How can mindful meditation improve your parenting style? (3377 hits)
There is no question that Mindfulness will improve you as a parent. It certainly helped me.
I started practicing Mindfulness when my husband and I adopted our middle son, who was born with alcohol, PCP and cocaine in his system.
He came into our home when he was three and had been abused in foster care.
Our son had a severe issue called, Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). It’s when a child before the age of five has received negligent care and have not formed a healthy emotional attachment with their primary caregiver.
He had been in three different homes before living with us. As he matured, he started exhibiting disturbing behaviors that were tearing our family apart. We took him to 22 different therapists over 12 years/ No one could help him because, during the 1990s, RAD was unknown to mental health professionals, and they certainly didn’t know how to treat it.
Mindfulness helped me to find inner peace and the one resource to help our son. Today he is a Marine veteran, a kind and successful young man who always thanks, my husband and I for not giving up on him and returning him to the system. . Here is how Mindfulness can help you to be a better parent:
Reduces stress and anxiety: Raising kids can be very stressful. We constantly worry about them and fear for their safety and general well being. In today’s sketchy times, we now worry about them attending school. Mindfulness helps us to release everything we can’t control and to find inner peace. When they return home to us, we are then balanced and present for them.
Helps you to be kind and understanding to yourself:
Everything starts with ourselves. When we are compassionate with ourselves, we can be kinder and understanding to our children. They want us parents to understand what they are going through, even if they are too young to articulate it to us.
It Brings you into a state of awareness:
Mindfulness helps us to tap into our inner wisdom to give our children exactly what they need and what is best for them. When we can mindfully focus on our emotions and thoughts, we can see what old programs keep us from effectively communicating with our children. We can then decide to let go of attachments that no longer serve us. However, we can’t change limiting thoughts if we are not aware of them.
Increases your concentration:
Children, like everyone else on the planet, want to be heard. We can become more patient and focused when our children speak to us. This helps them feel important. They say that listening is love. Mindfulness helps us to improve our relationships. .
Improves your health:
We need to be healthy to provide for our children and to be there for them emotionally and physically. When Mindfulness helps us to release fears and worry, our bodies are relaxed and everything from oxygen and blood flows easily and heals us naturally. However, when we are upset, our bodies tense up and builds up toxic emotions destroying our health. Doctors say that 90% of patients' visits are stress-related illnesses. Mindfulness strengthens our immune systems, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and improves our sleep.
Reconnects you to your Higher Self:
Mindfulness is not a spiritual practice. However, it does help us to tune into our Higher Power. We learn to seek solitude and awareness in the present moment. When we are quiet, spirituality can be witnessed. You become aware of your blessings that normally you may overlook. We can then teach our children morals and spiritual lessons aligned with our faith.
My memoir, how Mindfulness helped me and our family, is “A Cry for Light: A Journey Into Love,” which won the USA Book News Award for Christian Inspiration. The foreword is by my Mindfulness teacher, world-renowned Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, named Mindfulness Godfather by the media.
