Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting by Myla and John Kabat-Zinn is a very interesting book. This book was recommended to me more than a year ago by Sara Barris at the APC Adoption Conference and I have been trying to get around to reading it forever. Thankfully, forever finally came! This is a very unusual book but I'm glad I read it. I felt it helped me and I think it will enrich our experience of parenting.
Some of the main ideas expressed by the Kabat-Zinns are the importance of daily meditation in the parenting journey, the quest for non-judgemental mindfulness, and devoting oneself to the act of parenting purposely instead of simply carrying through with the motions. I found a lot of inspiration in this book and in the Kabat-Zinn's clear and deep love for their grown children. The book also covers practical daily issues of parenting like bedtimes, nutrition and schooling. Here is a quote from pg. 182 to give you a general idea of their philosophy, "Mindful parenting simply calls on us to pay attention to what we are doing, including the choices we make, and to examine in an ongoing way the effect our choices have on our child. It involves a continual inquiry into what we are doing and why."
Everyday Blessings starts off slow and I nearly gave up on it. It truly took about 60 pages for me to find my way into a real rhythm with this text but once I got there it was worth it. I think the authors have a lot of great ideas and an interesting expression of them but, in my opinion, they could have used a different editor to cut out a lot of bulk that weighed the concepts down and made it a longer book than was needed. I wouldn't recommend this book to people who feel negatively toward eastern ideology.
Happy Reading,
--Rosemary
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2 comments:
Someone else recommended this to me too, but I never got around to it. I was on a parenting book kick for a while, but then had to go on sabbitical. It's been a long sabbitical.
When it gets down to crunch time, maybe I'll put this back on my list. I'll just skip the first 60 pages though.
Hey, I am reading this, too! I find it very beautiful and helpful in parts, but it is slow at first and I almost gave up on it, too! So funny you said that. It was given to me by a friend for my b-day 2 years ago and I JUST got around to reading it. I don't get to read often, but try to read a bit every few days at bed time or when Ruby is taking a nap. I find NOW - with her home - to be a great time to be reading it. Some good stuff in there.
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