Unwinding, Easing Anxiety and Falling Asleep using Mindfulness Stories
Episode 56: Unwinding, Easing Anxiety and Falling Asleep using Mindfulness Stories with Goldminds founder, Cynthia Arscott
In this episode, Rachael interviews Cynthia Arscott, a certified meditation teacher and the creator of the new GoldMinds app! Rachael and Cynthia talk all about childhood anxiety around sleep, using mindfulness, and how they used both of their knowledge on the topics to inspire this amazing app.
Inside this episode:
Cynthia shares her personal journey with anxiety in childhood and how mindfulness and meditation helped her find relief.
The importance of bedtime routines and the benefits of using mindfulness stories to help children unwind and fall asleep.
How mindfulness & meditation can be effective tools for managing anxiety & improving mental health overall.
The benefits of teaching mindfulness to children at a young age.
All about their new app- GoldMinds!!
And so much more!
Mentioned in this episode:
Download the Goldminds App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/goldminds-sleep-mindfulness/id6478971217
Cynthia’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cynthiaarscott/?hl=en
Goldminds website: https://www.goldmindsapp.com/
Goldminds Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/goldmindsapp/?hl=en
Mindfulness Study Mentioned in Episode: https://news.mit.edu/2023/practicing-mindfulness-may-improve-childrens-mental-health-1011
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate 5⭐️ and write us a review! ⬇️
✨For sleep support and resources, visit heysleepybaby.com and follow @heysleepybaby on Instagram! 😴☁️🤎✨
Rachael is a mom of 3, founder of Hey, Sleepy Baby, and the host of this podcast.
Listen to the full episode
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Welcome back to No One Told Us, the podcast that tells the truth about parenting and talks about all the stuff you wish you knew before having kids. I'm your host, Rachael, and today I'm speaking with my friend Cynthia Arscott. Cynthia is a certified meditation teacher and teaches meditation and mindfulness to children in schools and online throughout North America to enhance focus, reduce stress and anxiety, and improve sleep.
As someone who's been on a lifelong journey to improve her own mental health, she has truly tried it all. And what has worked best for her over the last five years is a consistent mindfulness practice. Like anything, it takes practice and doesn't come easily. And she's taken her expertise to help children, including her own toddler. She's passionate about teaching mindfulness to children at an early age to properly equip them with the tools they need to confidently manage their own minds as they go through life.
I'm so excited to welcome Cynthia. Her mission through Goldmines, which is a new app that I am so happy and proud to be a part of, is making the skill and practice widely available for children and families everywhere. So welcome, Cynthia. So happy to see you. We're just back from our trip. Well, not our trip because you live there. But I recently took a trip out to Toronto so we could do some behind the scenes work on the app. So yeah, I'm really excited to have you here today.
Yeah, thank you. I'm so happy to be here. And yeah, it was an awesome trip on the East Coast. I'm glad you had a good time.
Yeah, it was really fun. Toronto is such a beautiful city I had never been there before. And we were doing a little brand photo shoot for the app. And, you know, maybe at the end, we can get more into how I got involved with working with you for the app and what my role is. But first, I would love to just talk to parents about this mindfulness thing because I think we are starting to hear more about like you know using mindfulness techniques using meditation for little kids it's being taught in schools you know sometimes as part of like a social emotional learning curriculum and I think that's so great.
And I really would love to hear about kind of what called you to bring this to children and bring this to schools but first I'd love to just kind of hear about your own personal journey with it and what made you interested in the first place. So tell us first a little bit about your background.
So I was a very anxious child and just thought that there was something wrong with me.
I wasn't really sure what I was experiencing. I went through a couple of different childhood bullying experiences. I was a competitive dancer and the girls were quite mean and I could remember telling my mom that I felt sick to my stomach and I didn't want to go to dance,
all because I was incredibly anxious and didn't know how to face the kids.
And this continued on through my childhood. It showed up a lot actually around sleep. In and around the time where I could understand that people could break into houses and maybe there were ghosts. I was petrified of sleeping. And I remember having my comfort or over my head and I was like cocooned under there, only a small air hole to breathe from, even on the hottest summer days. And I just remember feeling so scared, feeling like nobody could help me. I didn't know how to articulate what I was feeling, but what I was feeling was deep, deep anxiety.
