Mindful Parenting: Can Mindfulness Help You Be a Better Parent?

, it doesn’t take much to become more mindful of your parenting tactics. In fact, let’s first and foremost recognize that you reading this article is a huge step toward:

becoming more present

managing your stress

cultivating more empathy

fostering compassion between members of your family

Mindful parenting is the idea that, “To help your child grow up, you need to slow down.” It’s also important to note that instead of trying to “change” our children, we should focus on our own behaviors since oftentimes, this is what our children mirror and learn.

Undeniably, there are going to be times when it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

The five main factors of mindful parenting include:

Listening to your child with your full, undivided attention

Accepting yourself and your children without judgment

Being aware of your and your child’s emotions in the moment

Self-regulating your emotions and responses with your children

Practicing self-compassion and having compassion for your child

1. Aim to make everything “play.”

Play is one of the many things our children can help us re-learn.

2. Know anger usually means unmet needs.

Anger usually arises from hurt feelings or frustrations over our needs not being met.

3. Use “messing up” as a lesson.

So, you didn’t get the reaction from your children you thought you would.

4. Listen to your children.

This sounds super simple, and we did mention it above.

But for a quick thought experiment: What would happen if you didn’t react and listened to your children first? You’d probably uncover things you could do differently.