Welcome to the September 26, 2004 Issue of The Mindful Parent Newsletter. What's New South Florida and New England Periodicals Note The Mindful Parent Website: The Mindful Parent website recently was cited in the August 2004 "South Florida Parenting" magazine editorial and an article appearing in the July Edition of "Parents and Kids" magazine and "The Boston Herald." Find out more about these two generous references on our Events page by clicking here. Mindful Parenting Across The World: The Mindful Parent website has been visited by parents and other child caregivers, interested in mindful parenting, who hail from more than forty countries across the world. These countries include Canada, Australia, India, The United States, Great Britain, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Egypt, Sudan, Spain, Chile, Guam, Oman, The Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, The Philippines, Bahrain, Denmark, Malaysia, Taiwan, Jordan, Puerto Rico, Italy, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Indonesia, Belize, Bahamas, Argentina, China, Jamaica, Korea, Israel, Sweden, Finland, Namibia, Venezuela, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Turkey, Nigeria, Kuwait, and South Africa.

Delta Mind: It's In the Movement Toward Mindfulness That We Find Bliss Do you know the rush that comes when you’re in a rollercoaster that unexpectedly accelerates? It’s that exhilarating feeling that arises when your body leaves your thoughts behind. In this newsletter, we’ll discuss “Delta Mind,” the phenomenal joy that surfaces when we shift and accelerate to a more mindful state of being. The practice of mindful parenting is full of these shifts. Our Bodies, Our Selves Our bodies are always present, feeling alive in the moment. When we take a step, our foot knows it. More often than not, our thinking mind does not know it. It is too busy worrying, planning, explaining, anticipating. We (that is, our thinking minds) take the body for granted, use it as a vehicle to get from place to place, in order to accomplish tasks we deem important. Often these tasks are nothing but self indulgent acts with no deep purpose. We disregard or minimize the value of competing interests, like our children and their needs. Sure, we tend to them; but on occasions when our minds are elsewhere, we do so without deep awareness and intention, and sometimes begrudgingly, and sometimes, only eventually. Afterward, we may reflect on our actions and come to regret our behavior. We might even label ourselves “bad parent.” While in our hearts, we become distressed, our thinking minds, with the help of a lot of denial and excuse making, aren’t too concerned about it. Mindful Parenting limits the thinking mind’s activity so that we become more aware of the moment and the opportunities that reside within, for ourselves, our children, our Earth, and the cosmos. “Delta Mind,” a concept discussed in this newsletter, arises and fills us with joy during the shift from thinking to mindful. It also reminds us that we need not dwell on regrets when the present moment is filled with such wonderful opportunities to take the next step mindfully. Video Games and Opportunities for Mindfulness You may be familiar with some of today’s computer video games. With the joystick, you maneuver the protagonist (that is, “you”) to get from room to room, to move from level to level, to see how far you can go before you run out of energy or are killed. It’s sort of the way many of us live life – we keep moving for as long as we can. We are uncomfortable slowing down. For many of us, slowing down is uncharted territory, or at least territory we haven’t experienced since we were an infant. We fear that, like the shark, if we slow down we will die. The videogame is a wonderful metaphor for the awesome opportunity that the practice of mindful parenting, and of mindfulness in general, offers us in our daily lives. The opportunity to open to the moment is always available us. When we avail ourselves of this opportunity, we experience a flash of enlightenment that can bring about a sensation of bliss. It may last only a brief moment, but once you experience this feeling, you will want more. And more is always there, waiting for you in the moment. It is very much like in the videogame. Nuggets of gold appear on the screen waiting to be collected, so that more energy or points can be registered. Opportunities for mindful awakening, just like the gold nuggets, are always popping into view. They’re down at our feet – and everywhere around us. Finding the Nuggets of Gold While the practice of mindful parenting can be embraced every moment of our lives, unless we are open to it, months and years can pass without this vital awareness enriching our inner being. Because our thinking minds are so powerful, it is helpful to have cues to remind us to open awareness to the present moment. These cues can help bring about the same ecstatic feeling brought on by the accelerating rollercoaster. Our body jumps into the moment, pulling the unsuspecting thinking mind along with it. For a split second, we open to the immense depth of the present moment, with our body as a guide. We are the stuck shark, close to suffocating for lack of oxygen, that suddenly breaks free, its primitive gills awash in rich oxygen. While the shark derives pure ecstasy from its liberation, it doesn’t think about what happened. In the same way, when we move from an unawakened state to a mindful one, our senses become awash in a flood of joyfulness. While soon enough we will think our way out of it -- that is, we realize the joyful feeling and begin to reflect on it -- another cue is always there for another wondrous acceleration. “The Morning Cup” column, which appears each day on The Mindful Parent website, provides daily mindful parenting tips that offer mindful parenting cues and verses. Mindful parenting can arise when you become aware of your breathing, of your child's beating heart, when you wake up in the morning, and look at a leaf, when you start your car, and when you blink your eyes. As is evidenced in these and other "The Morning Cup" columns and mindful parenting verses, cues abound. In fact, the moment you begin to look for one, you are already becoming more mindful. You are also experiencing “Delta Mind.” So What is Delta Mind Enlightenment is a process. We don’t attain enlightenment and stop there. The process of evolving spiritually is a beautiful unfolding of ourselves as we graduate from one state of awareness to another, deeper state. Delta Mind is the sensation that accompanies awareness of this profound shift – as we move into mindful awareness of the moment. ("Delta" is the Greek letter that resembles a triangle and often represents "change" in mathematical computations.) Delta Mind is spotting the golden nugget and picking it up. It's remembering that you are alive and breathing; it's awakening to the profound silence. The very spotting of the nugget elicits a childlike glee (the rollercoaster climbing to the top of the slope). Reaching for the nugget opens awareness to the contrast between where we were and where we’re going (the roller coaster adjusting its position downward). And once we possess the nugget, we assimilate it into our being (and away we go!). For a moment we feel the rush of something extraordinary happening – we’re touching the cosmos, experiencing the divine. And then, the awesomeness of the feeling subsides. We start over again. And if, by chance, we overlook and pass by the nugget of gold -- well, another one awaits. The moment (a new moment) is before us. What will happen next? Until next time. Scott Rogers Editor, The Mindful Parent Newsletter http://TheMindfulParent.org

Information on a Wonderful New Book, Verse Submissions, and "The Morning Cup."

For those of you who have or are having a second child, you may be interested in Jennifer Hull's forthcoming book "Beyond One: Growing a Family and Getting a Life," a very funny, first-person account of how a mom's life changes with the arrival of a second child. Books like this one address many of the practical issues of parenting, while at the same time plowing a field ready to be filled with seeds of mindfulness. You can learn more about Jennifer's book by visiting www.growingafamily.com.

If you would like to contribute a mindful parenting verse, please visit http://TheMindfulParent.org and learn how to make a submission.

Each morning The Mindful Parent publishes "The Morning Cup," a column that provides mindful parenting tips for the day. You can read this column by visiting http://TheMindfulParent.org. You may also sign up to receive an e-mail each morning containing "The Morning Cup" tip of the day.

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