And then, you know, as I grew up, that anxiety followed me. And it wasn't until I was in my 20s where I started to really experience it in work environments and in relationships that I was desperate for some relief. And in around that time, the self -development world was getting very into mindfulness and meditation. So I decided to try it. And it was very challenging for me at first. I was always one of those people that said, I can't turn my mind off. I can't turn my mind off no chance.
And turns out that after I practiced day after day, I got good at it. And I finally was in control of my mind and I could zoom out and I could see this anxiety as something that was separate from me and I practiced different strategies like deep breathing and mindfulness to ease that anxiety. And that was when I realized that that was the missing piece for me when I was a kid. That was the tool that I needed. I needed someone to teach me to be able to take control over my mind and not just feel like there was this thing that was wrong with me.
And that was really what brought me to become a certified meditation teacher and to take several courses on kids' mindfulness so that I could create classes and programs to bring this to kids from a young age so that they were equipped with these tools as they grow up. You know, kids absorb things like a sponge. That's why we teach kids second, third languages when they're young. And mindfulness is no different. It's a skill. And that was really really my entire mission and always has been with goldminds.
That is, oh my gosh, everything you said just resonates so much with me. I mean, I remember like you described when you learned that people could break into houses. I used to be so scared of the same thing. And I lived, I don't know if you guys heard about this up in Canada, but there was like a really famous home invasion and murder in Cheshire, Connecticut. And that was just a couple towns over from me and I didn't sleep for months, if not years. And I'm curious because I never felt, my parents are wonderful and they loved me so much, but I never felt comfortable or okay with asking them for help or asking them, hey, could you lay with me or, hey, can I sleep in your room tonight? I'm scared. Like I never, I felt so ashamed of being so anxious and scared. I never asked them for anything. I just sat up in my room awake all night as a kid and as a teen. I'm wondering if you had the same experience or if your parents helped you in that way.
Yeah, I didn't know how to articulate it to them and I too was also ashamed not knowing what was wrong with me. Like, why can't I just sleep in my room by myself? Nobody else seems to be scared in this house. Why am I the only one that's scared? If it got really bad, I would go into my parents' room and I would say, I'm scared and they'd say, okay, like either come on in. And, you know, at a certain point after, you know, I was getting bigger and I was taking up too much of the bed, my mom actually bought a little mermaid sleeping bag and she put it on the floor beside the bed so I wouldn't wake her up.
So if I was scared in the middle of the night, I could just go in there, hop in my sleeping bag and go to sleep. So there was a time where I did that and that was really nice. But generally speaking, like I didn't know how to articulate it. I was just scared. I was terrified and it didn't even feel like anybody could help me. It was just, I just needed to be in the presence of my parents.
I love that. That's actually such an amazing idea that your mom had so intuitively. And I tell parents all the time, like, it's okay if you don't want a bed share. It's okay if you don't want to let your kid in your room. Here's a strategy you could use. Have like a little flop pad for them. Have a nugget couch next to your bed. Have a sleeping bag. And then, you know, they can feel like they're welcome to come in and feel safe next to you but your sleep isn’t getting disturbed.
I love that your mom did that. And I actually got to meet your mom at the photoshoot and that makes total sense because she was like the sweetest woman alive so I love that. You also mentioned that you know you felt like because of your experience as a child you wanted to bring this mindfulness practice and teach this skill to children so can you tell us how you decided to do that and how, what was your entry point into working with kids?
So I started pitching schools on mindfulness programs and I created this treasure hunt. And essentially every step of the way, kids were learning different skills, but it was in treasure hunt form. So the kids felt like they were doing something that was really fun. So I put together these programs. I started emailing schools. I had a friend that helped me test in a school and I really just went from there and created these programs that kids started to love.
It took a bit of trial and error. But essentially, you know, I made it really fun.
I gamified it and ended every single class with these guided relaxations, which was their favorite part of every class because they got to just lie there and do nothing and imagine a story. And that was really the best part of it for the kids and that's really the piece that I've held on to is this storytelling piece because as we all know as parents kids learn through stories, it's kind of like their little language… so if you want to help your child transition maybe they're maybe you're moving or maybe you're going back to school maybe you're weaning one of the best ways to help your child through any transition is through story.
