106: Making Meditation Accessible for Ourselves & Our Kids with Keli Carpenter

For the past couple of episodes, we have been focusing a lot on mental health and how to overcome the many hurdles we are facing in our lives. And you've likely heard A LOT that meditation can be a powerful tool for mental health and wellbeing, right? Well if you're anything like me, when I first started dabbling in meditation it seemed like a tool that is "ideal" but not really "doable". And as a recovering perfectionist, if I can't do it "right" then I may as well not do it at all. Sound familiar, or is that just me?? I had to learn how to make meditation and mindfulness work FOR ME instead of it being yet another thing I was failing at. Here are some things that helped me get started: - Giving myself permission to keep it short and sweet. Even 30 seconds was "enough" - Inviting mindfulness into everyday moments, like washing the dishes or observing my kids play - Offering loving kindness to myself and others during natural "downtime" like waiting in line or at a red light. - Seeing it as an opportunity to model imperfect action to my kids These practices have been instrumental in helping me be a more present, aware, and attuned mom AND have directly enabled me to be able to get the coveted "PAUSE" so I can respond rather than react when I'm triggered or overwhelmed. If you're wanting to learn more about how mindfulness and meditation can help you as a parent, and maybe even your child when they are overwhelmed, you'll definitely want to check out this week's episode!   To help me in this conversation, I am joined by Keli Carpenter. She is a Chopra Center certified Transcendent Meditation (PSM®) instructor, Forgiveness Coach and Breathwork Practitioner, and a mother herself! Her commitment to maintaining her practice has allowed her to raise three beautiful children with mindfulness, overcome limiting self-concepts, and experience unity consciousness.