The Conscious Parent

breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils, this may be too subtle a
sensation for a young child. Paying attention to the rise and fall of the
chest is much easier, as this is a larger area of the body. For the next few
minutes, we observe our breath as it enters and leaves the chest area: rise
and fall, rise and fall. Then I introduce silence, becoming silent for a
minute or two. I allow my daughter to sit in her thoughts without any
sound, explaining that she doesn’t have to do anything but sit and
breathe. Finally, I spend the last few minutes on the practice of
lovingkindness, during which she learns the importance of spreading
compassion and gratitude to the universe around her by thinking
compassionate and thankful thoughts.
Before my daughter was old enough to meditate, I used other means to
introduce stillness into her life. I consciously sat quietly with her in her
room even when she was in activity mode. I took her for walks in nature
and allowed her to soak in the stillness around her. I shut off all gadgets
for a consolidated time each day and simply engaged with her. I taught
her to listen to silence and not fear it.
Children are well able to tune into their inner being if given guidance.
Yes, even teens! However, by the time our children become teens, it’s
easy to feel so helpless in the face of their onslaught that we are tempted
to disengage from them, which only serves to drive them even further
into their world of technology. Our teens need us to guide them back to a
state of stillness, which it’s never too late to begin doing. But how are we
to accomplish this?
For one thing, we can ask that for one hour a week they engage in a
practice of stillness, such as yoga, t’ai chi, or meditation. We can ask