Right that's why there's so many awesome books out there that help with these and that's what I was trying to do, but through stories. So, you know, tell kids different stories about a girl that might experience worries and what she did about them and the different techniques that she used so that they could resonate with the girl and learn through her.
I love that. And it's so amazing to me, too, that you did all of this even before becoming a mom yourself. So we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, I want to hear about how having your little boy may have changed the trajectory of your journey. We'll be right back.
Okay, Cynthia, we're back. And we were just talking before the break about, you know, kind of how you started to get your program for mindfulness into schools. And it's so amazing to me that you were doing all of this, you know, with your expertise and your background and your own experience as a child, but you really did this before becoming a mom. And so I really would love to hear how that transformed your mission, your goal for your programs, your idea for your app. Tell us about your entry into motherhood, because it's been what, like two and a half, almost two years?
No, a little over two years.
Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, I was definitely very naive before I had a child, maybe as most of us are, thinking that we can do it all. I remember being six months pregnant with my son,
teaching classes, live in person in schools, and being like, how am I going to do this when I have a child? How do I replicate myself? And this software company came to me and was like, hey, we can create this app for you. It's pretty cheap and you can add all of your classes and your, you know, your guided mindfulness stories on there. What do you think? I'm like looking down on my belly. I'm like, yeah, let's do that.
And so I got this app up and running, which gave me the opportunity to not be live all of the time when I was about to have a child. So I, six months pregnant, sat in a closet for the best sound quality and recorded all kinds of different sleep stories, mindfulness stories for kids. And I think I got up to about 100 before my body was just like, you need to stop sitting on this closet floor. And I finished up the app and I launched it shortly after my son was born. Luckily, I wasn't the one putting it all together.
And it really gave me the opportunity to not be live all the time, but to be able to give these impactful tracks in classes to families. I then distributed the app amongst the schools I was working with and gave it to parents so they could try it. And at that point, we're like, okay, we love the classes, but what we really love is actually the sleep stories that you're putting together. My kid is falling asleep in 10 minutes. Like they don't usually unwind this well.
Can you write more of these?
And I was like, okay, yeah, of course. And Right at that time, I'm in the thick of the four -month sleep regression with my son. I'm like on my third time of getting mastitis. And I'm like, you know what? All parents really want, myself included, is just a little support with sleep. Just a little bit of an easier way to help their kids unwind. And from there, it totally changed the trajectory of goldminds from just teaching mindfulness to really focusing in on sleep and using mindfulness as something that can help kids fall asleep and also just to help them unwind before bedtime even starts.
I love that. And oh my gosh, I'm just thinking of you like writing these stories as your child is going through the four -month sleep regression and you're probably like, I wish you were old enough to listen to these stories and to be mindful. So, okay, so then I think we were probably connected shortly after that because I sampled the stories myself. I think you reached out. So how did you find hey sleepy baby? When was that?
So when I had realized that I wasn't a fan of the sleep advice that I was getting from everybody else around me, my friend shared your Instagram handle with me. And she's like, follow this girl. She's got great advice that's not, you know, the standard advice that you're going to get in terms of sleep. I followed you. I purchased your floorbeds guide and about a year later purchased the night weaning guide. And both helped very different times of my baby's journey with me. So, you know, right away, we knew that we needed to move to a floor bed because positions weren't happening.
So that guide really helped with that. And then down the road when, you know, the five to seven to 10 night wakeups weren't really working for me anymore. I decided that night weaning might be the best option. So that's when we used your guide. And it was from there that I was like, okay, maybe, you know, Rachael, maybe she could like review the app for me.
She's, you know, she's a sleep expert. Maybe she could take a look for me. And then it kind of just was like, well, but she also has this incredible mom community that I am a huge part of. Like I consider myself a hey baby community member. And I can't say that about really any other person on the internet. So I, that's when the idea came that, hey, maybe she could be a part of this. Maybe she wants to be a part of the team. Maybe she can help me impact more and more families.
