Meditation for Parenting

We can read every parenting manual under the sun, and yet it’s only through experience do we begin to find our feet, and realise what works for us.

Despite this, there’s an enormous amount of external pressure from both our peers and society, and many of us can end up feeling that we are failing to live up to the proper standards of parenting - standards which are often idealised and unrealistic. 

We are constantly battling against the headwinds of change, in our lives and our children’s, bearing an enormous responsibility to ensure the health and happiness of a dependent being. 

The stresses and strains of life mean we are not always at our best. And when we are not at our best, it is difficult to give our best, no matter how much effort we pour in.

When we free ourselves of stress and fatigue through meditation for parents, we are better able to express our love and nurture our children. 

We have more energy to play, more attention to give, much more love to share and greater capacity to absorb the constant demands of parenthood.

When we meditate, the brain releases fewer stress hormones. Therefore, if Mum is meditating while she is carrying, fewer stress chemicals will be reaching the womb while baby develops.

Thus the little one enters this world with fewer negative pre-programmed reactions to stimuli, and baby is invariably calmer and more content.

In the early days of parenthood, meditation helps us to stay adequately rested by helping us sleep, or by providing a wonderful substitute for sleep when the little one is up all night.

Later on, meditation provides greater creative capacity and adaptive capability to deal with new challenges. It also gives us access to greater levels of inner wisdom and as such our guidance is much more inspiring.

Meditation also helps us cope with parental anxiety. We can be at ease when older children are out exploring the world and give them the freedom, responsibility and inspiring leadership to behave in ways and make decisions that demonstrate their growing maturity.

They will find they have less to rebel against and we will find ourselves becoming less and less prone to negative patterns of behaviour that may rub off on them. Instead, we can become more of an example for our little ones to follow.

Our greater levels of understanding means we can relate to our children more, even when they are experiencing difficulty and being challenging.

We become more of the parent we had always hoped to be.