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Experiencing the Joy of Connecting With Our Children
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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.
Wednesday July 21, 2004
           Today's Sip:  Breathe, Then Respond
 
Throughout our lifetime we have become very good "responders."  The words we utter can be so powerful, we can surprise ourselves.  Sometimes we're not even sure where a thought or idea came from -- it seemed to materialize spontaneously.  In some circumstances, such talent can do us some good.  In other circumstances, such as in close and intimate interpersonal relationships, it gets a little trickier.  Things can backfire and we scratch our head as our words seemed to have inflicted pain, or complicated matters.
 
When we experience this with our child, a wonderful opportunity arises -- letting go.  It is ironic that in one of our most loving of relationships, we can lose ourselves in automatic "responding" that can hurt our child's feelings, or at best limit our capacity to make our child feel fulfilled and capable.  Almost all of this is the product of an unmindful state.  Through the practice of mindful parenting, we can surmount this stubborn obstacle.
 
Today, when you are interacting with your child, do not respond the moment you feel the need to speak arise in you.  Whether your child is asking you a question or you are observing your child doing something to which you feel the need to interject words of wisdom or caution, open that moment to mindful awareness.  It need only take a few seconds.  Let the few seconds be noticeable. In that space of time, recite the following verse to yourself.
 
          I have something to say
          Breathing deeply
          Let me speak the truth
 
In the space of those few seconds, allow impulsive, conditioned thought to dissipate.  You may even recognize the impulse for what it is.  Then, when you speak, do so from the silence, and speak words of truth.
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Please share your comments on today's column.  If you would like to receive a courtesy copy of The Morning Cup column e-mailed to you each morning, click here.
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