Mindful Parenting
By Tracy Liebmann

The Buddhist concept of mindfulness can be very helpful to parents. It can help us see our children as whole and beautiful in each moment. Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness of our children. If we practice mindful parenting we will refine our capacity to pay attention, with intention to the present moment. We will become more in touch with our lives as they are unfolding.

Mindful parenting has the potential to help us see past the appearances of typical behaviors and allows us to see our children, as they truly are, beautiful and whole. If we stay in the present moment and practice mindfulness we can act with some degree of wisdom and compassion. When things are difficult and we stop and center ourselves in the truth, that our children are right where the are supposed to be, the more our ability to be mindful deepens.

The hardest part of shifting the paradigm is being aware of those old patterns that so often rule our behavior. The patterns that we want to change were probably passed down to us from our families and have nothing to do with what’s really happening today. Consequences of unconscious parenting can reverberate through the lives of our children and further our grandchildren.

I look at parenting as a spiritual practice. It’s a wonderful gift to stop and ask myself; what am I feeling? Why am I feeling it? What is my child feeling and what’s it like from his or her point of view? The real work of any spiritual practice is to come to a deep understanding about what it means to be human. Where else can we learn more about being human, than by looking at our children with these new pair of glasses? We have our own little Zen masters living right under our roof. The door to enlightenment is right in front of you…I hope you’ll walk through.

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