Why Should Moms Bring Mindfulness to Their Families?
Welcome to the amazing Sally Powis-Campbell who is a Registered Psychologist and founder of Wholistic Health YYC, where she specializes in health psychology, mindfulness, and play therapy.
Sally is an INCREDIBLE local YYC mama of three that is inspiring us all to be mindful and to be active. She is sharing her top tips and reasoning behind practicing mindfulness with us here today. Take it away Sally…
Our children are growing up in a time much different from the one we grew up in. More and more, they are experiencing stress, overwhelmed feelings, and related uncomfortable states. If parents nurture mindfulness from early childhood, it may foster greater resilience within families and encourage everyone in the family to refine their own mindfulness practice. For children, this practice provides a skillful way for them to relate to life’s challenging moments.
You may have heard the anecdotal evidence of the benefits of mindfulness practice from magazines, office cooler chats, or yoga classes. But there’s some hard science on the effectiveness of mindfulness. Bringing mindfulness into parenting is a truly valuable application of the practice. Mindful parenting interventions are increasingly being used to help attend to parenting problems, prevent and treat mental disorders in children, and remediate intergenerational transmission of mental disorders from parents to children.
Incorporating meditation, mindful breathing, mindful eating, yoga, and other mindfulness- based activities and formal mindfulness-based interventions have been found to
• reduce stress
• enhance self-control and reduce reactivity for all ages
• enhance concentration, mental clarity, and focus among adults as well as in children with ADHD
• reduce conduct and anger management problems among children and teens
• enhance emotional intelligence
• mitigate the effects of bullying on children
• improve children’s and adults’ capacity to respond with kindness, compassion, and acceptance of others• improve children’s academic performance and emotional development
• reduce anxiety, from childhood through adulthood• reduce attention problems• improve social skills when taught to children and adolescents
• help parents manage stress more effectively•
• increase quality of sleep
• protect against the emotionally stressful effects of relationship conflict
• boost mindful responding in couples, such as listening without taking things personally or overreacting
• bring awareness to the destructive thought patterns that undermine relationships and reduce marital conflicts
• enhance intimacy
• combat the inevitable routine of long-term relationships and boost relationship satisfaction
• help sustain emotional and physical connectedness between parents and children at a time of parents’ divorce
What Is Mindful Parenting?
Learning to be a mindful parent means paying attention to how your body, mind, and emotions respond to routine, challenging, and joyous events in your life: in your whole life, in which you flow between your roles as a partner, parent, cleaner, athlete, chef, volunteer, teacher, creator, friend, employee, entrepreneur.
Ensure you’re performing to the very best of your abilities in all your roles by leaving mindless thought wandering behind and allowing your body and mind to work together with combined physical and mental focus. The informal practices of mindfulness are where the magical mindful moments for parents can be found. Think the first mindful cup of hot coffee (okay, let’s be real; the first mindful sip is where we’ll start). Or consider how to be mindful during a spin class or on a run with your running stroller.
What Is Mindful Partnering?
Mindfulness is about intentionality. At the beginning of a relationship, in the honeymoon phase, sharing is a natural process. You want to know everything: what your new love is thinking about moment to moment, what he or she wants to do in life, what brings him or her joy. With mindfulness comes the possibility of renewing that sense of curiosity about your relationships, food, nature, and routine daily activities, such as your morning cup of coffee. As noted earlier, there is hard science showing that mindfulness can benefit you and your partner.
But reaping those benefits takes some commitment. Mamas and papas, I know it can be challenging taking time from the many to-dos on your list to ask your partner for what you want and need. I offer exercises in my book Mindful Mamas and Papas to encourage you to do this, because if you don’t ask for it, your partner or other childcare providers may have a very hard time knowing what it is that you actually want and need. Likewise, we’re often so focused on our children that we get out of touch with our partner, which is where exercises for boosting partner attunement come in, such as joint breathing exercises.
Mindful partnering includes everything from fighting fair to making it a priority to have time together to talk with your partner. We’ve all felt the stresses and disconnection that come on. We feel like ships passing in the night while juggling all that comes with family and work and play in life.
So, why mindfulness... Why not? You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain from the present moment!
Meet Sally better yet give her a follow @wholistichealthmama
Blogger Sally Powis-Campbell is a Registered Psychologist and founder of Wholistic Health YYC where she specializes in health psychology, mindfulness, and play therapy. She is mindfulness guide and yoga teacher, mindful event curator and host, and Author of Mindful Mamas and Papas: A Playbook For Mindful Living for the Whole Family. Sally is a mom of 3 young kids who spends her spare moments adventuring with her family!
*****Thank you SALLY!! I absolutely love learning from you and I am so grateful that you could share your knowledge with us. I am inspired to be keep working on my mindfulness.*****
With love,
Top Knot Mommy
