Mothers really are superheroes.
Moms keep the household together, always making sure that the kids brush their teeth, have the right school supplies, and get to each and every appointment on time. But there’s an entire other realm of parenthood that might seem a little trickier - building our kids up to be confident, self-assured people! So where do you even start?
When you’re a parent, you’re the whole world.
Children look up to their parents in so many ways. They run to you when they scrape their knees, cry to you when they didn’t get the part in the school play they wanted, and ask you for help when experiencing conflict for the first time. They depend on you to shape their experiences of the world and then, how they think about themselves. Most importantly, they want to feel connected to you.
So where do we start?
Praise them for their efforts, not just their successes.
We all know that life doesn’t always go exactly as we planned. So maybe we’re never fully prepared for the sting of not getting that promotion - but we can teach our kids how to handle the little shortfalls in their lives the right way.
Kids give us so many reasons to be proud of them: An A on their first ever spelling test, a successful batch of secret cookies made just for mothers day. But what about when they don’t quite succeed? That’s where praising their efforts comes in. Build them up to feel proud of the work they put in, not just the end result!
Teaching children that there is value in the three days they spent studying for that math test, regardless of whether they got a perfect score, lets them feel good about their efforts and encourages them to try again, and that’s the making of a confident kid.
Say “good job” when they’re just studying, or encourage them to take a fun break as a reward! This can be applied to anything - take learning instruments, for example. Learning violin takes years of hard work, and more hard work after that. It’s easy to see why kids get discouraged!
Every day that they get up and try again is a day well spent. Let them know how proud of them you are!
The mindfulness you practice every day isn’t just for you - kids can be mindful, too!
Practicing mindfulness can be difficult. We may think that our kids won’t have the patience for taking deep breaths, meditating, or just finding the joys in simple moments. But remember, you had to start somewhere, too!
Kids pick up on our energy, and they love to feel grown-up, so try encouraging them to join you when you’re practicing your mindfulness techniques. Start simple - just invite them to take just ten deep breaths with you a few times a day. Include them in your morning yoga and let them fall, get tired, and try again!
How else can I include my kid?
We know that mindfulness techniques and tools go hand-in-hand. Our powerful, ethical jewelry collection encourages mindful adults to remember the energy in the gemstones they surround themselves with. Wearing stones with different energies and intentions can start your day off on the right track - and it can start your kids off on the right track, too. Let them choose your jewelry to wear each day, thinking carefully about the energy they’d like to cultivate. Or take it a step further and gift them some matching jewelry of their own!
Not all kids take to mindfulness like a duck to water - so let them take to it like a kid!
Remember praising your kids for the effort they put in, not for the end result? That comes into play here, too.
Mindfulness isn’t easy for adults, so we shouldn’t expect it to be easy for our kids, either. When you include them in your daily activities, try gentle encouragement and make it exciting! Deep breathing with your kids might include a little more laughter than it does when you’re on your own, but that just makes the experience more special (and you can always take time for yourself for real reflection, too).
Deep breathing not working?
Try blowing bubbles as slowwww as you can together! This gives kids a challenge, and they won’t even realize what they’re really practicing. When this activity inevitably devolves into just blowing bubbles, that’s okay too.
Ask them how they’re feeling!
It may sound so simple - but just asking your kids if they feel “stormy” or “sunny” can help them learn to identify their own emotions. This paves the way for deeper self-reflection later on.
You can use colors for this, too - give them a few choices and let them pick the markers that represent how they feel. In the end, you have an abstract piece of art!
Choosing purposefully-intentioned jewelry can help them identify their feelings, too - what do they need? What are they missing? How do they want to feel? There’s a gemstone for every intention and energy, so let them go wild with the possibilities!
Daria Day’s jewelry collection doesn’t just help you and your children - it helps our talented artisans to live their lives with intention and mindfulness, too. Introduce them to the topics of fighting poverty and making conscious, ethical choices from an early age! The awareness that each person - including each child - has is part of a larger, global community that will follow them throughout their lives, reminding them to stay empathetic, conscious and - you guessed it - mindful.
We believe that mindfulness is the key to a good life
When your children start their lives off with a sense of mindfulness and inner peace, they’ll be able to access those skills and coping mechanisms when faced with difficulty, even when they’re practicing independence at school or with friends.
Teaching your children to trust themselves, know themselves, and love themselves helps them accomplish this future goal.
Mindfulness is the focus and intent of our curated jewelry collection, and helping empower our women artisans to achieve good lives for themselves and their children is our passion.
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