Mindfulness at Play: Parenting Healthy, Happy Children with Old Wisdom and New Science

McKenzie (psychology, Univ. of Melbourne; coauthor, Mindfulness for Life) and psychologist North have written a book that will help parents and children amplify their emotional intelligence, a.k.a. emotional quotient, learn to regulate emotions, and accept them without shame. This book is dedicated to understanding mindfulness, a skill the authors say can aid with sleep, pain management, stress reduction, and a myriad of other issues. Benefits include optimism, more positive automatic thoughts, and increased confidence. The book recommends approaches such as play therapy, child-parent relational therapy, and scripts for role-playing. Special attention is given to the teen years, with a section on ways to become more independent. This title also addresses social media issues, the importance of feeling accepted by family, sex and consent, and drugs and alcohol. Readers are also given additional resources, a toy list for play sessions, examples of mindfulness games (one for each letter of the alphabet), and a guide to utilizing books and stories to teach mindfulness tools.