Be A More Mindful Parent By Pausing Before Responding To Your Kids


We’ve discussed the benefits of becoming more mindful at work (with techniques like meditation), but what about the other areas of your life? If you’re a parent, you can increase your mindfulness with your children by “living in the pauses”.

Picture: Earvin Corona/Flickr

In a moving post about being pulled in two directions with a sick mum and two young children, Meghan Nathasan outlines 10 ways you can be more mindful as a parent. They’re all great advice, but this one stood out to me:

Commit to responding to your children instead of reacting. Live in the pause between your children’s actions (“good” or “bad”) and what you say or do afterward. Allow this space to inform your response.There is great wisdom to be found in waiting.

All too often, parents (like myself) are rushed and react instead of responding to their children. Meghan’s advice to pause might help you be more present in your interactions with your child. While you probably won’t be able to pause for every interaction, just being conscious of avoiding knee-jerk reactions can be helpful. (It’s also good advice for other kinds of relationships too.)

Read the beautifully written post in full in the link below.

10 Ways to be Mindful with your Children Again [Mindful Mothering via Mindful Parenting]


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