Yeah. Oh my gosh. I know. I'm so excited to share it with everybody. I think they're going to love it so much. And we will talk more about the app and what people can expect towards the end of the episode, but you were just mentioning kind of some sleep struggles that you had with your toddler when he was, you know, a baby and then more into toddlerhood with weaning.
Can you talk a little bit about that? And like, how did you feel about that? Were other friends that you had around you dealing with the same things? Did you feel kind of isolated in that way? Talk to us about your kind of like sleep journey. Because I think a lot of times we don't talk about these things everybody just assumes everybody else is doing okay.
Yes it was very challenging for me i had someone hand me a sleep training program when I was pregnant and say hey you just have to do this and they sleep and I didn't even know what it was and i was like awesome and then when i got into it i was like wait I don't want to do that that doesn't feel right for our family and I felt very isolated. I didn't know anybody who had their child on a floor bed at four months old first of all.
I remember trying to explain it and friends are like what? And Ii was like yeah hes on the floor and it’s awesome and i can just roll him away and they were like shouldn't he be somewhere safe? And I was like no no it is safe, I followed all the safety protocols. And I just remember feeling so alone and overexplaining myself. Every Time I was with someone i felt like i was talking about my child’s sleep and trying to like over explain why what I was, why what I was doing was fine and biologically normal. And I think people thought I lost it. But it worked really well for us.
Four months sleep regression happened. I had, like I said, mastitis three times in a row. I was sick. I had, I just had given up on trying to sit in a chair and feed three or four times a night. Bedsharing became our best friend. And that's what we did for the entire first year of his life, put him to sleep by himself. And then when he woke up, we were in bed, safely bed sharing together. And I've learned to love it.
I used to think I should be embarrassed by it, but I'm not. I truly love it. It's been some of the best bonding experiences that I have with my son. And even to this day, he's two years old. And he will sleep through the night now, which is wonderful.
But sometimes he does wake up. And I will happily go and, you know, cuddle him in bed. And it's just become a really enjoyable part of my life as opposed to being a stressful part, whereas I think the first couple months or first year of life, you're so worried about what everyone thinks of you and how you're doing as a parent when really it's, you know in your heart and your intuition knows that what you think is right is right. And so I wish that I could go back and tell anxious Cynthia, who just had a baby that everything it was doing was right.
I know. I wish all of us had a magic ball or like a time machine or something that we could go back and be like, can you just chill? Like, it's going to be fine. This child will sleep, I promise. This is not going to be your life forever. But it's so hard, especially with your first. And it's been a while for me now, but I can still remember so clearly, like exactly how it felt to feel like, okay, this is my life now. Like I'm never going to feel normal again. I'm never going to sleep again. I'm going to be miserable and sleep deprived and hating my husband for the rest of our lives.
And it's just, it's so not like that. Like once you get through it the first time, you really realize that comparatively it is such a short period of time, right? Like it really does not last that long. But it feels really big and really hard when you're in the thick of it.
So, Archer, you're two -year -old, do you use these stories that you've recorded for the app? Do you use them for him as recordings? Or does he get like a live reading from you every single night?
I wish I could say he gets my best performance every night. But no, he gets the recordings. That's also one of the things. The reason why I love having an app is because we're all kind of exhausted at the end of the night. Like maybe we've read two or three or ten books for our kids and we just want to be quiet and not have to talk anymore. So we do use the recording. So we use them during nap time because he's still on one nap.
So I have different nap time tracks that I play. So there's for different age groups. There's a zero to three age group for nap time. And he gets to pick his story. We listen to it. And and he falls asleep shortly after, which is really nice. And then my husband uses it at bedtime with him. So my husband does bedtime every day. And he knows it's me, which I know obviously is like an added bonus, that it's my voice. He's like, it's mama.
But he gets to pick his story at night as well. And it just really helps him to unwind. Because if you think about even just us as adults, we go to bed thinking about all of the things in our day. And kids do too. They're thinking about all the things that they did, all the things that they want to do, the things that they learned. And when you bring their mind back to the present moment and back to a calm space through a story, it just allows their bodies to just like sigh and just relax into it and just follow the story.
