Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lindsay Law. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Lindsay, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
True confidence comes from being willing to be wrong and to be kind to yourself through the entire process. I believe that confidence and self esteem are very intimately connected. They build on each other and encourage each other. And the moments in my life that gave birth to and strengthened them both are moments when I was willing to step into the dark, not knowing how it would go, where there was no evidence that I would succeed.
One such time was when we decided to take our family of 7 on a cross country trip in a motor home for 5 months. I had a 3 month old baby and our oldest was 11. We’d never spent time in a motor home. We had never been to the eastern side of Canada. We had never left home for that long. I remember my sister saying, “I bet you’ll hate it and be back in a few weeks.” I responded, “Maybe, but I’m willing to get out there and try, because I might love it!” And love it I did!
Now that doesn’t mean everything went smoothly. I remember days of hiding in the van eating ice cream, just so that I could have a moment to myself. I remember days of being stuck in unfamiliar cities while we repaired the motorhome. I remember feeling lonely and longing for home and a familiar face. But these very moments of struggle and the ability to see the challenge and give myself space to feel what I was feeling and be kind to myself, is what built the evidence of things I was capable of and my self confidence.
Fast forward 7 years and I have now crossed Canada from east to west 10 times; twice on my own with 5 children. Now friends, this is 50 hours of driving time. We have done it in 3 days, 2 weeks, 3 months and each new challenge has built my confidence to handle hard things and over the years I have become better and better and treating myself with love and compassion at each new speed bump along the journey.
Remember, Get out there and try, because you might love it!!
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
As my confidence and self love grew, I knew that I needed to share these skills with the youth of our world. I knew that the love, compassion and confidence I felt were not the norm and I saw my own children struggle to see their value, despite my constant reminders of my love and faith in them. Our youth are living in a world with constant reminders that they are not enough, that they are not as smart or pretty as those around them. They need to learn how to use their own voice to combat these outside voices. Their voices are important and there is so much that we can learn from them. But if they are too afraid, or see themselves and their ideas as unimportant, we will be losing an important resource in our world today.
As a Certified Youth and Parent Coach, I teach youth how to tap into their loving inner voice even when things don’t go as planned. I teach them to feel their own emotions instead of running from a part of themselves that has so much to teach them. Through mindset and embodiement coaching, teens can learn to be their greatest cheerleaders and share their important, unique voice with the world around them with confidence.
I do this through in person mother daughter retreats in Eastern and Western Canada (availability depends on the year), 1:1 coaching with teens and their biggest supporters, their parents and online group coaching opportunities. There are so many fun and engaging ways to build confidence.
Another important aspect of youth coaching is helping parents understand how to communicate in a way that fosters confidence and self love. As parents, we want to much for our kids; success, happiness, friendships. But in our desire for them to have these things, we sometimes make it harder for them to access these results, unknowingly. I’m here to shine a light on all of it, as I learned through hard experience myself how some of my responses were creating more anxiety and less trust and love for themselves.
If you want to live in a world where teens and tweens feel seen and heard for what they are experiencing and a world where they feel safe to share the light that is in each of them, join me in helping youth and parents respond with more love and compassion.
Connect with me here to learn more and create change!
www.youthrisingcoach.com – Get my Youth freebie, “Better Self Talk for Teens”
www.youthrisingcoach.com/parentpage – Get my parent freebie, “How to talk to your Teen for Better Connection”
www.youthrisingcoach.com/brave – Get on the waitlist for my youth event “Brave Week” where we build confidence and self love
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
To develop self confidence and self love that is separate from outside accomplishments, three essential ingredients have been, self compassion, an ability to really see and feel emotions and a willingness to allow others to be wrong about me. If you are wanting to build confidence and self love for yourself or your teen, learning about what self compassion looks like is so important. Kristen Neff is a great resource for developing language and and practices around self compassion. The next essential skill is being able to acknowledge and learn to feel emotions instead of avoiding, reacting or resisting them as our brains like to do. This skill is best developed with a coach. It is counter intuitive to allow discomfort in our bodies, so to develop a level of mastery in allowing emotions, seeking out a qualified coach like myself is highly recommended. And next, start to introduce the idea to your brain that it is ok for people to be wrong about you. This stimulates a powerful level of confidence. It’s ok for people to think that you are rude when you say no. It is ok for people to assume that you are unskilled when you make a mistake. Allow yourself space to get it wrong, no matter what others might think of you. These are three essential ingredients to building confidence.
How would you describe your ideal client?
I work with youth aged 10-18 and their parents. We work together to create more confidence through self compassion and emotional awareness. My program, “Confidence form the Inside Out” could be for you if; when you ask your teen how their day at school was, they stamp their feet, run up to their room and you’re not sure if you should go up there or give them space because no matter what you do it’s going to be the wrong thing. Or if, when your teen gets home from school feeling anxious, they can’t really articulate why and try to stuff it down. Or if, your teen tells themselves they’re stupid when they accidentally drop the plates at breakfast or get less than 70% on their math test. Or if you have tried therapy, and being super positive and your teen still says they hate themselves or seem to explode with emotion at the smallest thing. If this is you, I promise you that confidence, and peace and greater connection are in reach!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.youthrisingcoach.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youthrisingcoach/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Youth-Rising-100357341726054
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQxUkLKT8Itb9tFstz29TxQ?view_as=public
- Other: www.youthrisingcoach.com/parentpage
Image Credits
Amy Melina Photography
