Thank you to Magination Press for sponsoring the opportunity to attend the Bee Still: An Invitation to Meditation children’s book event held at Barnes & Noble in Paramus, NJ. All opinions below are my own.
Being a mother means always being mindful of what you do and do not do knowing that your child watches you to learn how to be an adult. When I think about all my son sees me do at any given moment, I realize that it’s rarely in a relaxed state on mind. I’m always going, going and so is my husband, which is no surprise as we are both very active in our careers. So despite my awareness of the importance practicing mindfulness and promoting being mindful (the high school educator in me knows this well!) for children, I didn’t do it enough at home to make it a practice that could be a positive shift in my sons’ day to day school and life experiences.
Given the opportunity to attend a book signing with Dr. Frank J Sileo, author of his latest children’s book Bee Still: An Invitation to Meditation, it immediately became clear that I needed to practice being more mindful in my own life to promote the importance of mindfulness for my son. The book offers a sweet story about Bentley the Bee who is not bothered by the frantic busyness of the bees around him, but instead decides to practice being mindful and meditate to focus. Soon after, the rest of the animals that live in the forest join him in “bee’ing” still and mindful of the world around them.
At the event, Dr. Sileo presented such wonderful practices to help children practice mindfulness and meditation while his book provided the perfect foundation for kids to understand why it is important to be mindful in the first place.
But first, what is mindfulness? As Dr. Sileo put it, mindfulness is the umbrella that meditation and yoga fall under. It simply means noticing what your thinking, feeling and experiencing in your body without judging that emotion. So how do we get our children (or even ourselves!) to be more mindful to notice more of what they are experiencing, rather than worrying about capturing it on phones or not being aware of how the moment is making them (or us!) feel? I’m happy to share 3 ways to raising a mindful child as a result and be sure to read my favorite way below!
Raising a Mindful Child Tip #1
Do a Q&A! Take a moment to stop whatever is happening to ask them questions like 1) are you enjoying what you are doing? 2) how does doing that activity make you feel? 3) what is your favorite and least favorite part of doing that activity? Or when you go for a walk, don’t only notice what you se in front of you, but look up and around and ask questions such as 1) aren’t those beautiful flowers 2) where do you think the people on the plane are going? 3) what do you think about the weather today?
Raising a Mindful Child Tip #2
Remember to BREATHE! Have you ever had a child want to tell you something and they just can’t get the words out fast enough or want to tell you ten things at once? Ask them to take a moment to breathe. A trick Dr. Sileo shared was to take a hoberman’s sphere (or a pipe clean and some beads), and to essentially have each time they open and close the sphere (or pull a bead) for each time they take a breath. It teaches them to breathe when they feel rushed, but also to learn to breathe slowly.
Raising a Mindful Child Tip #3
My favorite is to just STOP! Dr. Sileo shared the power of the word STOP as an acronym: Stop Take a Breathe Observe Proceed. It really can be life changing for a child when given a moment to be mindful of what they are feeling and why they are feeling that way. And to simply ask a child to stop and acknowledge those feelings gives them the power to own them over time.
As a busy mom, the importance of those tips for my son equally appply to me and to anyone trying to make the best of being a great mom and raising a mindful child. Let me know in the comments below:What do you do for yourself or your child to practice being mindful in life? Thank you so much for reading!
These are really useful tips on raising mindful kids. I have two growing up boys and I wish I could spend more mindful moment with them if I can turn back the clock. As adults we need to stop and smell the roses too. Thanks for sharing the book and a great holiday gift for my friends who have younger kids.
Xx
Ting
https://www.tingmystyle.com
This is such a beautiful post and a very important topic to talk about. I’ll be sharing it with my sisters as I believe they’ll find it very useful.
Xo,
Massiel
This post is so relevant and sweet at the same time! I totally relate because I have 3 kids and I always encourage them to read, since they are super young. Without a doubt reading is super important for kids for so many reasons. My little boy is really into good books and I love seeing how much he enjoys this activity every night.
Thanks for sharing girl, love all of your images!
Vanessa
https://thefashionstatement.net
This is very relevant to me as my baby is seven months old now. I don’t wanna be a frantic mom who bounces around from errand to errand. I want to teach my daughter how to make good choices and be thoughtful about her decisions and just slow down and enjoy each moment. I love #2. Breathing changes everything!!
Hi dear,
Thank you so much for recommendations.
It’s very important to pay much attention to our mindset .
Living in the modern world requires some mental self care as well.
xoxo
Omg I already love this book for my future child! I practice meditation and I always thought it would be great to teach kids mindfulness and meditation at a young age! Bee Still: An Invitation to Meditation, sounds like the perfect way to start. I love the three steps to raising a mindfulness child. Just stop is a good one. Even for me.
Xo
Tandya
http://www.simplytandya.com
I enjoy attending to these types of events, you learn so much! it sounds like a very interesting book and such a good one to review over and over. I think I’ll like to give it to my niece during the holidays. Thanks for sharing, I loved it!
xx. Gina
This is really an interesting article and I really enjoyed reading it. I will definitely take advantage with these tips most especially the word STOP that stands for ” Stop Take a Breathe Observe Proceed “.
That sounds like a wonderful read for the kids. And thanks for sharing the tips. Raising a mindful child is not an easy task!
this sounds like a book that could hook my kids in with just the first page! thanks for the great review and recommendation
Sounds like an amazing book! I’ve just started learning more about mindefulness myself and I think it’s so great for kids to learn it as well!
This is a must for most kids nowadays. So many kids just don’t pay attention or think of others.
I was just thinking about this today, when my son was mimicking me it reminded that he is watching me closely and following my every example. Your post is so enlightening. I am hoping to practise more mindfulness and meditation with him.
Hey Darling,
How are you?
What an Amazing event and the Book sounds super interesting and Important as well:)
Thank you for sharing:)
Wish you Beautiful New Week:)
Love Kisses Open Kloset By Karina
True Beauty Comes From Within
mindfulness is something we can all improve on. awesome there’s books like this out there for kids
this was really interesting and you are absolutely gorgeous !!
I never thought about being mindful before. I think we are all taking some time to admire things around us and notice our feelings, but children don’t, so we need to teach them how to.
What great advice, and a very interesting read! It’s so important to raise our children to be mindful and respectful.
What a really interesting post. I love your thinking here. Great photos!
I don’t have kids myself, but I will share this post with some of my friends who do.
These are some good tips that I’ll keep in mind whenever I have a child of my own. Good parenting is so important!
It warms my heart to see mothers of this generation so occupied trying to raise decent and productive little people. Like I learn in psychology class: Build a strong kid and you wont need to repair a broken adult.
Sounds like a really interesting book! It’s so important to encourage our kids to read and to develop their analytical skills. Cute pictures btw. Thank you for sharing!
XO
Candace
http://www.thebeautybeau.com