Discover how mindfulness meditation can hugely support you as you parent your anxious child

You’re here because you’ve been frantically googling, “what to do when your child has anxiety”, and how “to get rid and fix anxiety”. You feel out of your depth and you are overwhelmed reading all the books. You have been putting time and energy into trying to get rid and push down your own anxious feelings.

I know that you believe you need to keep battling along and do all the things to fix this for your child. I see you because I was that parent too and I was trying all the things. I reached a state of complete burnout, feeling worn out both mentally and physically and in this place I wasn’t best able to support my child.

One evening by chance I came across an Instagram live about using Mindfulness as a support tool for parents. This approach was very different to anything I tried before, and to be honest I was a bit reluctant at first it felt very self-indulgent. Doesn’t mindfulness meditation involve sitting hours on end in the lotus position? I realised I couldn’t continue the way I was going and it was time to take a chance with something new.

Mindfulness was the turning point for me.

Read on to find out why mindfulness meditation is the support tool that you need as you parent your anxious child

Here are 4 reasons why you need to practice mindfulness meditation as you support your anxious child

1. Mindfulness meditation only takes a few minutes

Think about all the time that you have been spending feeling frazzled, “googling” for hours on end, reading all the books and just going round and round in circles. Trust me when I say, dropping out of all the doing and stopping for even just a few minutes can make such a difference in how you can support you as you parent your anxious child.

Mindfulness isn’t a magic bullet. I remember the first time I did a mindfulness meditation sitting and thinking, “ I can’t feel my breath “ and I “must be doing it wrong”. The support of a trained mindfulness coach was essential to establishing my practice and provided guidance and reassurance.Setting an intention to consistently commit to practicing for a few minutes a day is important. Life can throw curve balls at us, but that’s the beauty of mindfulness if we miss a day we can just start again.

2. Mindfulness meditation nourishes you both mentally and physically

I see you if you are tossing and turning at night, apprehensive about what tomorrow will bring. Your head is full of thoughts and you are following each and everyone of them. You wake up feeling helpless with a pain in the pit of your stomach.

What if I told you there was an alternative. It’s called mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation teaches us how we can bring an awareness to our thoughts. It is important to remember that mindfulness is not about getting rid of our thoughts but we can observe rather than react. Mindfulness allows us to respond to our thoughts with non judgement and kindness we can let the thoughts go an bring an awareness back to the present moment.

Instead of jumping aboard the thought trains, you now wake up feeling rested and have a new energy that allows you to support yourself and your anxious child.

3. Mindfulness meditation helps you feel centered and grounded like a mountain

When you are parenting your anxious child you can feel like you are caught in the middle of a storm, unsteady and overwhelmed. Disconnected from yourself, like your body and mind are out of sync.

Mindfulness meditation helps you embody the sensations and strengths of a mountain. You feel grounded and balanced as you support your anxious child.

Practicing the mountain meditation

Allows us to

Bring the storm of what is happening into our full awareness and allows all the feelings and sensations to come to the surface
Visualise the mountain steady and present
The storm is present but the energy of the mountain is more powerful

How can this support you as you parent your anxious child?

You can now take the metaphor of the mountain into your day , it will allow you to feel centered and help you respond to yourself and your child with a new sense of calm.

4. Mindfulness meditation helps you break the cycle of self-criticism

As parents we are so self-critical and when we are trying to support our child through difficult emotions such as anxiety that self-critical voice can be even louder.

Your critical voice is your constant companion, telling you that you’re failing as a parent, that you can’t do anything right and that you’ll never find a way to support your child. You find yourself asking, “why can’t I manage this the way other parents do”?

Mindfulness meditation helps you break the cycle of all the time you are spending criticising and turning on yourself and helps build an inner voice that is gentle and kind.

In summary, here is why mindfulness meditation is the support tool that you need as you parent your anxious child. It doesn’t have to take alot of time, even practicing daily between 1 and 5 minutes can bring a remarkable difference to how you can support you. It nourishes you physically bringing rest and a new energy. It grounds you and brings a calm to respond to yourself and your child in a supportive way. It breaks the cycle of self-criticsm and instead plants the seeds to grow a kind inner voice.

Practicing mindfulness meditation brings calm, relief and light into your life as you support your anxious child

Come take the first step and get a taste of how mindfulness can support you by listening to my audio and plant the seeds of self-kindness in six minutes