It seems everywhere you look these days someone is touting the benefits of mindfulness — a practice that Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, describes simply as “paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.” Research shows that people who practice mindfulness are less stressed, more focused and better able to regulate their emotions.
How Busy Working Parents Can Make Time for Mindfulness
If you’re a busy working parent, how do you build mindfulness — the practice of paying full attention to everything you do — into an already-packed day? Those of us with kids and jobs are constantly multitasking, juggling personal and professional responsibilities, and feeling stressed about all we can’t get done. There will never be enough bandwidth to devote large amounts of time to meditation. But you can get a mindfulness practice started in small, simple ways. For example, before your first sip of coffee, take a moment to smell the aroma and take three intentional breaths. At work, pause each time you sit at your computer, feel your body in your chair, your feet on the ground. At dinner, ask your family to spend a minute reflecting on where the food came from.