Growing Up Mindful

April 18, 2016
Willard (Mindfulness for Teen Anxiety), a clinical psychologist who advocates mindfulness as a stress relief practice, offers a helpful manual to introducing secular mindfulness practices to children and teens, as well as their parents. The book progresses from explaining mindfulness and its benefits, illustrated by helpful charts, to various strategies for introducing it to one’s children. Speaking as a parent himself, Willard writes that it’s imperative to “cultivate our own practice.” He also cautions parents against raising the subject in the way that suggests to children “that they are broken and in the need of fixing.” The better approach is to offer a practice that’s compatible with a child’s interests and fits into ongoing activities. To this end, he offers 101 “mindfulness cues” geared to children of different ages and temperaments, and discusses how mindfulness can be applied to actions as simple as eating and walking. On integrating mindfulness into play, the author says, “The games our kids play... are practices for real life” and good preparation for becoming “mindful and compassionate adults.” This is a well-written, practical guide with a useful appendix, “Matching the Practice to the Child.” Agent: Carol Mann, Carol Mann Agency.