Self care and Mindfulness

Session Date :29th September, 2018,

Resource Person :  Ms Sandy Dias Andrade

Session -‘Self care and Mindfulness

The sessions was designed

• To develop a practice of Mindfulness that encompasses its attitudes and as a way of allowing a meta awareness and a meta cognition to become available.
• To make the practice of Mindfulness relevant to parenting, to a parent’s sense of well-being as well as to foster a deeper bond between parent and child.
• To cultivate an attitude of self-compassion and a sense of care.
• To develop a motivation for sustained Mindfulness practice for the parent’s themselves as well as with their children and in their relationship with them.

The core activities carried out were

1. Grounding exercise and breathe meditation
2. Exploration of what is mindfulness and the key elements of mindfulness through the `raisin’ exercise
3. Relational Mindfulness: Bringing this quality of attention in action
4. Relational Mindfulness: Bringing this quality of attention in listening
5. Breathe Meditation
6. Walking meditation
7. Why the emphasis on ‘Self’ in parenting?

Feedback from Parents

• Awareness is related to our senses – touch, feel, smell & taste. So if our intention is to be ‘present’ we need to bring our senses in.
• Each child is different. Each child has a specific set of ingredients.  Parents need to understand this & accept children for what they are, to know their ingredients & accept them.
• ‘Wanting to know’ & curiosity is an important part of parenting. So is giving 100% attention & using senses as an interactional medium.
• Mindfulness is awareness. It is being ‘present’ in that moment. Mindfulness helps us to notice what we are doing & we learn to acknowledge what is going on without judgment. If judgment happens, we notice that too.

The session was attended by around 60 participants.