Taos News

Welcoming a mindful year

How to bring meditation into your family’s routine

Anne-Marie Emanuelli FAMILIES MEDITATE TOGETHER

It’s a new year according to the construct of our human-made 12-month calendar. However, it is

not just a new wall or desk calendar.

“A new year starts when Earth has made one orbit around the Sun. This takes roughly 365 days, so every new year on the last day of December, we are at the same

location around the Sun as last year,” according to Astronomicca. com.

As we get ready to start a new year, many people will resolve to

make changes in their lives. Most New Year’s resolutions start with

honest determination and end within a few weeks or months with

lassitude. In this month’s column, I’d like to explain how to bring

mindfulness and meditation into your family’s daily routine and make it stick. It isn’t difficult, and

like any change, it takes willingness, vulnerability and practice.

Meditation is called a “practice” for good reason: It takes repetition, just like an exercise routine, to make it part of our schedule. So how can a family bring mindfulness meditation into an already-busy schedule? It’s as simple as one breath, one present moment at a time, and practice. The reasons for bringing mindfulness meditation (also called vipassana meditation) into your family’s life are well-researched and proven. Families learn how present moment mindfulness awareness can bring relaxation and socialemotional well-being into their home. Children learn that they aren’t judged by their thoughts, sensations and feelings.

Mindfulness is a way to feel good about yourself, just as we are in this moment, and it settles the nervous system in the process.

Parents model what it looks like to be confident yet relaxed; to be

happy and at ease, while accepting that life is never perfect.

Families build strong bonds through a shared activity; the time

spent together is an investment in compassionate relationshipbuilding.

Anne-Marie Emanuelli is the

founder and Creative Director of Mindful Frontiers LLC, an

education-based mindfulness meditation center in Northern New Mexico offering classes, workshops, and coaching to

children, parents, families, and individuals of all ages and meditation experience. Recipes for Wellness is a 6-lesson

classroom program incorporating mindfulness, movement, and

creativity. Emanuelli’s meditation credentials are from Mindful Schools and Sage Institute for Creativity and Consciousness as well as an 8-week MBSR course. She is a retired NM level 3 licensed classroom teacher and has been teaching mindfulness to students since 2016. For more information, visit mindfulfrontiers.net,

mindfulfrontiers.contactin. bio, Linktr.ee/MindfulFrontiers and its Youtube Channel at bit.

ly/3HU37mu.

HEALTH

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2022-01-13T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-13T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://taosnews.pressreader.com/article/281788517419425

Santa Fe New Mexican