Parents are rightfully concerned about the capacity their children have to pay attention, express empathy and cope with the stresses that infiltrate their lives. Should we then coerce our children onto meditation cushions? Impose artificial silence, stillness or philosophical indoctrination? Before you do that, take a closer look.
Children are exemplars of the art of being. Wherever they are, they are completely immersed: in mud, in make believe, in laughter, in tears or in spaghetti sauce up to their eyeballs. Without a bit of self-consciousness, they lose themselves in what they are; they literally throw themselves away. This is the kind of losing in which mindfulness is found.
Without making a big deal about it, parents can gently encourage everyday actions that nourish and grow attention, empathy and self-care.
Mindful children grow up in mindful homes.
Follow Karen Maezen Miller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kmaezenmiller
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My children are all over 50 now
Thank you, Karen Miller!
Anyway, we have 2x2.5 year old twins and my wife is expecting another one pretty soon. I, my wife and mother-in-law have been showing them how to brush their teeth for last 6 months. Now it became a habit, God forbid, if we forgot to take them to bathroom for teeth brushing before they sleep, they start crying.
Illustrated children's books makes sense. I ought to go to local library and pick up some books.
Thanks Karen for the wonderful tips.
Thanks Huffington Post for publishing this beautiful photo essay.
We forget how to play when we become adults and playing with the kids or grandkids brings it all back and the joy of the freedoms we had as children. We need to remind our selves we are sometimes just grown up kids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXqBqSbcP4I
Their other numbers are good too.
If a parent fails to demonstrate kindness, empathy---all those virtues we claim to value, they shouldn't be amazed when their children come up short in that department. When my daughter was doing community service for the National Honor Society, half the kids couldn't figure out WHAT that was. Meaning the best and brightest of a local high school couldn't imagine WHAT would be beneficial to someone else.
I suspect many of them were raised by parents who were too busy to do anything but work outside the home---not because they needed the income, but because they wanted the extras. Not bad or evil...just not the stuff to base the raising of a decent human being, able to see outside their small world.