Raelynn Maloney, Ph.D. has recently published Waking Up: A Parent's Guide to Mindful Awareness and Connection, a very helpful guide to bringing mindfulness into your relationship with your child. Below is a brief excerpt from this new book.

Integrating self, relationship, and moment awareness into your parenting doesn’t occur instantly. This is going to require practice, practice, and a little more practice. The beauty is that once you integrate these into your daily interactions, they are always part of you. You will carry awareness with you each time you engage with your child. Awareness will become a consistent part of your parenting rather than just a tool you use once in a while. Awareness becomes something you are, rather than something you do.

My hope is that someday the Mindful Way practices you will learn in this book will become more than words or ideas. I want you to actually experience self, relationship, and moment awareness in every parenting moment. You will know you are experiencing these when you begin to see them manifest in your life in very concrete, sensory ways. As you deepen your awareness and these become a natural part of your parent-child interactions, you may actually find yourself:

• Hearing awareness come out in the stories you tell.

• Seeing awareness in photos of you embracing your child.

• Tasting awareness as you enjoy a treat with your child during a spontaneous stop after school.

• Smelling awareness in the bouquet of flowers your child picks for you.

• Touching awareness during a lingering hug between you and your child.

~from Waking Up: A Parent's Guide to Mindful Awareness and Connection