Quieting A Child's Mind, Instructions from Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman, PH.D

When a child acts out, it is easy to identify a tantrum.  Teaching a child to work with their anger constructively and better manage our desctructive emotions is difficult especially when we don't know how to quiet our own minds. We teach them to control their anger and wait before they act. But, how does increasing the time gap between an implulse and the act help? Why should we react differently to the person who rupsets us than to the upsetting act-- and what would help us do this?  How can we widen the circle of people for whom we feel geniuine compassion?"  These are all questions answered in the boook A conversation Between the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman, PH.D., Emotional Awareness overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion.
This book will help you reveal the importance of understanding the nature of our emotions and their universality. Meditation focusing on the breath benefits emotion.     Reading the book gives one insight into the inner workings of quieting the mind.  We want our children to be compassionate beings.  This book will help us get to that place where we can guide our children to compassion.
 How people view the world is a starting point.  The core question of how to cultivate compassion arises in this book so that we can focus on teaching our children these principles.  The principles of extending compassion to all human beings will make the world a better place.  This book had a sense of flow and timely application through therir back and forth exchange and is written will.
 

How can we train our minds to observe?  How can we get Cranky Crandle to breath and watch his anger when he gets hit by a mushy pea through Doug's pea shooter?  No one denies that he had a right to be angry.  So now he can explore the trouble that is faced by his emotional mind.  How can Crandle tackle his wicked mischievous  idea to cut off the hair of Eileen McNair?  When he watches T.V he gets the picture that the path to a happy life is immediate gratification.    He had the idea that if his outside world is peaceful he would be at peace.  When his world was disrupted he took his anger out on the world.    Crandle wanted to change his outside world and thought that if he did that everything would be o.k.  But maybe, just maybe we need to change our inside world.

Maybe if Crandle had a way to calm down before he acted on his emotion he would have been able to be master of his emotions. So the next time your child tries to through a tantrum consider a Calm Jar. Explain  that they need a break and may come back when everything has settled to the bottom. Mix 1 jar or bottle with a lid 1 tbsp of clear glue (or glitter glue) to each 1 cup of (hot) water to fill the jar Add in glitter (I added about 1 inch of glitter) food colouring (optional). Add a little glycerine, and dish soap for viscosity.  Try one for your child our your inner child.  You and your family may be on the way to a more quiet mind.