How a growth mindset can better support your baby’s sleep
Belief in your baby and positive thinking about their ability to learn and grow can be so powerful in creating healthy changes. You are your baby’s whole world and if you do not believe or feel positively that they can achieve something, it will be very hard for them to even begin to believe in themselves, accept change or learn what they are truly capable of. Creating a positive and open mindset when approaching change to your baby’s sleep habits can really make a huge difference in supporting them to create the change you are hoping for.
Brains are incredibly capable of forming new connections and confidence with change when given the right ingredients to foster these connections to grow strong. These key ingredients include support, guidance, love, kindness and time. We can have several different strong connections to certain things in our lives (including for sleep), so there is not always a need to pick or choose between options in life! As we can all appreciate, change can feel scary and overwhelming, but these feelings can sometimes outweigh the task at hand. The unknown of creating change in your baby’s sleep doesn’t have to mean that it is bad, unsafe or shouldn’t be explored. If creating change in your baby’s sleeping habits is something that feels right to you, then you need to support this decision within yourself to enable your mind and body to understand the process so that you can begin to relax some of the protection and defence mechanisms that naturally occur.
One of the biggest things I promote here at Sleep Thrive Grow is that humans, regardless of age, learn through practice and repetition. Remember that saying that Rome wasn’t built in a day?? The same applies to your baby learning new sleep habits. They need your support, guidance, love, kindness and time to be able to grow new connections that work best for them. Sometimes in today’s day and age we get so caught up in expecting a quick fix to happen and to see amazing changes almost immediately. Unfortunately, this just isn’t going to be the case when it comes to changing up our baby’s sleep habits.
Sleep is a basic human need that we are born to be able to transition into it for our survival. Sleep can become as complicated or as simple as we desire. It’s our job as parents to help our baby to create simple sleep habits and connections that work for them.
When implementing change in your baby’s sleep habits and routines, I want you to consider this analogy…
Imagine you’re learning to drive for the first time with a driving instructor. It’s your first lesson and you stall the car. Their immediate reaction is negative, they tell you to get out of the car, they say that you’ll never learn to drive.
How do you think you would react in this situation? I know that my confidence would be shattered, I’d feel disappointed in myself and truly believe that I could never learn to drive. This attitude from the instructor would create low self-esteem and self-confidence, limiting beliefs, fear of trying again and heightened stress responses.
But, on the opposite end of the spectrum what if the driving instructor reacted differently. In that moment when you stall the car, they respond with a positive spin. They say it’s alright, this happens when you’re learning something new. They support you to try again, giving you tips and guidance to get the car moving again.
This response will in turn increase self-esteem and self-confidence, create an open growth mindset, and build a comfortable space for co-regulation where feelings of safety and security can grow.
When making changes to your baby’s sleep habits, I really encourage you to take this scenario on board. I encourage you to be positive and believe that your baby can achieve the change you are aiming for! If you can display this positive mindset and approach toward your baby when they’re learning something new, you will be better equipped to be their support system to guide them through the new experience. Believing that they are capable of this change will create the opportunity to practice more, and to get better and better at this new skill so that they can find it easier and more comfortable in a safe and supportive environment.
At Sleep Thrive Grow, supporting your baby’s sleep is never about just solving a problem. It’s about providing you with long lasting results through our unique coaching approach, reassuring follow up support, parenting tools and strategies so that you and your family can truly become sleep confident. If you feel like now is the right time to make changes to your baby’s sleep habits but are feeling unsure or lacking confidence in your mindset to create this change, I would love to hear from you! At Sleep Thrive Grow, I have a range of packages and options available to support you to create this positive and open mindset to be the support that your baby needs to create new sleep connections. I would love for you to browse my website and see the options available for you, or to book a free call to have a chat about your situation and how I can best tailor an approach that suits you best.