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.
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making this very compassionate contribution.
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devoted to working with you to enhance your ability to "be" with your
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The Daily Sip:
Your
Fingernails And Your Child
This mindful parenting practice technique expands
your connection to your child by opening awareness to your child's
marvelous development and the passage of time.
Your
fingernails, like your child, are always growing. Look
at your fingernails -- touch them and feel their strength. Look
deeply into your nails and consider all the Earth's nutrients
that are needed for them to grow. Breathe deeply and sense the
micro growth taking place at this very moment. As you read
this, your fingernails are growing.
So too is your child.
Whether your child is 11 days old or 55 years old, your
child's body has grown a little more in the time you have
been reading this column.
Today, when you look at your fingernails,
open awareness to your child's fingernails. Reflect on your
child's fingernails at an earlier time -- when your child was just
born, when you would play patty cake, when your child would color
or was beginning to write. Then open awareness to the present
moment and visualize your child's fingers today.
If your child
is with you, reach for his or her hand and feel the soft fingers and
smooth fingernails. If you are not physically with your child,
then close your eyes and consider where your child is at that moment
and visualize his or her fingers and fingernails. Touch your
fingernails and imagine touching your child's fingernails.
In
the span a few seconds, in mindful awareness of your fingernails,
you can connect more deeply to your child. Doing so, you
become grounded in the here and now and the passage of time takes
on a more deliberate speed.
