{"id":7612,"date":"2018-01-02T13:16:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T18:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/why-im-teaching-my-girls-to-meditate\/"},"modified":"2018-06-27T12:25:56","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T17:25:56","slug":"why-im-teaching-my-girls-to-meditate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/why-im-teaching-my-girls-to-meditate\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I\u2019m Teaching My Girls to Meditate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.psychcentral.com\/mindful-parenting\/files\/2018\/01\/RMeditating.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1124\" src=\"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/files\/2018\/01\/RMeditating-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teaching my girls to meditate wasn\u2019t one of my resolutions for the new year. I\u2019ve got a ton of tricks up my sleeve for practicing mindfulness with them; so many, in fact, that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Ready-Set-Breathe-Practicing-Mindfulness\/dp\/1626252904\/\">I wrote a book about it<\/a>. But formal seated meditation can be hard for little ones, especially kiddos who are super twitchy after being stuck inside for a week because the temperature outside is approximately one bajillion degrees below zero. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But I\u2019m still meditating, and I\u2019m always looking for more support for my practice. (You can\u2019t do this alone folks, none of us can.) So I signed up for <a href=\"https:\/\/susanpiver.com\/\">Susan Piver\u2019s 21 Day Meditation Challenge<\/a>.* The first guided meditation landed in my email yesterday morning, and my kids wanted to try it with me. So, we tried it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">My older daughter (age 9) was interested in watching the introductory video, which she totally didn\u2019t understand and so I explained to her as well as I could. By the time we actually sat down to meditate, she had ants in her pants, so she got up and walked away. My younger one (age 7) skipped the video, but she was able to sit with me for five minutes of breathing meditation. They both wanted to try again tomorrow, so I\u2019m calling it a win.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In my next post, I\u2019ll walk you through exactly how we meditated together (spoiler alert: it\u2019s not hard at all, but there are a few tools and strategies that will make it easier). Right now I want to focus on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">why<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I\u2019m teaching them to meditate.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Meditation will help shape their brain (in a good way!).<\/strong> Researchers have found that meditation can strengthen the areas of our brains that help us solve problems, think creatively, manage our emotions, and connect with other people. In addition, when we sit and breathe in an intentional way, the part of our brain that makes us fight, flight, freeze, or freak out gets a little smaller and less reactive. Basically, a consistent meditation practice can lead to fewer meltdowns, which is pretty much the greatest thing ever.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Meditation can teach my girls how to notice their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations.<\/strong> There are tons of different ways to meditate, but many of them involve noticing something about our internal experience (rather than getting caught up in it). The more we practice noticing, the more likely we will be to clue into what\u2019s going on in our minds and bodies before the freak out happens. It\u2019s the difference between your kiddo realizing she\u2019s hungry and asking for a snack and flipping out all over the place because she didn\u2019t realize how hangry she was until it was too late. I\u2019ll take Option A, please.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It teaches them that they don\u2019t have to take their thoughts seriously.<\/strong> Just last night my daughter had a terrible nightmare, and she was having a hard time settling down. Rather than asking her about the details of her dream, I just reminded her that they aren\u2019t real, they\u2019re just thoughts. And then we practiced counting her breaths as a way to bring her awareness back to the present moment. It took a few minutes, because the thoughts that come from an exhausted brain can be pretty sticky, but eventually we got her calmed down and back to sleep. The more my kids meditate, the better they\u2019ll get at noticing their thoughts and letting them go.<\/li>\n<li><strong>They will practice, and get better at, paying attention \u2013 even in situations that are boring or hard.<\/strong> The ability to pay attention is a fundamental life skill, one that is becoming increasingly challenging in an age of screens and smartphones and notifications and social media and internet browsers with 27 open tabs. Fortunately, it\u2019s also a skill that we can get better at through intentional practice. Meditating is like going to the gym for your brain, but without the risk of falling off the treadmill.