A mindful approach to parenting that helps children (and their parents) feel happier, healthier, calmer, and less stressed in our frenetic era Rooted in the science of the brain, and integrating cognitive neuroscience and child development, Mindful Parenting is a unique program that speaks directly to today's busy families who make up what Dr. Race calls "Generation Stress." Research has shown that mindfulness practices stimulate the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Regular stimulation of this part of the brain helps us feel happier, healthier, calmer, less anxious, less stressed, and makes it easier for us to concentrate and think clearly—the very behavior we are hoping our children will display. Dr. Race provides: An explanation of the way the brain works and why parents and kids today are more stressed, anxious, and angry than ever before Practical solutions to the problem: Things parents can do to change brain patterns and create a more relaxed and happier home "Brain Coolers": Quick tips that can be used in the moment to help families relax, recharge, and create happiness (such as "The Three Breath Hug") Mindful Parenting understands the realities of raising a family in our fast paced and often-frenetic world and provides hundreds of easy-to-implement solutions, both for parents and their children, to help them manage stress, create peace, and live happier lives. "This book is a must-read for all parents of our generation.” --Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx

You try to be supportive through all the emotional ups and downs, but if you’re too supportive, they feel smothered. You want to give them the freedom necessary to grow, but not so much that they’re left vulnerable—and however you try to do it, you can count on being wrong. Parenting a teenager is a challenge, to be sure, but Eline Snel has some very good news for those facing that challenge: there’s a way to stay mindful, present, and, yes, positive throughout it all by developing a base of mindful awareness as your resource. With her characteristic practical wisdom, Snel provides methods for developing that resource, along with strategies for forging a bond of courage, compassion, and trust with your teenager—and for making space for yourself within the process too. Mindfulness meditation helps us stay calm in tense moments and be less reactive with our children. It allows us to respond to them in ways that are most helpful and that promote dialogue rather than clashing. The practices that Snel teaches, developed in her clinical work and honed in her own experience as a parent, are supplemented with one audio download of guided meditations for parents and another one for teens. They will help you calm down during tense and heated moments and become a more focused and openhearted parent.

Many of us find the challenges of family life, especially the early years daunting and overwhelming. The task of raising children is not easy, the stakes are high so how can mindfulness help us parent better? What is it? How do you do it? And does it help? This book will teach you how to become a better more patient parent using mindfulness. It will help you to: • Stay calm in a crisis • Feel more connected to your children • Be patient • Throw yourself into an activity • Not say something you may regret • Keep a sense of perspective Written in a friendly and accessible style Amber Hatch, author of Nappy Free Baby and Colouring for Contemplationincludes tons of practical information alongside anecdotes, tips and insights that will help any parent, whether they are new to mindfulness or well practiced, to achieve a calmer, more relaxed family life. Topics covered include: dealing with the early weeks, including mindfully allowing your baby to cry, joining your child in play and preventing mealtime and bedtime stress, screentime, encouraging outdoor play and saying no, developing positive qualities and managing difficult behaviour and introducing mindfulness to children.

Build a better relationship with your kids through mindfulness Life with kids gets chaotic sometimes. You can't avoid it, but with mindfulness, you can practice simple ways to stay calm and work through moments of stress. This mindful parenting journal encourages parents to build mindfulness into their habits and routines with their kids. Through writing prompts and exercises, you'll practice creating empathy, honest communication, and understanding for both you and your child. Discover the power of mindful parenting: Insightful topics--Focused on everything from gratitude to staying cool in a crisis, these mindful parenting journal prompts help you appreciate the little moments and manage the tough times. Thoughtful writing--See how reflecting on your thoughts and reactions helps you engage with your kids from a place of compassion, and defines your values and priorities. Support and challenge--The mindful parenting exercises in this journal are designed to encourage and support you as a parent but also challenge your thoughts and behaviors to see if they serve your goals for your family. Stay connected to your kids with journal prompts that help you remain mindful, present, and curious.

Despite its inherent joys, the challenges of parenting can produce considerable stress. These challenges multiply—and the quality of parenting suffers—when a parent or child has mental health issues, or when parents are in conflict. Even under optimal circumstances, the constant changes as children develop can tax parents' inner resources, often undoing the best intentions and parenting courses. Mindful Parenting: A Guide for Mental Health Practitioners offers an evidence-based, eight week structured mindfulness training program for parents with lasting benefits for parents and their children. Designed for use in mental health contexts, its methods are effective whether parents or children have behavioral or emotional issues. The program's eight sessions focus on mindfulness-oriented skills for parents, such as responding to (as opposed to reacting to) parenting stress, handling conflict with children or partners, fostering empathy, and setting limits. The book dovetails with other clinical mindfulness approaches, and is written clearly and accessibly so that professionals can learn the material easily and impart it to clients. Featured in the text: Detailed theoretical, clinical, and empirical foundations of the program. The complete Mindful Parenting manual with guidelines for eight sessions and a follow-up. Handouts and assignments for each session. Findings from clinical trials of the Mindful Parenting program. Perspectives from parents who have finished the course. Its clinical focus and empirical support make Mindful Parenting an invaluable tool for practitioners and clinicians in child, school, and family psychology, psychotherapy/counseling, psychiatry, social work, and developmental psychology.

Simple mindfulness practices to help your child (ages 5-12) deal with anxiety, improve concentration, and handle difficult emotions—with a 60-minute audio CD of guided exercises Mindfulness—the quality of attention that combines full awareness with acceptance of each moment, just as it is—is gaining broad acceptance among mental health professionals as an adjunct to treatment. This little book is a very appealing introduction to mindfulness meditation for children and their parents. In a simple and accessible way, it describes what mindfulness is and how mindfulness-based practices can help children calm down, become more focused, fall asleep more easily, alleviate worry, manage anger, and generally become more patient and aware. The book contains eleven practices that focus on just these scenarios, along with short examples and anecdotes throughout. Included with purchase is an audio CD with guided meditations, voiced by Myla Kabat-Zinn, who along with her husband, Jon Kabat-Zinn, popularized mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) as a therapeutic approach.

Gold Nautilus Book Award Winner Learn how skillfully prizing kids (rather than mindlessly praising) can be a game changer in your relationship as a parent, teacher, or helper. Our culture is addicted to "good job!"--our all-purpose, feel-good, non-specific, or high-bar-setting verbal praise--especially when we talk to our kids. However, research shows that generic praise is insufficient and sometimes even backfires in nudging them toward their potential or helping kids navigate challenging moments. Praise can put too much emphasis on controlling results, and kids can experience it as pressure and learn to fear failing in adults’ eyes. By contrast, prizing is a game-changing mindset and set of specific skills that can help kids convert moments of emotional pain or stuckness into opportunities and possibilities for healthy change and growth. Prizing brings kids and adults together into a shared space in the present moment where conflict can dissolve, connection can thrive, and needed changes arise. In Prizeworthy, clinical psychologist Mitch Abblett introduces us to the skills of prizing and shows us what it looks like and how to do it in real-life situations. For example, techniques like "SNAPPing Out of Delusions of Outcome Control with Your Children" or "Light-Touch Goal-Setting with Your Kids" add an important layer of validation, compassionate presence, and skillful action to your relationships. Abblett also shares stories of how prizing has made a real difference in the lives of young people, parents, and professionals. He offers a host of scientifically-sound mindfulness and positive psychology-based practices for cultivating prizing at home, and in educational and therapeutic settings.