Our deepest wish as parents is for our children to be happy. We feel intensely our children’s pain and suffering and would literally do anything to help them. But often we find ourselves at a loss - we don’t know what is troubling them, or how to help, though we keep trying to talk it through, figure it out, fix it up!

Really listening and attending to our children can often be enough to ease their suffering. However, sometimes they do not know what is distressing them, or they may feel powerless to change an old habit such as worry and anxiety, an explosive temper, or fragile self-esteem. Some children also feel that they are in some way ‘bad’, they feel unloved and unlovable.*

Some children are very curious when they see their parents meditating and are eager to have a go, they happily join their parents in meditation - sitting on their lap, or pulling up a cushion beside them. Other children are reluctant to do anything that involves sitting still and being silent, even for a moment - they can’t see how that could possibly be interesting or enjoyable. And then there are some children (such as my own!) who love questioning almost everything their parents do.