And I encourage deep breathing through it. I encourage all kinds of different mindfulness practices through the story. So the kid doesn't feel like they're learning something. They just feel like they're listening to a fun little story to fall asleep too.
I love that. And honestly, too, even if your kid isn't yet at an age, even if they're like under two and they don't really understand the words of the story yet, like something about the voice of just, it's, I tell parents this all the time. Like, if you don't know what to do at bedtime, like if you've tried everything, your kid's not falling asleep, try just talking very slowly with a monotone voice and just telling them the story about what happened that day or repeating a grocery list.
Like there's just something about listening to someone too that for a lot of kids, like just that in and of itself will help them calm down and fall asleep. So I mean, I've been doing that with Noe since she was two, maybe even before two, where I would just like tell her the most boring story I could think of. And that's how she would fall asleep when we were done nursing because really for me like I used nursing as my best tool and for her much longer than with my son because he was a little bit more independent at bedtime where we could kind of just put him down and say good night and leave….
Probably yeah I could say a lot about that but she was different and so once we were done nursing and I don't know if you felt this way after weaning too but once we were done with feeding to sleep…. I was like okay, what the hell do I do now because now, like, she's not falling asleep as quickly anymore because it takes a lot to kind of regulate in that same way. Their regulation with nursing is so intense and wonderful. And it's hard to kind of find another trick after that.
So what was it like for you and Archer after you guys weaned? Did you just move on right to these stories? Did he have a hard time falling asleep after you weaned?
We were using the stories before as well. So he had an introduction to them when he was quite a bit younger. So he was used to them, but he definitely was primarily being soothed by me to fall asleep. It was challenging. And also, he never took a soother,, he never latched onto a lovey. He, he just wanted me. I was just always.
You were the lovey. You were the pacifier.
I was it. I was it. Lucky for me. And it was challenging sometimes especially you know he would want me to go to sleep sometimes and not my husband because it was me that could soothe him. It was challenging. It just took longer and it took some time to get used to. I think like anything it is just repetition and consistency. There is just not anything like a magic pill that is going to make a child fall asleep really fast.
There is obviously as you talk about all the time, there's like so many different environmental factors that are going to come into play. But I do think that if you as a part of bedtime routine have this kind of unwind story, not like bedtime stories are wonderful. I think in addition to this kind of audio track is incredibly helpful. But there is something about a calm voice, calm music in the background with the right, you know, the right frequencies and these stories that really do help kids just lose themselves in it and fall asleep.
Totally. I know. I wish I had it when I'm excited to use it this time because I'm getting ready to kind of wean Leni, I think. I say that all the time, but I really do feel like I'm ready. And with Noe, so what I talk about all the time is like layering these sleep associations. So kind of like what you were just talking about you introduced the stories before you even weaned so then once you took the nursing away that part was still consistent and that's so perfect because you want to layer those sleep associations so that they have something else familiar to hold on to even when you take away their most preferred one. Which is for many of us like our body or ourselves.
And with Noe I did something similar where I used because I didn't know about goldminds yet um i used the taylor swift method playlist that I created on spotify and that worked really well for us for a long time. Yeah, I think there is just so much benefit to kids learning mindfulness tools and techniques and like you said without even realizing that they are learning.
And it’s great we are talking about toddlers because that's what we have but it’s also so great for older children who are starting school, who might be having friendship drama like you mentioned you had as a child.
There are so many new things that pop up as our children get older. And so having access to something like this can be just so beneficial for our school age kids too. So we're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to talk more about goldminds, the app, and my involvement and what it's going to look like. We'll be right back.
Okay, so we are back with my friend Cynthia, and we are getting ready to launch. By the time this episode comes out, I think it's going to be out, goldminds. So I would love for you to first kind of talk about, you talked a little bit about your entry into like the mindfulness space and how the app, the first version of the app came about. But what is your background in the tech space? How did you know how to do this? I'm just so impressed by you and by all women in business and tech because I am just like how did you know how to do that?
But tell us a little bit about your experience with this and then we will kind of tell people how I am involved and why I am involved and all of that.
So I used to work in the tech world. I used to work at Uber’s head office, downtown Toronto, i was working there for about three years working on restaurant partnerships and bringing restaurants onto the app.
