Do you want to improve your relationship with your child or children?
One of the simplest ways of achieving this is by practising mindful parenting, which is about being mindful when interacting with your children.
What are the benefits of Mindfulness as a parent?
You will feel a closer bond with your children, improve your understand of how your child thinks and behaves and gain respect from your children.
What you can do to be a mindful parent
Here are a few tips for improving the relationship you have with your children:
- Spend quality time interacting with your children; ditch phone and take a real interest in whatever it is that they are doing in that moment. Just spending 10 minutes a day will dramatically improve the relationship with your child.
- Learn mindful listening – when you speak to your child (or indeed, anyone) listen with a goal of understanding them, rather than listening with the goal of replying (which is how we normally behave).
- Make time for yourself everyday – spend a few minutes everyday meditating; if you can’t fit the time in, then wake up earlier; you can even try meditating in bed. Remember that 5 minutes of daily meditation is better than nothing. And if you prefer to meditate during the daytime, you can either give your children something to occupy themselves with before beginning the meditation or even try mindfulness meditation when they are present and get them involved.
Mindfulness exercises to do with children
- Listen to birdsong – go into the garden and listen out for the sound of birds; can you hear any? How many different types can you hear? Let your children describe the unique sounds of each bird.
- Do you have a bell? If so, chime the bell and try to listen to it for as long as possible as it fades out.
- Study an everyday object: try this meditation out.
Conclusion
Give a few of these tips a go and see how it can improve the relationship between you and your children. Do let us know how you get on!