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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. 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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(c) 2003-2004 Zen Health.  All rights reserved.
The Mindful Parent is a servicemark of Zen Health.
From the Archives
Monday July 12, 2004
         Today's Sip:  Leaving the Nest
 
Most of us live alongside birds.  They fill the trees we walk and drive past.  We see them perched on telephone wire.  We see them winging their way across the sky.
 
Many birds play a very involved baby-bird rearing role, up to a point.  Then, their offspring are on their own.  We all know the saying, "time to leave the nest."
 
Whether you will see a thousand birds today or just one, let that event cue a moment of mindful parenting.
 
          Dear bird
          Do you remember
          Building the nest?
 
We can all visualize a bird building a nest in preparation for its laying of an egg.  We can also remember the preparations we made when we found out we would soon have a child -- painting a room, buying furniture, reading books, loving conversations, asking questions -- for some of us this was just yesterday, for others it may seem a thousand years ago.  But, as with the bird, it was a time past.  It was a time that continues to recede into our memories.
 
Today, when you see or hear a bird, recite the verse and open your awareness to that time when you prepared for the arrival of your child. 
 
Every moment of your life as a parent, you prepare for the arrival of your child.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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