And while I was there, I had this itch to do something on my own. And that was in and around the time that I had discovered mindfulness. So on the side, while I was working at Uber, I would go on my lunch break to teach classes. And there was a school that was just down the street from our office. And I would teach over lunch break. And then I would come right back and sneak back to my desk.
I got to the point where I realized that it wasn't really sustainable for me to be doing both. This was right before the pandemic hit as well. So I had switched to another tech company where I could work from home and I could also work on my business at the same time.
And that's really how I started developing these programs. I myself am not a coder. I worked in the tech space and I know how it works, but I don't know how to build an app myself.
So that was where I found our incredible CTO and he is the one behind the building of the goldminds app. He's done a phenomenal job and he's really the backbone of the business right now, building it all out. And I also realized that I really wanted to work with someone who was an expert in the sleep space and someone who was also very interested in positively impacting families and really delivering value to them specifically at bedtime.
And as I mentioned, I had reached out to you about potentially reviewing the app. And then one thing led to another. And it was like, I actually just think you would be incredible as a part of this founding team. And that's how we were connected that way.
Yeah. And I'm so glad. And I was like so scared at the beginning when you first approached me about this. We, I was joking to Cynthia that it was like we were dating for several months. We would have like this weekly meeting where we would just like chat and get to know each other and like make sure that we liked each other. It was very much like dating. And then, you know, she, of course, along the way was kind of trying to get me to be involved.
And I was like, no, no, no. Like I don't know what I'm doing. I have zero experience in tech. I have zero experience in or education and marketing. Like Everything that I've done, I've just slapped together myself, like, just learning along the way. And, you know, you actually did give me, like, the confidence to say, no, I actually do know a little bit what I'm doing. I have built a really successful business. And I do have something to add and to offer to this team.
I'm so glad that you convinced me because I'm just so, so excited for this now. The app looks absolutely incredible.
And I'm just so excited. I'm so excited to, A, use it with my own kids and b, use it to help other families and to share with the hey baby community. Because I think they're going to love it so much. And something that I've shared too about kind of just our own kids now that they're getting older, you know, they still like us to lay with them. Like we still, you know, love being involved in their bedtime routine. But we have three kids now. That's a lot of kids.
And, you know, if my husband or I want to go out in the evening and the other person is solo,
like we can't theoretically lay with three children for them to fall asleep. And so one thing that we've loved utilizing is having them listen to something so that we can leave the room.
They're still, you know, tucked in their beds. They're listening to something. And that's how they fall asleep without us being close. And, you know, we've used a variety of different things for that. Like I said, we've used like my Taylor Swift playlist. We have used audio story players and things like that. But i am so excited that now the goldminds app is going to be at the top of that list because it is specifically made for bedtime, for calming down, for unwinding, and those added benefits of the mindfulness techniques and the deep breathing and things like that are just like such huge bonuses its like why would i use anything else?
I am just so so excited. I can’t wait for people to hear it and to use it. So who do you think this app is best fitted for? If a parent is listening now, maybe they have a baby or maybe they have a toddler. Who do you think is going to get the most out of this app? And is it just for sleeptime? Or are there other things that the app can be used for too?
The app is really designed to grow with families. So the starting age would be zero to three. I have lots of audio tracks on there for little, little, little ones. And also white noise and other just soothing music that you can use for babies. And then as your kids get a little bit bigger, there's a four to six age range and then a seven to ten age range. So there are stories to help kids fall asleep to help them unwind. But then there's also a daytime feature where if car rides are a particular challenge for you, as they have almost always been for me.
Yeah, I feel personally attacked by that because same.
Yeah. And these stories are great because you can just put it over the car. Not only is your child now following along this story, there's calming music, everything's just relaxing them. It also helps the parent regulate and feel a little bit more relaxed as well just by just by listening.
So there's daytime tracks as well there's also tracks for before school so if your child with back to back to school happening right now if your your child is feeling a little bit anxious a little bit
overwhelmed about it there's lots of different tracks to help them transition and to learn different calming strategies as they approach back to school and you know i think that there's a couple of differences between this kind of mindfulness story app versus audiobook or story apps.
