The concept of mindful parenting is rather new and it was introduced
to the group of enthusiastic parents in Kinrara Metta Buddhist Association
(KMBA) on the 29th June of 2014. The introductory session
illustrated the source of parenting stress, understanding of mindfulness in
parenting and ways of to practice mindful parenting. The talk received good
responses by the audiences. This served as a good foundation to call upon the
group of parents to participate the subsequent training sessions, namely the
Mindful Parenting Group.
There were four sessions conducted throughout the month of July and
August. A total of approximate 30 interested parents participated the group training.
The group was given training on how to apply mindfulness skills in relating to
their children. The topics that were delivered include automatic parenting,
self-compassion, applying beginner’s mind in parenting, understanding the
influences of family system in parenting, responding vs reacting to parenting
stress. Group discussion, group activity, role play and demonstration were used
to present the content in order to promote better understanding among the
parents.
The content of the delivered topics are summarized as below:
- - Automatic Parenting: Understanding how parenting process can become “automatic” that parents learn “reacting” instead of “responding” to daily stressors.
- - Self-compassion: Understanding and applying the self-compassion onto parents themselves that to allow space for further improvement.
- - Beginner’s mind in parenting: Using new perspectives to observe and understand our children, learn to see them as ‘raisin.’
- - Family system in parenting: Learning on how parent’s family of origin could limit the parenting experiences and understanding the subtle influences of how parents were influenced by their past upbringing experiences
- - Reacting vs responding to parenting stress: Understanding how parents could react or respond to their children’s problems based on their own expectations and belief system.
The group members were enthusiastic and passionate about learning. They
were taught about the concepts of automatic parenting and being guided on how
to be aware of their body sensations. In the sessions, parents were guided on
reflecting themselves in their parenting role, learning about how to apply
beginner’s mind in perceiving their children, applying self-compassion on
themselves when they made mistakes, and practicing to respond to their
children’s needs with awareness. The group members were also given home
practice in order to apply the learnt skills on their parenting experiences.
Being the trainer, I felt honored that I have been given this
opportunity to conduct the group sessions in KMBA. Throughout the process, I
learnt that this group is a unique group that the participants are truthful and
kind to each other. I sensed the group’s respect for each other, especially
every time when there was someone shared about him/herself. I like the way the
group members encouraged each other by giving space and being patience to
listen and take turn to share. Although it was a rather big group for group
processing, I felt pleasant and relax that the parents were mindful about the
group process and learning to express themselves. I am thankful to all the
participants who made this group process as a meaningful learning experience
for each other.
Prepared by,
MAY LIU MOY YUB
Clinical Psychologist
KL Buddhist Mental Health Association
