Susan Kaiser Greenland - The Mindful Child: How to Help Your Kid Manage Stress and Become Happier, Kinder, and More Compassionate

Praise for The Mindful Child

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.

Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., codirector,
UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center,
executive director, Mindsight Institute,
and author of Mindsight and The Mindful Brain

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 of The Mind and the Brain (with Sharon Begley)

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 Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness:
The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

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 Kidsof All AgesNeed to Hear
It and Ways Parents Can Say It

There are all sorts of great books about helping children by improving parenting skills and communicationsthings outside the childs 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

In her delightful book, Susan offers parents an alternative to materialist culture by cultivating attention, emotional balance, and compassion. Filled with engaging stories and playful activities, her dedication to making classical themes accessible to all children is evident throughout.

B. Alan Wallace, president, Santa Barbara Institute
for Consciousness Studies, and author of
Mind in Balance and The Attention Revolution

In this lovely book, Susan Kaiser Greenland gives parents practical ways to keep alive curiosity, compassion, and the timeless nature of childhood when raising children in the high-tech, frantic pace of life in the twenty-first century.

Susan L. Smalley, Ph.D., professor, Department of Psychiatry, UCLA, founder and director, Mindful Awareness Research Center, Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior

Mindfulness is not a luxury, it is at the heart of our lives. Susan Kaiser Greenland brilliantly demonstrates how mindfulness can give a child a major tool to flourish throughout his life.

Matthieu Ricard, author of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Lifes Most Important Skill

How to Help Your Kid
Manage Stress and
Become Happier, Kinder,
and More Compassionate

Susan Kaiser Greenland

Free Press
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2010 by Susan Kaiser Greenland

Note to Readers

The children portrayed in this book are composites. No real names or identifying details are used.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions
thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Free Press
Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10020.

First Free Press trade paperback edition May 2010

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Designed by Mspace/Maura Fadden Rosenthal

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Greenland, Susan Kaiser.

The mindful child : how to help your kid manage stress and become
happier, kinder, and more compassionate / Susan Kaiser Greenland.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Stress management for children. 2. Child rearing. 3. Parenting.

I. Title.

BF723.S75G74 2010

649'.6dc22 2009041450

ISBN 978-1-4165-8300-4
ISBN 978-1-4165-8356-1 (ebook)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Seth
For Seeing Me

Introduction
The New ABCs:
Attention, Balance, and Compassion

Chapter 1
An Opportunity:
Using the Science of Mindful Awareness

Chapter 2
Getting Started:
Understand and Fuel Your Motivation

Chapter 3
As Simple as Breathing:
Get Started with Relaxation and Calming

Chapter 4