Mindful Thoughts For Mothers

"Mindful Thoughts for Mothers is the perfect present for mums everywhere. It explores a mother’s world, helping the reader to hold a sense of the ‘bigger picture’ while being present in the day-to-day." - Mental Health Foundation "The opposite of hardline, hectoring motherhood manuals, this charmingly illustrated hardback takes a gentle meander through the motherhood journey." - Waitrose Weekend Motherhood is one of the most wonderful and powerful experiences we can have in life. As the early years of our children’s lives unfold, we will undoubtedly experience the joys they bring, but will also encounter the stress and demands that appear daily and nightly on the parenting path. Using mindfulness practice to manage these demands we can become more present and meet life with awareness, in the moment. These reflections on motherhood will help you find greater self-understanding and enable you to navigate a mindful path along this exciting journey.

From hormones to stretch marks, labor pains to diaper changes, motherhood is an adventure like none other. The rapid changes in your body, your lifestyle, and your very identity call for a certain mental agility. Mindfulness can help you meet the challenge and approach every experience with your new baby with open eyes and an open heart. Easy ten-minute meditation exercises and yoga poses throughout this book will help you cultivate greater flexibility and mindful awareness during pregnancy, childbirth, and your baby's first year. Whenever you have a moment to spare, open Mindful Motherhood and discover a skill that will help you find balance and fulfillment during those times when you feel most overwhelmed. Co-published with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Mindful Motherhood contains what so many other parenting books omit:: the consoling information that each mother has the ability to know, deep within, how to care for her child. Mindful Motherhood is a gem. -Christiane Northrup, MD, author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom Wise, soothing, and helpful-this is really good stuff for new mothers. -Jack Kornfield, author of The Wise Heart

Feel empowered to become the mother you want to be. From birth to your baby's first steps, this soothing book will support you to open your heart to the highs and lows of mothering and adjust to your new role. It offers everyday meditations and visualisations, postnatal yoga, natural remedies, and nutritional advice to help you care for yourself with the same love and commitment you give your precious baby. As a new mum, you may secretly wonder: "Am I up to the job?" With pressure on mums to parent perfectly and "bounce back" effortlessly and unsupported, all amid sleep deprivation, and brain, body, and relationship changes, it's no surprise women struggle. You are not alone. Compassionate, evidence-based psychological ideas from clinical psychologist and mum, Dr Caroline Boyd, will ground you amid the storms, enhancing everyday connections to you, your baby, and the world around you both. "Compassionate and powerful tools are delivered in such an accessible way. I hope this book finds its way into the hands of every new mum." - Anna Mathur, Sunday Times bestselling author of Know Your Worth and Mind over Mother. This holistic book will help you understand: - Significant brain, body, and identity shifts during this transformation known as "matrescence". - The intense, emotional rollercoaster of this first year - explaining what can shape your ideas of the "good" mum, and why experiencing feelings such as anger and anxiety doesn't make you a "bad" mother. - Why it's important to learn to self-soothe, with practical psychological strategies to help you nurture yourself, as well as soothe your baby. - Why couple dynamics shift with the arrival of a baby, and ways to stay connected. - How to use your values to guide your decision-making, making choices that fit for your family. Caroline offers gentle, realistic advice with a focus on mindful compassion - supporting you to develop a kinder relationship with yourself. She offers natural remedies to help manage interrupted sleep and strong emotions, healthy foods to boost energy and improve low mood, affirmations to soothe and support, and mini-meditations and longer meditative practices to calm and centre you and to share with your baby. Enjoy gentle, targeted yoga, with your baby and alone, to ease the aches and pains of early motherhood and build strength and flexibility. Use mindful massage to bond with your baby and nourish your body. Mindful New Mum will help you find more head and heart space - empowering you to become the mum you want to be.

