More and more parents are quietly noticing a growing distance with their adult children, and many Gen Z kids are just as quickly setting boundaries or even stepping away completely. If you’ve wondered why this is happening, you’re not alone.

In this episode of Building Resilience, I explore the generational nervous system gap and why relationships between Gen X parents and Gen Z children can feel so strained. This isn’t about blame, it’s about understanding how cultural shifts, nervous system regulation, and different approaches to mental health have shaped how each generation sees family, boundaries, and connection.

We’ll unpack research on rising family estrangement, why Gen Z is more likely to see boundaries as survival rather than betrayal, and how Gen X parents, who often poured decades of effort, time, and sacrifice into raising their kids, are making sense of this new reality. I’ll also talk about the risks on both sides: what Gen Z might lose when they disconnect too quickly, and what Gen X could face as they age without the support they expected.

We’ll explore:

• The nervous system's role in feeling safe or unsafe
• Gen Z's emotional vocabulary, its strengths and challenges
• Why Gen X parents feel blindsided despite their best efforts
• The difference between healthy boundaries (bridges) and isolating ones (walls)

Links and Resources:

IBS Nervous System Reset

📝 Get My Resilience Journal

A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care:

🛍️ Amazon US

🛍️ Amazon CA: Buy Here

🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club

Doodle, journal, and heal in community

Let’s Stay Connected:

Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching

Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Silence can be one of the most powerful tools we have but it can also become one of the most damaging. In this episode of Building Resilience, we talk about the double-edged nature of silence: when it truly helps regulate your nervous system, and when it tips into avoidance, shutdown, or even self-abandonment.

You’ll learn five different ways silence shows up: from a healthy reset to a symptom of trauma - and how to tell the difference. we also explore silence as a boundary, a relational message, and even as a quiet container for grief.

If you’ve ever wondered, “Am I choosing silence from a place of strength, or from fear?”- this conversation will give you clarity, compassion, and practical insights to navigate your own patterns with silence.

We’ll explore:

• Silence can regulate your nervous system when used intentionally.
• Silence may also be a symptom of shutdown or trauma responses.
• Silence can act as a boundary, but it can also be misused as control.
• Quiet moments after crisis often bring grief or exhaustion to the surface.
• Silence in relationships is never neutral, it sends powerful messages.
• Awareness helps distinguish between protective silence and harmful avoidance.

Want to create your own Skool Community? Check it out here: https://www.skool.com/signup?ref=06e003b61b8148ebbafd3a067f3cc2e1

—-------------

📝 Get My Resilience Journal

A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care

📌 Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...

📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:

https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...

🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club

Doodle, journal, and heal in community:

https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...

Let’s Stay Connected:

Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching

Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter

Enjoyed the episode?

Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you ever feel guilty for spending time on things that don’t feel “productive”? Or maybe you’ve let go of hobbies altogether because they don’t seem to “count”?

In this episode of Building Resilience, we explore why skipping hobbies is actually wrecking your nervous system, and how bringing them back can help restore your energy, identity, and joy.

Hobbies aren’t just frivolous or “nice to have.” They’re nervous system nourishment. They help us regulate, re-engage with life, and remember who we are outside of our roles and responsibilities. Whether it’s painting, gardening, collecting, or listening to music, hobbies can pull you out of survival mode, help you find your “play zone,” and bring you back to life.

If you’ve been burned out, overwhelmed, or stuck in survival mode, this conversation will remind you why fun, curiosity, and creativity are not optional extras, they’re essential for resilience.

We’ll explore:

• Productivity pressure disconnects us from joy and meaning.
• A true hobby is about presence, curiosity, and enjoyment, not performance or profit.
• Rest has two forms: stillness (quieting) and nourishment (reigniting).
• Burnout often comes from doing too little of what feels alive.
• Hobbies guide the nervous system into the “play zone”, that sweet spot of safety + engagement.
• The nervous system sometimes just needs something that lets it “be.”
• Exploring hobbies opens safe containers for creativity, joy, and regulation.

📝 Get My Resilience Journal

A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care

📌 Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...

📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:

https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...

🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club

Doodle, journal, and heal in community:

https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...

Let’s Stay Connected:

Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching

Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter

Enjoyed the episode?

Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when your kids grow up, and your role as their parent quietly, but profoundly, changes?

In this episode of Building Resilience, I unpack the real meaning behind the shocking phrase, “I hate my kids.” Spoiler: it’s not about hate at all. It’s about the complex, often unspoken realities of parenting young adult children, the shifting roles, the nervous system toll, the grief of being needed less, and the bittersweet pride of watching them build their own lives.

I share my own behind-the-scenes experiences, from feeling invisible in my own home when they visit, to resisting the urge to “fix” their struggles, to navigating sibling dynamics and new partners, to rediscovering my own identity beyond motherhood.

This is a conversation about saying the quiet parts out loud, about letting the messy and the beautiful coexist, and about finding your footing again when the rhythm of parenting changes.

We’ll explore:

• “I hate my kids” isn’t about hate, it’s about change.
• Speaking the messy, taboo truths can be liberating.
• Parental roles shift, again and again.
• Parenting adult children takes a nervous system toll.
• Your opinion is often no longer welcome.
• Partners and new family dynamics change the landscape.
• Envy can be a cue for self-investment.
• Sibling dynamics can be messy, and beyond your control.
• Love and grief can coexist.

—-------------

📝 Get My Resilience Journal

A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care

📌 Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...

📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:

https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...

🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club

Doodle, journal, and heal in community:

https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...

Let’s Stay Connected:

Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching

Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter

Enjoyed the episode?

Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the way we teach kids about emotions is actually making things worse?

In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, I’m diving into 10 essential truths I wish every kid, and every parent, knew about mental health.

We’re having more conversations about emotions than ever before, but we’re still missing the most foundational piece: the body.

We tell kids to calm down, to use their words, to think positive… but we rarely teach them how to feel safe in their bodies. And if you were never taught that yourself, you're not alone.

From why movement is daily medicine and sleep is non-negotiable, to how breath can shift anxiety faster than any pep talk - this episode offers a practical, science-backed roadmap to help your child (and your inner child) build real, lasting resilience.

We’ll explore:

• Why emotional education must include the body, not just the mind

• How movement, breath, and sleep are powerful tools for regulation

• The role of creativity in calming a dysregulated system

• Why stillness isn’t laziness, it’s essential for growth

• How to teach kids (and ourselves) that safety is something we can create

• The nervous system’s role in shaping thoughts, feelings, and behaviour

• Practical ways to support brain and emotional health through daily rhythms

• What it means to "ride the wave" of anxiety rather than resist it

• That health is not a status, it’s a daily practice

📝 Get My Resilience Journal

A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care

📌 Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...

📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:

https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...

🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club

Doodle, journal, and heal in community:

https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...

Let’s Stay Connected:

Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching

Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter

Enjoyed the episode?

Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you feel like you’ve done all the right things - mindset work, supplements, protocols - but your symptoms still linger?

In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, I share a compassionate reframe: maybe the goal isn't to fix your body… but to help your nervous system feel safe enough to stop fighting.

Whether you're navigating chronic pain, illness, or stress-related symptoms, I unpack 10 powerful yet practical ways to create safety in your system without needing to be symptom-free first. From breathwork and somatic tools to environment cues and outcome-independent healing, these tools are grounded in science, self-compassion, and nervous system literacy.

These aren’t quick fixes or toxic positivity, they’re real tools to soften the grip of suffering and begin healing from the inside out.

We’ll explore:

• Slowing down even 10% sends a powerful message of safety.
• Your breath is always broadcasting: danger or calm, choose consciously.
• The Safety Sequence grounds your body in present, not panic.
• Gentle movement is more regulating than pushing through.
• Self-talk isn’t fluff, it’s a nervous system intervention.
• Wishing yourself well is a powerful act of self-kindness.
• Releasing pressure to heal often unlocks healing.
• Your environment can cue safety without a single word.
• Visualization rewires your system toward possibility.
• Co-regulation and rhythm are not luxuries, they’re medicine.

📝 Get My Resilience Journal

A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care

📌 Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...

📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:

https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...

🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club

Doodle, journal, and heal in community:

https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...

Let’s Stay Connected:

Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching

Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter

Enjoyed the episode?

Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the quickest way to calm your nervous system didn’t involve meditation, mindset work, or even deep breathing, but just a pen and a few minutes?

In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, Leah Davidson shares three simple, science-backed tools to help you gently regulate your nervous system, using creative expression, not perfection. These practices don’t require artistic skill or profound insights. Just a willingness to explore, express, and create a sense of safety in your body.

You’ll learn how doodling, gentle journaling prompts, and repetitive shapes can act as regulation anchors helping you shift out of survival mode and into a state of calm, clarity, and connection.

Whether you’re overwhelmed, shut down, overstimulated, or just looking for a way to reconnect with yourself this episode will give you three powerful ways to feel a little more regulated in under 10 minutes.

✨ Want to go deeper? These are the exact kinds of practices we use weekly inside the Nervous System Journaling Club, a creative, supportive space to build safety and resilience from the inside out.

We’ll explore:

• Visual expression helps externalise internal states.
• Simple journaling prompts can shift your state.
• Repetitive patterns (like loops or spirals) create predictability.
• Containment matters more than perfection.
• Co-regulation can happen with the page.
• Every time you meet your system with curiosity, you build resilience.

📝 Get My Resilience Journal

A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care

📌 Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...

📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:

https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...

🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club

Doodle, journal, and heal in community:

https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...

Let’s Stay Connected:

Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching

Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter

Enjoyed the episode?

Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you ever feel like you're doing all the inner work, journaling, processing, consuming wisdom, but still not feeling purposeful or alive?

In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, we explore a powerful reframe: healing alone isn’t the goal. Living is. Using the metaphors of weeding vs planting and consuming vs creating, we’ll unpack how real purpose isn’t something you chase, it’s something you experience, through small acts of creation and participation.

We’ll talk about why so many people get stuck in chronic weeding mode, what happens when we only consume but never create, and how even the tiniest moments of planting can signal safety to your nervous system.

This episode is your reminder that healing doesn’t have to be a full-time job, and that joy, meaning, and purpose come from doing, not just fixing.

Timestamps

00:00 – That “What’s the point of all this?” feeling

01:00 – Purpose as pressure: why it dysregulates the nervous system

02:15 – The weeding vs planting metaphor

04:55 – Healing = weeding, but what about planting?

06:20 – How your nervous system interprets creation as safety

07:00 – Consuming vs creating: input ≠ output

08:10 – You don’t regulate from what you know, you regulate from what you do

09:10 – Chronic weeding and chronic consuming = dysregulation

10:00 – Regulation through participation, not perfection

10:40 – Let purpose reveal itself through small acts

11:20 – Journaling prompts and where to start

📝 Get My Resilience Journal

A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care

📌 Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...

📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:

https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...

🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club

Doodle, journal, and heal in community:

https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...

Let’s Stay Connected:

Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching

Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter

Enjoyed the episode?

Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.