And there was actually a great study done recently that I'd love to share about the difference between the two. So there was a study done by MIT in 2023. And they took a group of kids and a third of the kids listened to mindfulness training or mindfulness audio on an app.
So think guided relaxations, thing visualizations. And then the other two -thirds of the kids listened to audiobooks, just, you know, simple stories on an app. And which was one thing that was great is both groups actually had their mental health improved over that period of time.
But the one group that actually practiced mindfulness instead of just listening to audio stories, they saw a huge decrease in stress levels. Not only just what was verbalized by kids and parents seeing a reduction in negative emotions like anger and sadness. But they also did brain scans of the kids to show that there was a decrease in activity in the amygdala while they were after that period of time of listening to these mindfulness stories.
So there is really a huge difference between mindfulness stories and just audio stories altogether. They both can be calming. They can both be really impactful for kids' mental health. But when you really bring in mindfulness into these stories, you can reduce a child's stress significantly, which as we know is exactly what we need for them to be able to fall asleep.
That is so fascinating. I will get that study from you and link it in the show notes if anybody is interested in reading more about that. And I think it's so, I'm so glad you brought that up because I actually hadn't seen that before. And I'm so glad you brought that up because, like you said, anything that you're listening to, you know, whatever your child enjoys is totally fine.
And there's going to probably be positive impacts, whatever you're listening to or reading at night, right? As long as it's like something that you all enjoy, you're staying calm, like whatever you want to use is great. But there are huge differences between gold minds, which infuses that mindfulness and other apps that you might get that are simply reading stories or simply like AI generated stories or content.
So yeah, I think that is such a huge distinction. I'm glad you brought it up. So I'm so excited for the app. I can't wait for everybody to try it and to let us know what they think. In the show notes, I'm going to add the link that you can grab for a 14 day free trial so that you can all try it out and please let us know what you think. We're always taking feedback. If you have ideas for stories, please send them to us. And we are just so excited to make this a really collaborative experience for parents.
Cynthia, before I let you go, the last question I would love to ask that I try to ask every guest and sometimes I forget, but I hope that I sometimes I forget, but I'm not forgetting today. So what is something that no one told you before becoming a parent that you wish you would know about or that you wish someone would have just pulled you aside and said, hey, you need to know this?
I feel like my answer might be kind of boring. But the number one thing that I wish somebody had told me is like, you know, all that free time that you have as a single person, you know, you can just sit around like scroll on your phone or watch whatever show you want.
Yeah, you don't get that anymore. Yeah, say goodbye. Say goodbye to those beautiful, boring Sundays where you get to, you know, sit in bed until noon and, you know, I, that is probably the biggest change. There's obviously lots of other things, but I really don't think I understood just how my individual time would be spread.
Yeah, oh my gosh. Me and Marley say that all the time. Like how much money would we pay for one day where we could just wake up whenever we wanted, watch TV all day, not leave the couch, order food. And just like to think about the way we used to spend our time is also maybe alarming.
But just rotting on the couch every Sunday.
Yeah, like we definitely don't need to be doing that all the time. But one day would be so nice.
Yeah that is definitely something nobody prepares you for or maybe they do they're like oh you'll never sleep again or oh you're never going to get time to yourself again and you're just like oh yeah yeah like my baby will be different… my baby is going to just fit into my life….
Exactly it's my favorite when people say that.
Oh my gosh yes I'm not going to be like those people that make their baby their whole world oh my god please like good luck with that girl… so funny but it's just one of those things nobody can prepare you like there's just no possible way to understand it until you're in it.
Well Cynthia thank you so much for joining it was so fun to have like a conversation that's not about business stuff because usually on our calls we're just like app app app app and I'm so excited for people to get the app and to let us know what they think and thank you so so much where can people find you because you also share like behind the scenes of building the app and you know some stuff about your own motherhood and things like that and just like your life so where can people find you if they're interested in following along?
So you can follow me on instagram at cynthiaarscott or you can follow along at goldminds app and i share lots on there as well perfect all right have a great rest of your day and i'll talk to you we have a meeting tomorrow so i'll talk to you tomorrow bye Thank you.
