It was my 35th birthday.

A mom of an infant and a whippersnapper 2-year old, I was tired. I left the kids with Dad so that I could take a stroll and reflect… I knew that I was getting into some bad thought habits. My ‘woe-is-me’ thinking was not making me happy, and it wasn’t the energy I wanted to bring to my life. I said to myself, “Every time that I notice myself in this snowball thinking, I’m just going to say ‘Om’.”

Then a melody popped into my head… “I’m just gonna say Om. I’m just gonna say Om Om Om Shanti Om.”

“That’s a kids’ song.”

I dove into writing songs for my kids, and I felt like myself again, too.

As my kids grew over the last few years, I was challenged with how to teach them the tools for happiness, fulfillment, and success that I had picked up in life and also in my study of yoga philosophy.

Practices like grit, resilience, optimism, thought stopping, gratitude, looking for the good, and following intuition are researched and proven markers for self-esteem, success, and happiness.

These are the lessons I am so passionate about my kids learning, but I know that lectures don’t work, and I don’t like being a lecturer. 

I knew for this new album, the music had to be current, fun, buoyant. Straight Bops. So, I sought out The Pop Ups. We honed the lyrics, re-wrote the music, and came up with this album.

The so-called “soft skills” associated with Emotional Intelligence are vitally important. I wrote them for my kids…and I wrote them for all kids.

Kids will not even know they’re being taught seriously important life lessons when they listen. They’ll be dancing and singing along, but these ideas will worm their way into the amazing spongey brains of children and help them thrive.