Showing Up for Your Family

Hi there. Welcome to the first lesson of our Mindful Parenting Collection. I'm Samantha Snowden, mindfulness and meditation teacher here at Headspace. I've studied clinical and educational psychology and I've worked with kids and families for over 20 years. And I'm John Kole, the medical director and senior director of psychiatry at Headspace. I'm an adult psychiatrist, a child psychiatrist, and a parenting instructor. Hi, John. It's my true pleasure to be here with you. The pleasure is mine. I think we're here as parents because we all share two important truths. On one hand, we have a great love for our children and we have this deep desire to help them thrive. And on the other hand, we happen to all be human and so we are imperfect and we're juggling all sorts of stresses and demands. You know, as we think about mindful parenting I think we're looking for a path forward. Absolutely. So what I really hope is that this collection gives families hope and helps them reestablish or reorient to that feeling of innate confidence. And even reconnects them with the delight of being a parent because I think that can get lost in the day-to-day struggles. Certainly. This isn't a all-or-nothing scenario, right? You're not only a mindful parent or only one who's distracted. This is moment-to-moment variation. It's day to day. It's based on other stresses. We wanna be present for the time that we do have. And I think it's feeling like when there are strains and stresses in the relationship, that the approach you're taking is one that you feel confident about, that is supporting the values you're hoping for. The key word here, I think, is presence. And I think it's something we all struggle with, whether we have children in our lives or not. I think this is the biggest benefit of mindfulness right now when we're talking about parenting, is just our ability to cultivate that presence so that we're not missing these really beautiful moments in our children's lives, in our lives, and we're growing in our capacity to emotionally regulate ourselves so that we can help our children to emotionally regulate. Two wonderfully important goals. You know, Sam, I think it would be helpful for us to talk a little bit about the mental health aspects of being a more mindful parent. Will bettering the relationship between parent and child also better their own mental health? Absolutely. If we're not feeling competent and we're feeling insecure about our parenting, it can consume so much of our lives. It could be hard to focus. It can be hard for us to sleep. And so when we're thinking of things like sleep and focus, these are core aspects of our mental health. I just wanna add from someone who's doing our clinical care here at Headspace, it's so interesting how often the parenting provides the spark to seeking care and not only as the spark, but also as a...