Do you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing? Can we dare as parents to talk about this with ourselves and our children or will we forever be stuck in the habit of talking about what they want to do when they grow up and what do they need to do now in order to achieve this? When did we stop thinking from our hearts and start focusing purely on our heads – when did feelings become less important than logic and when will we open our eyes to the true impact of this? As a mother, teacher, therapist and human being I see the impact of focusing on outcomes, behaviour, goals, expectations and problems all day long – we search for the answers in our heads when, if we were able to search in our bodies and our hearts we would know the answer – we would know what we long for. We long for love – from ourselves to ourselves and from each other, we long for belonging, for acceptance, for patience, for compassion and for peace. When we can learn to sit with ourselves, “to change our mind-set from one of self-improvement to one of self-liberation” (Dr Shauna Shapiro) then we will free ourselves and our children from the constant search for happiness as if it’s a place to get to and realise that “to transform our lives, we must focus on our direction, not our destination”. Mindfulness gives us the tools and practice to do this and sharing the learning with others helps us to realise that we are not on this journey alone. Wherever you are on your journey, we are here to journey with you.
Our next series of Mindfulness Practice workshops for Parents begins in October in Dubai. Please visit our workshops page for more details and information on how to join. I look forward to seeing you there.