We have written about mindfulness before, but how can you and your child practice it everyday?
Your child just applied for a summer job at a small independent toy store. They called him yesterday and asked if he can come in for a short interview today with the manager. He acted excited leaving the house for the interview. He just texted you:
About to go in. Mom, I’m so nervous! What do I do??
What can you tell your son?
Every day we experience emotions and sometimes they take our bodies and minds into directions we hadn’t planned to go. But they are part of being a human. So what can we do? Luckily there are some tools you can show your child and together, you can use these tools to help regulate these emotions.
One of them is mindfulness. Mindfulness is being aware of what is going on at that moment – and importantly, being nonjudgmental about whatever that is. There are many resources that you and your child can use to learn about mindfulness.
Here are a few resources we highly recommend:
Dr. Dzung Vo’s website about mindfulness for teens
Mindfulness explanation and audio recordings for youth
Ohio State University’s mindfulness audio recordings
How could your child use mindfulness in the above situation? In a later post, we’ll give some ideas of how.
