Create your parent-digm shift.

MINDFUL PARENTING

What does it mean to be mindful? How does mindfulness affect our parenting, our children, even our health? How can we release our thoughts from the “grind” to paying focused attention to the mind...and to what gets in the way of authentic connection with ourselves and therefore our loved ones? How can we shift from “grindful to mindful,” from living on autopilot to showing up for our own lives, both inside and out?

In this age of distraction, mindful is a charged word. It’s charged with energy; with promise; with hope; and a missive: How can we quiet the noise in our minds long enough to hear our own voice, to feel the weight of our burdens, to find ways of reframing them, and of reclaiming our joy?

In Greek, the “mind” is ethos, the essence meaning “the inner source, the soul, that which shapes and forms a person.” We can learn to practice a kind of living and parenting that is about noticing that which shapes and forms us and our kids. Noticing how that outburst or painful conflict and our subsequent coming together for repair shapes us and forms our bonds, sewing them tighter and more securely.

In this light, mindful parenting is a kind of multi-sensory parenting that requires all of our senses. When our senses are engaged, we feel more connected. We can fully engage our children’s senses and fuel our relationships with vitality and a richness of awareness that’s not about the things that irritate us but about our response--to ourselves, to our own needs as well as our kids’ needs, to their hearts more than to their muddy shoes, to their unbridled exuberance, their joy and their grief. We’ll explore the practice of reclaiming our “mind” from the external clutter of our lives, looking within at how our story has shaped and influenced our thoughts and senses, and examine how mindful awareness in parenting can help us pave a pathway to trust, security, and resilience for ourselves and our children.

All site content and photographs are copyrighted material. Copyright 2009 Lu Hanessian. All rights reserved. Photos by Lisa Trakis for WYSH, LLC. No part of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission from Lu Hanessian.