Raising Mindful Kids
I have decided to write my first blog - it has taken me years to do this! My 16yr old daughter has often told me to start a blog and I have always replied "what is a blog? how do I do this?" So here I sit, a lot of googling later, starting a blog page - I bet my Emily is going to be surprised, hopefully even proud!
So where do you start with a blog, I know that I have always been a creative writer (my husband can attest to this - he occasionally gets emails from me, and no, they are not always love letters!) Let me start off with introducing myself and my journey thus far and then I will get onto the information that literally just wants to burst out of me!
I am a mother of four beautiful, talented, outspoken, individual daughters that I adore like crazy but I do have my moments with them and often think to myself, what the hell am I doing? how the hell do I raise these little ladies to become warriors to survive in this crazy yet beautiful world we are living today - let me be brutally honest here, it's hard, it's tiring and emotionally draining, yet it is the most profound thing in the world raising these little warriors.
I started my yoga journey four years ago - let's be honest, a mother of four daughters needs some sort of Zen in her life, yip, yoga brings Zen, let's try this yoga thing.........boy did yoga change my life - I fell in love with yoga and they way it made me feel. Something that has always stuck with me in yoga is.........it's not about learning to touch your toes, it's about what you learn on the way down - and wow, did I learn some awesome stuff on the way down!
Naturally being a mother of four my maternal instincts kicked in as well as my endless crazy thoughts that run through my mind at the speed of lightning most of the time and I realized that I wanted to teach yoga to kids - surely this is possible? Is there such a thing? Hello google, yes there is! I studied and completed my kids yoga training and got the opportunity to teach at the most amazing school (yes the school that my little one's go to) and my yoga journey with kids continues, I have been teaching these amazing souls at schools and from home for two years now and I absolutely love teaching my little yogis how to relax, breathe, stretch, focus and bring the awareness to their mind, body and soul - and yes little kids as young as 3yrs old can begin this magical journey.
Now to all the information that is wanting to burst out of me, and I hope I can get this all out whilst making sense! If you are reading this I presume my blog has managed to get to you (yay, success) and I presume you are a parent, even if you are not this will also mean something to you. I am busy with my diploma for Mindfulness for Children. This diploma is very close to my heart, I have raised a 16yr old daughter and it has not been the easiest job, in fact it has probably been one of the most hardest challenges in my life so far. When we were young I remember roaming the streets with my brother, going to the shops to buy sweets, riding the neighborhood on bikes with friends, playing in the river down the road catching frogs, eating fruit off of the trees and getting a tummy ache, building forts in the garden, climbing trees - and yes there were injuries, but is that not part of growing up? Being free and unattached to any technology - why? There was none! The world as we know it has changed, we as parents/adults have to accept this, but we do not have to change our mindset completely - we can make a change to not let technology take over our homes and our children. I am not saying that technology is bad, it is a part of our lives these days, all I am saying is MODERATION, you can google to your hearts content about the devastating effects that technology has on children and do the research yourself.
My little Megan who is 6yrs old - still a baby in my eyes has been told that she suffers from anxiety at school. My Jade who is 8yrs old has to see the school Councillor at school as she is suffering from stress and anxiety. My little Tay-Tay, well she is only 4 and the big boss of the house so for now she just tells us what to do! Okay, let's get back to the point. How many kids these days do you hear of that are suffering from stress, anxiety, ADD, ADHD, can't focus, has trouble getting on with other kids, the list is endless. So I sit with my busy mind that is racing at that one million miles per second and I know that I need to do something, I need to help, if I can start at home with my own children - I can then go on to help others. So here I am studying the most insane course that makes so much sense to me and has opened my eyes on the way we are living life, yes me too, I am also to blame - it happens in my house as well.
Did you know that stress is fatal - when you experience stress, your body releases Cortisol, which is a stress hormone, this hormone can create tension, fatigue, mental fogginess, sleeplessness and more. Did you also know that children experience stress just like adults? This can cause endless problems such as sleepless nights, anger, crying, headaches, trouble concentrating or focusing. Stress attacks your immune system, and although it may not start to affect your child now, there will be long term effects when they are much older. Let me give you an example of something that happened recently at home with my Jade (8yrs) she is not the best swimmer, she had her gala coming up and she was under so much stress from having to swim in this gala as she was embarrassed that she was not as good as the others. She would cry everyday and complain to me on the swimming days that she did not want to go to school. It was heartbreaking and as much as I told her that it did not matter to me how well she did in the gala but just the fact that she managed to swim in the gala I would be the proudest mother on earth, it still did not matter. A week before the gala she started getting toothache, it got so bad that she went to the dentist and she had developed an abscess - I believe that the stress had caused this (yes, maybe she needed to visit the dentist, please don't get me wrong) but I still believe that the amount of stress she was under to do well in the gala aggravated the abscess in the mouth.
I don't want to go off on a tangent here as I am not sure how long a blog should be - perhaps the idea is if people read your blog and enjoy it and want to read more then you write another one? Or you just write another one and hope it gets read anyway......hey, I am still learning here!
Before I leave though, I want to share with you perhaps one of the most important things I have learned so far in my Mindfulness for Children. People..........please, put down the tech! I am not saying you can not look at your phone, not let your kids play on tablets. Ask yourself, honestly this question, How many times a day are you on your phone, when you are at home in the evenings are you sitting on your phone, do you have your children wanting your attention but you are busy with an important message or email and you are telling them to just wait? Are you lying on the couch in the evening checking out Facebook or Instagram while your kids are watching something on TV or even on their own tablets - I know I have! Please for one week try put down the tech, leave your phone in the kitchen from the time you walk in that door and check your phone when getting some water, food etc. Those emails can wait, your friends pictures on Facebook can wait, you can FOCUS on the present moment with being with your children and make memories - one day this will be all that you have, you do not want your memories to be of looking at other peoples memories on social media - MAKE YOUR OWN MEMORIES BY BEING IN THE PRESENT MOMENT. Do not let your child watch TV all day - yes this is an ideal babysitter - take an hour or even just a half of an hour of your day and become a kid again. Play cops and robbers, hide and seek, do puzzles in the evening in place of watching the TV, play family games. You will be surprised at how alive you will feel. Once your children are asleep and exhausted from a day full of adventure and fun - you can then spend quality time with your loved one and mentally unwind yourself, knowing that today you created magical memories with your loved ones.
