This workshop is in honor of Father’s Day, but open to all parents — and really, open to all, as we are ultimately exploring mindfulness in relationships. The session will begin with basic view and instruction in mindfulness meditation practice. We will then workshop how mindfulness can support us in parenting and everyday life.

Mindfulness practice helps cultivate a gentler and more compassionate relationship with our own minds. We learn to notice what arises with friendliness and curiosity. Through the simple practice of sitting, breathing, noticing, and returning, mindfulness can help create space between reaction and response, deepen compassion for ourselves and others, and invite more playfulness and acceptance into our lives and relationships.

Relationships are not a destination or finished state — they are the very grounds for practice and transformation. They often bring forward our deepest conditioning, emotional habits, and vulnerabilities. Mindfulness invites us to notice when thoughts, narratives, and emotions begin to hijack the moment, and to meet ourselves with honesty, compassion, and curiosity rather than blame or reactivity.

In more contemporary terms, we learn to “parent” ourselves in difficult moments — taking responsibility for our inner landscape instead of making another person or situation the source of our disturbance. This creates the conditions for genuine curiosity, intimacy, and connection. By learning to parent, or reparent, ourselves, we can bring these qualities more fully into our parenting and other relationships.

Seth is certified through the Tibet House US Mindfulness Teacher Training Program with David Nichtern. He will share both formal meditation instruction and personal reflections on bringing mindfulness practice into the beautiful messiness of family life.