Mindful Parenting is a contemplative practice through which we become more mindful of our children and, in doing so, experience a more joyful life.
Your mindful parenting practice tip of the day.  Be sure to sip slowly
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The Mindful Parent 
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.  Click here to learn more about making a submssion.  We thank everyone who has contributed or is considering making this very compassionate contribution.

Click here to learn what recent events are taking place and of changes to The Mindful Parent website.  Please contact us with your questions about mindful parenting or to share a mindful parenting experience.  We are devoted to working with you to enhance your ability to "be" with your children, and to experience the bliss that awaits you.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
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The Mindful Parent is a servicemark of Zen Health.
Thursday November 18, 2004
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A complete archive of "The Morning Cup" columns can be found here.
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The Morning Sip:  Lights, Camera, Blink
 
We can think of each time we blink as if we are taking a picture.  Indeed, the shutter of a camera is similar to our eyelids.  Blink -- another picture!  But what of the pictures we take with our eyes throughout the day?  Are they simply erased?  If we are not paying attention, then that is a likely scenario.
 
Today, take five pictures of your child.  Take them with awareness of what you are doing ("I'm taking a picture") -- of who is the subject  ("my beautiful child")  -- and of why you are doing it ("to have a lingering recollection of the moment").  Each of the five times you blink, listen for the sound of your eye lids "shutter" closing and opening as the image of your child is stored permanently in your heart. 
 
When we mindfully interact with our child in this way, we move a little closer to really seeing them.
 
Today's Morning Sip originally appeared on April 29, 2004, and can be found, along with others, in the Morning Cup Archives.