Mindfulness

Mindfulness for parents & teachers

There are many definitions of mindfulness, for me, mindfulness is a “state of being”, being with what is unfolding in the present moment and being with it in a open, curious, kind and non-judgemental way. It’s actually an innate skill, but we unfortunately unlearn it in this frantic world, where the “state of doing” is expected all the time, not only from us adults, but also from our kids. The good news is that we can relearn this skill of being and presence. 

We are more attentive to the challenging behaviours of our children or students, rather than their needs and feelings at the moment. As we’re not aware of that or conscious about it, we’re targeting just the behaviour and face resistance. Then, we’re unable to deal with this resistance and are reacting to it in form of control, discipline, yelling or punishment. This produces more resistance in the child and it becomes an endless cycle and the situation becomes unmanageable. This unconscious reactivity leads to a lot of frustration, anger and helplessness. It produces a lot of pain, shame, and guilt on both sides.

Most importantly, it leads to disconnection from the child because we fail to respond to their needs. When we get triggered, we’re unable to respond to the situation with wisdom and kindness. 

A mindful parent or teacher on the other hand is a person, who is  aware of her/his own issues, needs and feelings and that of the kid, who is present, kind and empathetic, who guides the kid, rather than controlling or dominating him/her, who accepts them as they are and opens them the path for flourishing according to the child’s desires and wishes, rather than forcing to shape them according to their own fantasies and definition of success and thus robbing them from their self-worth. 

But, how can we overcome this mostly automatic reactivity and become mindful in our relationships with our kids? We parents and teachers must start with ourselves first. The path to conscious parenting and teaching leads through mindfulness. It’s not always an easy path, but it’s certainly worth it. 

Contact me for learning this life skill and starting the transformation of your relationship with your child or students by becoming a mindful parent or teacher.   

Mindfulness for kids in schools & private settings

Mindfulness is an innate capacity of kids but unfortunately they’re starting to unlearn it at the age of about 5, because of the increasing and endless distractions all over the place, the pressure and expectations from the schools and parents to deliver. They are most of the time in the doing mode and there is almost no time and room to be in the “being mode”. This leads to a lot of frustration, stress and unhappiness.
 
 Thus, it is tremendously important to support children and adolescents in developing their capacities of focussed attention, emotion regulation, non-violent communication and compassion. With mindfulness, they will be equipped with the competencies of approaching life challenges in a more resilient, kind, focussed and accepting manner and be more failure tolerant, forgiving and compassionate towards themselves and others. 

I'm teaching kids and teens in school-and private setting. I’m combining mindfulness training with coaching, where I’m guiding them to clarify concrete, realistic and individual goals for change, based on their issues and to identify possible obstacles. I’m teaching them mindfulness tools and thus empowering and equipping them, so that they become able to engage with challenging experiences, stress and difficult emotions in a resilient, self-conscious and mindful way.

Contact me for the mindfulness based coaching packages for your kids and teens.