The Mindful Child - by Susan Kaiser Greenland (Paperback)

About the Book

Greenland shows parents how to help their children manage stress and become happier, kinder, and more compassionate.

Book Synopsis

Help the children in your life protect themselves with these groundbreaking age-appropriate mindfulness techniques.

Mindful awareness works by enabling you to pay closer attention to what is happening within you--your thoughts, feelings, and emotions--so you can better understand what is happening to you. The Mindful Child extends the vast benefits of mindfulness training to children from four to eighteen years old with age-appropriate exercises, songs, games, and fables that Susan Kaiser Greenland has developed over more than a decade of teaching mindful awareness to kids.

These fun and friendly techniques build kids' inner and outer awareness and attention, which positively affects their academic performance as well as their social and emotional skills, such as making friends, being compassionate and kind to others, and playing sports, while also providing tools to manage stress and to overcome specific challenges like insomnia, overeating, ADHD, hyper-perfectionism, anxiety, and chronic pain.

When children take a few moments before responding to stressful situations, they allow their own healthy inner compasses to click in and guide them to become more thoughtful, resilient, and empathetic. The step-by-step process of mental training presented in The Mindful Child provides tools from which all children--and all families--will benefit.

Review Quotes

"The Mindful Child is a masterful work of art that weaves the wisdom of ancient contemplative practices with the insights of contemporary neuroscience within captivating stories of the author's journey to bring mindfulness to young people and their teachers. Susan Kaiser Greenland has created unique and effective everyday practices that can be used by educators and parents alike to provide enjoyable experiences for children and teens that cultivate resourcefulness, focus, and resilience. Readers will be captivated by the inspiring examples from real life experiences that stimulate the imagination and inspire us to awaken our lives to the power of mindfulness as a health-promoting, stress-reducing, and compassion-generating way of being. What more are we waiting for?"

--Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., Co-Director, UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center, Executive Director, Mindsight Institute, and author of Mindsight and The Mindful Brain

"A superb and imaginative distillation of the essence of mindfulness made available to children, parents, and teachers in age-appropriate, wise, and playful ways. Sets a high bar for further work in the rapidly growing field of mindfulness in K-12 education."
--Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine emeritus, UMass Medical School and author of Letting Everything Become Your Teacher andWherever You Go, There You Are

"Greenland excels in teaching these concepts [of mindful awareness] to children of all ages, providing activities and metaphors that both nicely illustrate the goals and make them accessible and fun. It is easy to see this being used for children with attention problems or those suffering illness." --Library Journal

"One of the best books on mindfulness for kids that I have read. Practical and accessible. You can feel Susan's years of experience and dedication."
--Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart and The Wise Heart

"Parents often ask me for advice about being mindful with their children. From here on out, I will refer them to this tremendously helpful book, filled with clear insights about children and how to teach them gently and skillfully. A truly inspiring book." --Sharon Salzburg

"Susan Kaiser Greenland is the real thing. She is not just teaching young children how to focus their attention more effectively, the secret to how to control their own brains; she is teaching children how to become wise, way before most kids generally understand the value of wisdom. This is a most important book; any parent who cares about raising good, morally responsible children must read it."

--Jeffrey Schwartz, author The Mind and the Brain (with Sharon Begley)

"There are all sorts of great books about helping children by improving parenting skills and communications--things outside the child's skin. The Mindful Child is a different kind of book! Readers will envision themselves being more effective with children rather than working with them. Susan Kaiser Greenland emphasizes directly changing the inside rather than encouraging the inside change from all that seeps in from the outside. This unique author delves into the heart of developing character, and coping skills that enable children to resolutely and effectively handle difficult situations through a more relaxed self- awareness."

--Foster Cline, author of Parenting with Love and Logic

"This useful manual will help parents and their children practice mindfulness together, whether they're seated at the dinner table or on meditation cushions." --Yoga Journal

"What a wonderful and timely antidote to the hyperactive culture that makes kids super-wired but too disconnected from themselves and others. Every parent should read The Mindful Child for practical strategies to teach boys and girls how to manage stress and pay attention to what really matters."

--David Walsh, Ph.D., author of Why Do They Act That Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen and No. Why Kids-of All Ages-Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It

About the Author

Susan Kaiser Greenland left behind her successful law practice to found InnerKids, a program affiliated with the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. Online, Kaiser Greenland is one of the early Huffington Post bloggers and an original "Intent Voice" on Chopra Media's Intent.com. She lectures regularly at universities, medical schools, and other prestigious institutions worldwide and lives in Los Angeles.