Someone asked me recently: What Is Mindfulness? and What Are the Benefits of Mindfulness?
Fortunately, mindfulness has been heavily studied and researched in the last 20+ years, enough to reassure us that mindfulness “is good” for parents and children alike.

According to Headspace.com:
“Mindfulness is the quality of being present and fully engaged with whatever we’re doing at the moment — free from distraction or judgment, and aware of our thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them. We train in this moment-to-moment awareness through meditation, allowing us to build the skill of mindfulness so that we can then apply it to everyday life. In teaching the mind to be present, we are teaching ourselves to live more mindfully — in the present, taking a breath, not beholden to reactive thoughts and feelings — which is particularly helpful when faced with challenging circumstances or difficult situations.”

Keywords here are: in-the-present, no judgement, focus on the breath.

The benefits of mindfulness are:

• reduced rumination
• stress reduction
• better working memory
• focus
• less emotional reactivity
• more cognitive flexibility
• better relationships
• increased immunity
• increased insight
• less fear
• better intuition

Mindful parenting starts with the parent. When we model full presence and self-control, we give our children a real “head start”.

How present are you?
How calm are you when the storm hits in parenting?
What kind of help do you need?

Let me know on social media or in an email. For more information and free resources, check out the wonderful courses from the Neuromindfulness Institute page: https://neuromindfulness.thinkific.com/enrollments?page=3