a conscious parent and unschooling mama, I’ve been there and I’ve developed ways to work through this, and shared them in keynotes, courses, and workshops in cities across the U.S. and South Africa. And, I’ve had the honor of interviewing and engaging hundreds of families for whom it is normal to have healthy, easy, fun, trustful conversations with children and teenagers in their lives.
Now I want to show you some of the most successful means of healing your communication so that you can use them to take away your 2019 holiday stress and make this time with extended family and friends easier on you, emotionally.
My mom and I were talking the other day about an unfortunate reality that she and I share. Many of her friends aren’t on speaking terms with their adult children. Their children are in my age range (I’m 42), and the parents are most in their fifties and sixties.
I told Mom that in my circles, among people who still had the blessing of their parents being alive and well, quite a few of them weren’t speaking to their parents either. And for those who were, a surprising number of them did a lot of mask-wearing for the sake of their parents—hiding the cannabis when parents come over, even though you’re 39 grown-ass years old. Or pretending to be something you’re not, because it’s easier than being honest with them about who you are.
If you’re not exploring new ways to talk and to listen to the young people in your life, you might be the one they pretend for. Or the one they never get to really know as a person. Or you might never feel you can be yourself around your own children, no matter their age. That’s not your story, not if you know how to start healing your communication, which is exactly what I will show you throughout this 9-day challenge.
Don’t risk letting this year’s holiday stress take you 10 steps backwards in your efforts to be the type of parent or teacher that you want to consistently be. Join this challenge now to learn what you can start saying, and stop saying so that conversations are easy, open, and honest between you and the children you love.
During this challenge, you will:
- Give voice to some of the dialogue and struggle going on in your head
- Have some practices in place for working through the things about your child or student that you do not understand or agree with
- Learn why and how to strengthen your investment in your own personal leadership skills
- Experience what if feels like to be respected, not judged or questioned, for wanting to have respect and trust-based relationship with children
- Gain clarity around the unmet need behind your communication style, and how to pivot in a different direction
- Have 9 days of accountability, encouragement, support, and celebration of your progress as a mindful parent with imperfections and good intentions, just like the rest of us
Building TRUSTFUL, HONEST COMMUNICATION.
December 9 to December 17, 2019
"I keep being reminded how deeply spiritual this all is for parents and kids alike! Thank you for providing the nourishment and wisdom as we find our way as a family choosing to learn our own way. I realize i need to sit back and observe not only my kids but myself. There feels like so much to dismantle but for now, i feel so hungry for more so thank you for all of the avenues you have made your experience available for us to learn from at the different stages of our stories."
- @usixtytwo, via Instagram
HOW THIS CHALLENGE WORKS:
After joining the challenge, you will gain access to a private Facebook group where Akilah S. Richards, unschooling organizer and everyday raising free people practicioner (you like that?! ) will lead a daily communication challenge. You will get the first prompt on Monday, December 9th, 2019.
Each day of the challenge, you will get a daily "Communications Gem" video from Akilah, and every other day will start with a prompt designed to invite and explore an aspect of your communication style and reactions.
By the end of this challenge, you will have so much more insights into the why and how of your communication style, along with some new tools for communication based NOT on your old habits or fears, but on what you know and value about children and about yourself today.
This Challenge is For You If...
- You are a parent, family member, community member, or a revolutionary educator, and you want to interrupt that
history and end those habits that you refuse to pass on to the
child/children in your life.
- Right now, you need the energy that comes from participating in a group activity with other mindful parents and educators for mutual support.
- You are already working on your default behaviors, and want to do that with people who understand both the difficulties and the amazing benefits of that type of personal leadership work.
- You want the influence of unschooling and deschooling practices to help you design your own confident path forward, even if you're not an unschooler.
- You need a place to learn how to embrace the things about your children that you do not understand, and the parts that you do not (and may never) agree with.
- You understand that your parenting and educating practices must involve you, your needs, your boundaries, and the space to work on your baggage -- so you want a space to do personal leadership work, not a place to get general parenting or education support.
This course is closed for enrollment.
AS SEEN ON
" Affirming! Thank you for this labor of love! I love your topics and how you are raising your children. It's helping me with parenting my 6yo and 3yo spirited daughters. Your podcast has helped me to be at peace with the way that we do school (classical/eclectic/unschoolishy). Keep it coming! I always feel empowered after a dose of your episodes! "
- malMichelle, Mindful Mama
"Unfortunately, now that both of my children are school age I haven't allowed them to learn the same way they had previously. I changed my homeschool into a traditional school at home. I've learned that this isn't best for my motivated, educated daughters. As a result, I sought Akilah's podcast after visiting her blog. I'm also a blogger, but Akilah had a confidence in her schooling abilities that I deeply admired. I believe that freedom is essential to embracing self so I thank her for answering her calling to share her community of self-directed learners. Thank you Akilah for brightening my horizons.”
- Elle Cole, , Motivational Speaker and Homeschooling Mom, Sickle-cell Awareness Advocate
Akilah S. Richards
Everyday Raising Free People Practicioner & Your Facilitator
Akilah is the founder of Raising Free People Network, a social enterprise focused on resolving the ways that unexamined experiences with bias and oppression disrupt families' and organization’s capacity to sustain a culture of belonging. The impact of her work in leadership development has resulted in families, social profit organizations, and corporations relying on Akilah's expertise and unique unschooling and deschooling methodologies to name, navigate, and resolve issues of privilege and power that relate to age, socio-economic class, race, and culture.
She is also a founding Board Member of the Alliance for Self-Directed Education, collaborating with researchers, educational entrepreneurs, internationally-recognized change-makers, and local community leaders to normalize and increase access to non-coercive education models for all families. Akilah's widely celebrated podcast, Fare of the Free Child, has over 135 episodes that discuss the intersections of parenting, personal leadership, and tools for liberation-centered communication and community. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Raising Free People (PM Press, Fall 2020).