Mindful Parenting is a contemplative practice through which we become more mindful of our children and, in doing so, experience a more joyful life.
The Mindful Parent is an organization
devoted to sharing with parents and other child caregivers ways in
which to enhance the many joys of parenting. By mindfully attending
to our children, both when we are physically present with them and
when we are physically separated from them, we can enhance our sense
of connection to them and, in turn, our connection to the cosmos.
This makes us a better parent, a happier person, and a more vital
human being.
To facilitate a more mindful approach to parenting,
The Mindful Parent publishes on its website, and in its bi-weekly
newsletter,
mindful parenting
verses and commentaries. The Mindful
Parent website also serves as a community forum that encourages and
supports a mindful parenting dialogue and the sharing of mindful parenting
experiences.
In the spirit of developing a mindful parenting
community, we encourage you to
submit a mindful parenting
experience through verse, commentary, and imagery to share with others.
We believe that through our collective experience, we can help
each other develop a deeper and more meaningful mindful
parenting practice.
Click here to learn more about making a
submssion. We thank everyone who has contributed or is considering
making this very compassionate contribution.
Click
here to learn what
recent events are taking place and of changes to The Mindful Parent
website. Please
contact us with your questions about mindful
parenting or to share a mindful parenting experience. We are
devoted to working with you to enhance your ability to "be" with your
children, and to experience the bliss that awaits you.
Today's Sip: That
Precious Breath
The heart of all mindfulness trainings centers
on the breath. Most of the mindful parenting practice tips
that appear in this column incorporate breathing.
Breathing
will be the centerpiece of today's tip. And, as you may already
know, when all eyes are on the breath, wonderful things happen
-- if you remember to breathe, that is.
Recall the moment you
first saw your beautiful child. Was it yesterday? Was it fifty
years ago? Odds are that you were so taken with the wonder of
the moment, that you were not mindful of your breath at the time.
(If you were, wonderful! If you weren't, join the club).
This is, of course, in sharp contrast to the moment prior to the time
you first saw your child which, if you were giving birth, or assisting,
may have been very focused on the breath.
As wonderful as that
moment was, had you been mindful of the breath, and mindful of
your presence and aliveness on this Earth, that moment may have
assumed an even greater bliss. And even if the bliss associated with that
moment could not be surpassed, your reflection on that moment
today likely would be fuller and would elicit a heightened sense
of joy.
But it is never too late. Today, when you see,
hear, speak with, send or reply to a letter or e-mail from, or
bring your thoughts to your child, open awareness to your breathing.
In the flicker of that instant, reflect on the moment you first saw
your child and inhale a full breath, deep into your belly. Relax
your shoulders. Exhale slowly and fully, emptying your lungs
of stale air. Your exhalation should take a second longer
than your inhalation. If during the breath, you lose awareness
of the precious moment, reflect on it again with your next breath.
You
are not merely reliving a moment from the past. You are
bringing feelings that began, at that precious moment, to echo throughout
the cosmos home again. Your connection to your child, and
those same feelings, are very much alive in the present.
Breathing in
I remember this breath
