Mindful Parenting and How We Use The Headspace App

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Headspace and Momtrends. As always, all opinions are my own. I honestly use this app with my family. All photos in post courtesy of Momtrends.

About a month ago, the Momtrends team sent me an invitation to lunch to learn more about Headspace, meditating and mindful parenting. To be 100% honest, I had about a thousand things on the calendar that week already and really didn’t think there was a way I could get into the city for lunch. Then I thought, maybe if the idea of a nice lunch alone was completely overwhelming, maybe a little meditating and mindful parenting was what I NEEDED to make happen. I am so happy I did. The first thing I did after replying “yes” was to download the Headspace app to see what it was all about. I am not a big app user and had never meditated, so the fact that I have stuck with this and started using it more and more really says something! I am not the only one in my family using it… I’ve got my husband hooked and my kids. I’m going to share why we personally love Headspace, more on the founder, his tips for mindful parenting AND a huge coupon code for Headspace (scroll to the bottom for the code!). If you have any questions, please reach out! If I had to delete every app off my phone and keep one: I can honestly say it would be Headspace. Here’s why:

What is Headspace?

The company was founded by Andy, previously a Buddhist monk and Rich, a man who sought Andy’s meditating advice to deal with the stresses of his advertising job. Headspace was originally launched as an events company but people were always asking Andy how to take the meditating techniques home with them, so the company became the Headspace you see today: guided meditations, animations, articles and videos, all in the distinct Headspace style. Headspace has one mission: to improve the health and happiness of the world. I HIGHLY recommend reading more about company background and the tons of research behind it on their site: https://www.headspace.com/science

A LOT of research goes into Headspace.

Why do I now use meditating?

I started with the 3 minutes a day mediation. If I have more time, I do more than one, if I miss it, I just join in with my kids at bedtime (see below). I now have my husband hooked too. After reading more about Headspace and meditating, I learned that there are research backed, proven benefits. Research has shown Headspace to positively impact: stress, focus, mood, compassion, aggression, self comparison, work, anxiety and depression. I make a lot of excuses to skip things that are for “me” and focus so much (or all) of my time for my family. But there is no way I can say no to spending 3 minutes a day when there are so many benefits.

How do I use Headspace with my kids?

I was sold on Headspace when I started using it for myself but after starting to use it with my kids…. I was 100% hooked. Right now we use it at night. I find it’s a good time to add it into our daily life but would like to use it more. Here’s an example of how it’s helping. Bedtime had taken a serious turn for the worse in our house lately with the big kids. We can be all settled down, books read, ready for bed and they seem to go nuts (especially 1 of them). So it turned into me yelling at them every single night. There was lots of yelling back and forth, wild kids, much later bedtimes followed by kids not wanting to wake up for school in the AM. Now… once they start getting nutty, they lay down in their beds and I turn on Headspace. I stay there with them most of the time, because honestly it relaxes me too. We do the bedtime meditation and usually one more. They really like it. Sometimes someone even falls asleep before it’s over. If for some reason they don’t calm down/ look almost asleep, we do one more. I can tell you that as a parent I feel a whole lot better turning on “one more mediation” before bed vs yelling at my kids. We will be traveling for a month this summer and I am honestly really happy I can bring Headspace along with me.

My favorite part of the day was learning about how (in a study done) Headspace users showed more compassion in situations.

What did I learn by meeting the co-founder of Headspace?

Well first off, I met the man behind the voice of Headspace! I love listening to my meditations and have thought before “I wonder what Andy looks like” ha. Well now I’ve met Andy and he’s a wonderful person. He’s also a dad. It was really interesting to listen to him talk about parenting and life with toddlers. He’s a very relatable person and now I find the mediations to be even MORE meaningful – they’re coming straight from a person living life with young children too.

I also learned his story about mediation. After a really traumatic experience in college with some friends passing away, he sought mediation. It lead him to a Buddhist monostary where became a monk for 10 years. Read more about his story – it’s interesting and enlightening.

What did Andy share about Mindful Parenting?

Andy talked about how there are simple things you can do this summer to be more of a mindful parent, spending more time “in the moment”. I usually think I do a pretty poor job of this and let way too many things run around in my head while parenting. I am always looking for ways to sit back and take it all in. I really liked that Andy gave specific ways to work on this:

1. Daily Meditation: use Headspace for this! It’s so easy. For example, listen to the “Kindness mediation” in the kids section. We love that one.

2. Device Free Dinner: this has to be for the whole family, even the parents. Talk more at meals!

3. Mindful Eating: Talk about where food comes from, eat slower, enjoy meals

4. Write it down: Andy suggested keeping a journal for the summer where you write down one thing a day that you “admire about your child’s character”. At the end of the summer give the child the journal.

5. Breathe: This is for the entire family. When you feel pressure building or like someone is close to losing it…. Take time to breathe – 30 seconds or 10 deep breathes. It can make a big difference.

Headspace Coupon Code:

Our readers get 40% off a 1 year subscription to Headspace. The offer expires July 4, 2018! To apply the coupon, use this link:

https://www.headspace.com/buy/checkout/summary?voucherCode=THECHIRPINGMOMS

Instructions to upload the code:

Register with the link above. Then once you log into the app on your phone, it will automatically connect to the subscription you just activated.

Why the code is useful:

It’s free to download but only the basic pack session is free. A subscription gives you access to the full Headspace Library, which has hundreds of meditations, mindfulness exercises and animations to help you build the practice.

Over 30 packs of themed meditations on specific topics like stress and sleep
Dozens of one-off exercises designed to add more mindfulness to your day
Super-short mini meditations you can do anytime. Great for busy schedules
Sleep Sounds that help ease the mind into a truly restful night’s sleep
Animations that guide you through essential meditation techniques and bring to life traditional stories like the Very Impatient Yogi
Continued guidance from former monk, and Headspace co-founder, Andy Puddicombe