What's New The Mindful Parent has revamped its form for submitting mindful parenting verses and contributing to the mindful parent community. Beginning in June, and thanks to your feedback and request for more verses, "The Morning Cup" daily column will begin to incorporate more mindful parenting verses. As always, your feedback is appreciated. We encourage you to let us know what you think by contacting us. It makes a difference.

Welcome to the June 1, 2004 Issue of The Mindful Parent Newsletter. In this newsletter we'll expose one of the brain's best kept secrets. As you may know, the thinking part of our brain is very tricky. Watch out! It would trade a mindful parenting moment for a thinking one in a heartbeat. How many times have you had the following experience? You're watching your beautiful child sleeping peacefully in bed and you're feeling an extraordinary bliss? Remember how your heart swelled with tenderness and love at the sight? Then, you marveled to yourself, "Wow, what a feeling! What joy." Tricky brain! Whether you realize it or not, the state of marveling cannot be a mindful one. It is a thinking one. At the very instant you are mindfully immersed in the beauty of the moment -- experiencing bliss -- a little hand taps you on the shoulder and lulls you from bliss to thinking about bliss. This little hand is so good at it you don't even realize what is happening. Then, sometime after (somewhere between a millisecond and 50 years) you gain the awareness of having known bliss and relinquished it. Bliss Regained There is a fine line between bliss and thinking about bliss. From thinking about bliss, the mind usually retreats even further from bliss. And once the thinking mind takes over -- well, off you go. For example, have you ever found yourself stuck in vacation-antsy. That's when you long for a relaxing vacation. You make arrangements to go to the perfect place. But when you get there, you begin to get antsy and are unable to relax? Instead, and despite your best intentions, you do a lot of things antithetical to the goal of relaxation. In all likelihood, you're spending a lot of time thinking about whether you are relaxed. And once you start thinking about it -- well, off you go. So, what can you do the next time you are deep into a joyful experience with your child and you start thinking too much? Actually, there's not a whole lot to do at the time that will return you to a state of bliss (though it is possible). Once you become aware of your "marveling," you likely will be especially cognizant of whether you return to bliss. And cognizant means "thinking!" What you can do, however, helps to prepare you for the next time to are experiencing bliss and the little hand starts to reach out. Recite the following verse to yourself the next time you realize you are marveling and not blissing: Bye bye bliss I can smell you In the mist This is an easy verse to remember. Its power resides in the shifting of awareness to the olfactory sense, which for many is a repressed sense. The first stanza reinforces appreciation of the simple fact that you've misplaced your blissful state. The second stanza helps you to shift attention to your nose. Relax your facial muscles and sense your nostrils. Take a deep breath and feel the air passing through your nose as it flows down your throat and into your lungs. As you exhale, sense the movement of air as you squeeze it out of your lungs and out of your nose. As you open awareness to your nose, you tone down the energy feeding your thinking mind. Your nose may begin to tingle. As you become more aware of your nose, sense a fine cool mist filling the room. Don't think, just breathe. Inhale this cool mist. Your olfactory sense will bring you closer to the state of wonderment you previously experienced. Don't be surprised if the first several times you try this, your thinking mind does its best to minimize your return to bliss. But, in time you may find that your nose is a natural guide to staying in a blissful state. So, follow your nose. Until next time. Scott Rogers Editor, The Mindful Parent Newsletter http://TheMindfulParent.org

Thanks to Jeff G. and Mark D. for their recent contributions of a mindful parenting verse. Their verses are marked with the "new" graphic and can be found by clicking here.

If you would like to contribute a mindful parenting verse, please visit the website to learn how to make a submission.

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