Focusing on the entire journey; from pregnancy through to early parenthood, this guide to living mindfully for expectant mothers helps prepare you for birth and improve your wellbeing with the ancient practice of mindfulness. When we talk about making something, it usually refers to creating, manipulating, or forming a material. In pregnancy, our bodies are wrapped up in doing all of these things at once, and on a grand scale. But in the act of making space in ourselves through mindfulness, none of these things apply. In Mindful Pregnancy & Birth we engage in an act of "not doing". Of not changing, but of simply "being" in the experience of ourselves. Pregnancy is a phase in which to reconcile what has been, with what will become. It is a process, a time of change, and even more so for a first-time mother. It is a recognition of our dreams for the future being in transit, in gestation, in the making.

The first of its kind, this book will show mothers-to-be how to create an authentic practice of mindfulness to prepare for pregnancy, labour, birth and the early parenting years. Full of gems and aha moments using simple and helpful tools and practices to keep you connected to yourself while looking after your family' Nadia Narain, Head of Pregnancy Yoga, Triyoga, London 'This is a book I highly recommend to mothers and mothers-to-be. It is like an insightful friend who understands deeply what becoming and being a mother really means' Janet Balaskas, Founder of Active Birth Chunilal offers unparalleled support along with clear and simple meditation and self-development practices based on Buddhist and yogic philosophy to help cultivate a daily practice of mindfulness, which will enable you to be more present during pregnancy, birth and beyond. Having a child has the potential to awaken your heart and bring infinite joy, wonder and delight into your life. Yet when you become a mother, alongside immense delight and excitement, you may also feel a great deal of internal turmoil and confusion, as well as a change or lack of sense of identity. Organised into clear, thematic sections, this book can be dipped into for emergency inspiration or read from cover to cover. It explores common mothering dilemmas with honesty and integrity, helping you to keep both feet firmly on the ground. Issues include: adjusting to having minimal personal time and space, coping with in-laws, managing the balance between work and home, finding stimulation within an often tedious home routine, and dissolving doubts and comparisons with other seemingly happy families. Most of all, The Mindful Mother teaches you to understand your true nature, so your mind is working with you, rather than against you.

The Joy of Loving-Kindness Mindful Thoughts for Fathers is a series of beautifully illustrated reflections on different aspects of fatherhood, from the joy of holding your child for the first time and teaching them about the world, all the way through to the inevitability of illness and establishing bedtimes and boundaries. Pick this book up at any stage of fatherhood and dip into the calm of mindful awareness for deeper presence and understanding. Comprised of 25 mindful reflections, each a thoughtful guide, Ady Griffiths (Vidyadasa) offers meditative reflections into the everyday details and bigger picture of fathering in today’s hectic world. In this carefully crafted little book, he encourages every father to find and embrace a mindful daily awareness for deeper presence, acceptance and understanding. Covering topics such as the father’s changing identity, loving yourself as well as your loved ones and being "good enough," this book aims to address the internal worries and struggles of fathers during one of the most challenging and rewarding phases of life. Whether you pick this little book up in a time of crisis, or in a moment of rare stillness, allow yourself to be guided through some of the ups and downs in a father's life, and let your mind pause to enjoy and cherish every stage of your child's life.

"A combination of personal narrative and stories gathered from mothers, this guide shows how spiritual and mindful parenting can help all mothers: Buddhists and non Buddhists, be more open, attentive, and content. By guiding mothers on a spiritual path, this evocation also helps them cultivate wisdom, open-heartedness, and a better understanding of themselves and their children. The Buddhist teachings and principles help answer questions that all mothers face, especially those with young children: Who are my children? Who am I? How can I do my best by my children and myself? What to do about all that housework? Written in a clear and engaging style, this warm and simple meditation facilitates parenting with awareness, purpose, and love."--Global Books in Print.

Strengthening your own foundation is one of the very best beginnings you can give your child. In The Mindful Mom-to-Be, doula and pregnancy coach Lori Bregman guides you in your journey toward motherhood by empowering you to find what works best for you and your baby. In addition to concrete, prescriptive health information, including nutritional advice, natural remedies, developmental milestones, and techniques for labor, she offers simple and enjoyable spiritual and emotional exercises to help you prepare for motherhood. As Lori explains, you're not just birthing a baby; you're birthing yourself as a mom, too. With month-by-month advice, comprehensive checklists, and customizable birth plans, this is your indispensible, holistic companion for pregnancy, birth, and beyond.