This post is part of Stress-Less Parenting Club’s new workshop. Our leader Carla Naumburg is showing us how we can make our family life calmer and happier through mindful parenting.
Mindfulness is a popular concept right now, and there are a lot of misconceptions about what it is and what it isn’t.Mindfulness is about paying attention to the present moment without judging it. Sounds simple, but it’s not easy. Mindful parenting involves being aware of how you and your kids are feeling and of what is going on between you and around you. It also means accepting whatever is happening, rather than denying it, fighting it, or immediately trying to change it. The reality is that so much of what makes life hard happens in our own minds, and once we can see those thoughts for what they are — just thoughts — and come back present moment, things get a lot easier. And more fun.
We’ll talk about how to do that next week, but for now, let’s focus on how mindfulness can be a drastically different approach to parenting. It’s not about wishing things were different than they are, obsessing over the past, or trying to control the future. It’s also not about beating ourselves up when we make mistakes.
Even though mindfulness is really just about being in, and accepting, the present moment, there are a lot of misconceptions about it.
You can read the rest of this piece over on the HuffPost Parents Stress-Less Parenting page.
