Here's a very good interview of Susan (a life-after-law story about whom I have blogged before). She talks about how she teaches children to be mindful, including details of some of the exercises she uses in her programs with kids.
From Mindfulness with Children: An Interview with Susan Kaiser Greenland (PsychCentral):
Today I have the honor of interviewing Susan Kaiser Greenland who had the courage to leave a well-paying law career to embrace a calling to teach mindfulness meditation to children as young as four years old. She is author of the upcoming book The Mindful Child (Free Press, May 2010) and developed the website Mindfulnesstogether.com and the Inner Kids program, to teach young kids vital skills toward a more peaceful and compassionate world.
Elisha [Goldstein]: Susan, what an amazing path you’ve chosen. When I teach mindfulness to adults, I often hear, how come we didn’t get this education when we were little, the world would be a much better place. What inspired you to leave the golden handcuffs and venture into this sorely needed area?
Susan: Thanks Elisha, I’m not so sure I choose the path often it feels more as if it chose me. I practiced meditation myself and saw how it helped me, so it was only natural to wonder if it could help my children too. But the inspiration to begin looking in earnest for ways to practice with my children (who were quite young at the time) came when I was on a week-long meditation retreat with Ken Mcleod. I had studied with Ken for a few years before this retreat and was friends with many of his students.
Looking around the meditation hall one evening I noticed that many of us were parents and was struck by the fact that none of us were talking about brining mindfulness to our kids. Something happened during that retreat and I felt a shift – a desire to integrate mindfulness into my family life in a more direct way. It’s not uncommon for me to leave a retreat thinking that I’ve had some major insight – so after having one of these a-ha moments after meditation I wait a week or so before acting on it. If after a week I still feel that way I try to do something about it. A week after I got home from Ken’s retreat that year – now over a decade ago – I knew this practicing mindfulness with kids was something I wanted to do (maybe needed to do) although I had no idea that it would eventually lead me away from my law practice – which I also enjoyed.
Elisha: Can you give us a brief synopsis of some of the vital skills you teach these children?
Elisha [Goldstein]: Susan, what an amazing path you’ve chosen. When I teach mindfulness to adults, I often hear, how come we didn’t get this education when we were little, the world would be a much better place. What inspired you to leave the golden handcuffs and venture into this sorely needed area?
Susan: Thanks Elisha, I’m not so sure I choose the path often it feels more as if it chose me. I practiced meditation myself and saw how it helped me, so it was only natural to wonder if it could help my children too. But the inspiration to begin looking in earnest for ways to practice with my children (who were quite young at the time) came when I was on a week-long meditation retreat with Ken Mcleod. I had studied with Ken for a few years before this retreat and was friends with many of his students.
Looking around the meditation hall one evening I noticed that many of us were parents and was struck by the fact that none of us were talking about brining mindfulness to our kids. Something happened during that retreat and I felt a shift – a desire to integrate mindfulness into my family life in a more direct way. It’s not uncommon for me to leave a retreat thinking that I’ve had some major insight – so after having one of these a-ha moments after meditation I wait a week or so before acting on it. If after a week I still feel that way I try to do something about it. A week after I got home from Ken’s retreat that year – now over a decade ago – I knew this practicing mindfulness with kids was something I wanted to do (maybe needed to do) although I had no idea that it would eventually lead me away from my law practice – which I also enjoyed.
Elisha: Can you give us a brief synopsis of some of the vital skills you teach these children?
Click to read the rest.
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