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Meditation teaches them how to calm themselves down in challenging moments.<\/strong> Most of us never even realize we\u2019re breathing, which generally works out well for us. (Imagine if we had to remember to breathe all the time. YIKES!) But the ability to breathe intentionally is a powerful strategy for handling difficult moments; as I tell my daughters, it\u2019s a quick, easy, and sneaky way to tell our bodies that everything is ok, and that they can calm down now.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I\u2019m not sure how long our current meditation experiment will last, but I\u2019m going to stick with my practice and share it with them as long as they\u2019re interested. In my next post, I\u2019ll walk you through every step of how we\u2019re meditating together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">* Full disclosure: I\u2019m not getting any kick-back or bonus from Susan Piver for this shout-out. I\u2019m just a big fan of her teaching, and I want to share the good stuff with you all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Want<em>\u00a0more mindful parenting and updates on my forthcoming book,\u00a0<\/em>How to Stop Losing Your Sh*t With Your Kids<em>?\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/carlanaumburg.com\/signup\/\">Sign up for my free, not-at-all annoying newsletter.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"likebtn_container\" style=\"\"><!-- LikeBtn.com BEGIN --><span class=\"likebtn-wrapper\"  data-identifier=\"post_7612\"  data-site_id=\"63347fe36fd08b6c05de3d9e\"  data-dislike_enabled=\"false\"  data-icon_dislike_show=\"false\"  data-white_label=\"true\"  data-style=\"\"  data-unlike_allowed=\"\"  data-show_copyright=\"\"  data-item_url=\"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/why-im-teaching-my-girls-to-meditate\/\"  data-item_title=\"Why I\u2019m Teaching My Girls to Meditate\"  data-item_image=\"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/files\/2018\/01\/RMeditating-300x300.jpg\"  data-item_date=\"2018-01-02T13:16:00-05:00\"  data-engine=\"WordPress\"  data-plugin_v=\"2.6.59\"  data-prx=\"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=likebtn_prx\"  data-event_handler=\"likebtn_eh\" ><\/span><!-- LikeBtn.com END --><\/div><p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.psychcentral.com\/mindful-parenting\/2018\/01\/why-im-teaching-my-girls-to-meditate\/\" target=\"_blank\">Visit Original Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teaching my girls to meditate wasn\u2019t one of my resolutions for the new year. I\u2019ve got a ton of tricks up my sleeve for practicing mindfulness with them; so many, in fact, that I wrote a book about it. But formal seated meditation can be hard for little ones, especially <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/why-im-teaching-my-girls-to-meditate\/\">Read More<\/a><br \/><img alt='' src='\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17c811c4eace5f72d7b96700f8bf7930?s=32&#038;r=g&#038;d=https%3A%2F%2Funitedresourceconnection.org%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2011%2F08%2Fcandlesburning.jpeg' srcset='\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17c811c4eace5f72d7b96700f8bf7930?s=32&#038;r=g&#038;d=https%3A%2F%2Funitedresourceconnection.org%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2011%2F08%2Fcandlesburning.jpeg 2x' class='avatar avatar-32 photo' height='32' width='32' loading='lazy' decoding='async'\/>  Shared by <a href=\"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/membership-directory\/carlanaumburg\/profile\">Carla Naumburg, Ph.D, Contributing Blogger<\/a>  January 2, 2018<\/p>\n<div class=\"likebtn_container\" style=\"\"><!-- LikeBtn.com BEGIN --><span class=\"likebtn-wrapper\"  data-identifier=\"post_7612\"  data-site_id=\"63347fe36fd08b6c05de3d9e\"  data-dislike_enabled=\"false\"  data-icon_dislike_show=\"false\"  data-white_label=\"true\"  data-style=\"\"  data-unlike_allowed=\"\"  data-show_copyright=\"\"  data-item_url=\"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/why-im-teaching-my-girls-to-meditate\/\"  data-item_title=\"Why I\u2019m Teaching My Girls to Meditate\"  data-item_image=\"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/files\/2018\/01\/RMeditating-300x300.jpg\"  data-item_date=\"2018-01-02T13:16:00-05:00\"  data-engine=\"WordPress\"  data-plugin_v=\"2.6.59\"  data-prx=\"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=likebtn_prx\"  data-event_handler=\"likebtn_eh\" ><\/span><!-- LikeBtn.com END --><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1106,"featured_media":7613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5630],"tags":[10105,4143],"class_list":["post-7612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clinicians-blog","tag-archive","tag-mindful-parenting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/goodyear-village-az-cdp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}