Hi,
And welcome to this meditation for parents This meditation is tailored to cultivate patience Patience is a quality that many people have a hard time practicing in our modern world we have everything at our fingertips and This takes away the discomfort of waiting We can have everything we want and everything we need at the click of a button or a voice command to our devices and as parents We have several thoughts running through our minds many things on our plates Many many balls juggling in the air and with all of this we want our lives to work absolutely seamlessly But children are not seamless Children are unpredictable whether you have a baby that won't go down for a nap a Toddler who's having a tantrum before you log on to an important meeting?
Or a ten-year-old who refuses to get dressed when it's time to leave the house Perhaps you have a tween or a teen who talks back or rolls their eyes when asked to complete a task All of these situations can be incredibly triggering and it's very easy to react in the moment so rather than seeing patience in these moments as sitting and waiting or succumbing to your children's difficult behaviors or suppressing your emotions See it as Being present See it as being with things as they are as opposed to how you want them to be find a Comfortable seat if you haven't already Allow your body to relax and find your center Bring your awareness to your jaw and your brow See if you can find some softness Bring your awareness to your shoulders Let them feel heavy as they fall away from your ears and relax down your back And gently place your palms facing up on your knees Or you can place one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly It's comfortable for you today Allow your eyes to close Or allow them to get heavy and softly gaze down a few inches in front of you Start to bring your attention to your breath to the gentle in and out rhythm As you breathe in and out through your nose I'm going to take you through a quick exercise To help cultivate patience when you're in a situation and you feel yourself getting impatient Take three deep breaths in through your nose Allowing your chest and your belly to fill with air Gently breathing out through your nose Listening to that rhythm of your breath.
I Invite you to think of a situation When your child or children test your patience and We're going to use the simple acronym STOP S stands for stop Stop rushing Stop reacting Just stop when you're feeling big feelings when you're about to lose your patience Remember stop moving down to T Take three breaths These breaths will anchor you and allow you to slow down Just three breaths will help you sit with the uncomfortability that patience brings Bringing us to O which stands for observe while breathing while waiting Just observe the situation in front of you Observe the child or children in front of you Observe how you are feeling emotionally physically without judgment Try and do this objectively Create some space between you and the situation And this will allow you to bring some empathy into the situation as well For you and for your child or children Finally P which is proceed Continuing the task at hand.
This simple exercise will help you shift from being reactive To being more conscious and more mindful Now take a deep cleansing breath in through your nose And as you breathe out,
Let it go Set whatever it is.
You're feeling free Take another deep breath in and as you exhale once again Set free what no longer serves you one more deep breath in and on the exhale Let it all go Now if it feels right open your eyes and bring yourself back to the present moment.
I Encourage you to come back to this practice when you realize you're feeling impatient.
I Encourage you to remember the acronym stop Remember to savor these moments with your children namaste
