Children & Youth

Parenting is Hard: Mindfulness to the Rescue

Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.” Elizabeth Lawrence By now we have settled into the school year, established our routines, and maybe even had a bit of time to relax and soak in the beauty of fall. Fall is one of my favorite seasons. The warm air is balanced with a bit of coolness. Temperatures begin to drop drastically at night and rise quickly during the day. Our days become shorter and a general softness settles in. The leaves turn brilliant colors, eventually falling and becoming crisp and fluffy. Mother Nature is preparing to rest and […]

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Rebuilding Trust in Our Bodies

“What is always speaking silently is the body.”  – Norman Brown There are many reasons why we grow to mistrust our bodies.  My struggle to connect with my body stems from multiple sources, including how I was raised to not trust my body’s cues around food.  I’ve been pondering this quite a bit lately, since I recently participated in the Mindful Eating for the Holidays workshop. I was just reminded of it again while scrolling Instagram. I follow an account, @family.snack.nutritionist, that shares strategies for parents to have less stress around mealtimes with their children, and helps with building healthy

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How Parents Can Share Mindfulness with Their Families

As a youth mindfulness educator, parents often ask me, “What can I do if my teen won’t attend mindfulness classes?” My answer might be surprising, but it is always, “Learn and practice mindfulness yourself.”  Our children learn from our behaviors: How we express ourselves when we’re happy, sad, or mad; how we find ways to bring calm into our own lives; how well we can be present for them and really listen and support them when they’re struggling.  Learning to be present with ourselves first can be a beautiful gift we then share with our children. Begin With Present-Moment Awareness

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Support for the School Year

Each August, teachers, parents, and students anxiously await the beginning of a new school year. It is a time of new beginnings; of learning new things and making new friends—as well as facing new challenges. We look forward to seeing our friends again and returning to a predictable schedule.  This year, however, we can add the fear of the unknown to this already rich stew. In times like these, I find that practicing mindfulness and mindful self-compassion is very helpful. By practicing these skills, we can see our worries more objectively, gain a better understanding of how we can take

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Generosity Begins with You

By Patti Ward, M.Ed. December can easily be seen as a month of great generosity. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition for “generosity” is: the quality of being kind and generous. The meaning of “generous” is to show a readiness to give more of something, as money or time, than is strictly necessary or expected. What’s your definition of generosity? There is actually a “Science of Generosity Initiative” at the University of Notre Dame. In their research, a number of studies have demonstrated a relationship between generosity, happiness, and well-being. They also discovered a seeming paradox; freely giving of oneself makes us

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Mindful Mothering Moments (Mediocre, Marvelous and Miserable)

By Rachael Koeson My youngest is 3, and I am just beginning to have a regular sitting meditation practice. I have done lots of sitting meditation off and on through the years, but it is incredibly hard to actually meditate in a formal, regular way while living the reality of family life. For a long time I felt bad about myself for that, thinking that it was a flaw on my part. But there is so much more to it, like the reality that it is ridiculously hard to have a formal practice when you are with your children much

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Why Schools Need Mindfulness

by Patti Ward, M.Ed. I have been in the field of education for over 35 years. Over those years, I have witnessed schools becoming much more complex, more expectations for both teachers and students, and more pressured filled as each year has passed. Administrators, teachers and students are pretty much exhausted at the end of a school year. Higher expectations, more content, critical thinking, complex math skills, summative and formative assessments throughout the school year, teacher evaluations that rely on student performance, the list goes on and on. Wow, I am exhausted just talking about it. From what I have

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First Mindfulness Family Day

by Patti Ward, Mindful Schools Certified Instructor “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. —Robert Lewis Stevenson I am very happy to report that we had a wonderful first family day. It was an opportunity for parents to participate in mindfulness activities with their children. We learned about some of the brain science behind mindfulness, practiced mindful listening, mindful breathing, mindful movement with Qigong movements, and a heartfulness family practice. Each family created a “Gratitude Jar” to take home and add to in the weeks ahead. We shared an article from the

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Planting Seeds

by Patti Ward, M.Ed. On May 21st, we will be offering our first Mindfulness Family Day. We hope you will be able to attend. It is open to anyone who has attended any of our children and teen classes, or to anyone new to mindfulness who would just like to check it out. Parents, guardians, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings—all are welcome. Sometimes, teaching mindfulness to children and teens is more about “planting seeds” than reaping a harvest. Some of the students come to class and just soak up all the different ways they can be mindful. They practice mindful walking

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Resilient and Joyful Parenting with the AC/DC Method

I have been a parent for just over 14 years. I think that should make me an expert. In fact, if I gave a significant portion of my time and energy to almost any other subject for 14 years straight, I am confident I would feel some measure of competency. But these rules do not seem to apply to parenting. In fact, most of the time, I end up feeling fairly incompetent—which is to say I am never 100% sure if I am choosing actions that are helpful to myself or my children. The feeling of “not sure” seems to

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