Meditation For Parents

Stress Reduction

• Parenting comes with its fair share of challenges, and as a result, many parents experience stress. Professionals at Help Guide, a nonprofit, online mental health resource, note that while low levels of stress are useful for working under pressure, chronic stress can lead to physical symptoms, such as chest pains, and emotional problems, such as depression. Meditation helps to alleviate stress by calming the mind, quieting thoughts and encouraging deep relaxation, according to MayoClinic.com.

Mental and Emotional Health

• In addition to stress reduction, meditation helps parents improve their overall mental and emotional health. According to Mayo Clinic health professionals, meditation assists in decreasing negative emotions and helps increase self-awareness, which is necessary to identify and manage emotions. Compassion meditation, a meditative practice that encourages participants to generate feelings of loving-kindness for themselves and others, encourages practitioners to experience increased happiness, and activates neural systems in the brain that encourage parental nurturance, which makes parents more caring, according to research compiled by University of California, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center.

Mindfulness and Being Present

• Mindfulness is "a moment-to-moment awareness of one's experience without judgment," according to the website for the American Psychological Association. Mindfulness enables people to remain in the moment, and resist the urge to worry about the future or the past. Remaining mindful is vital for parents, as "to-do" lists and concerns about meeting deadlines and bill due dates encourage stress and tension to build and minimize feelings of happiness in the present. Mediation that focuses on mindfulness can also help parents find more enjoyment in the valuable moments spent with their families.

Better Romantic and Sex Life

• Mindfulness meditation is also said to increase both relationship satisfaction and sexual experiences. Research compiled by the APA suggests that mindfulness enables partners to better respond to relationship stress and communicate emotions, which predicts relationship satisfaction. According to a 2011 article at My Health News, researchers have found mindfulness helps women minimize internal chatter that might emerge during sex, which can prevent them from fully engaging in the sexual experience.