In this interactive workshop, we will explore ways to bring our mindfulness and meditation practice off the cushion and into the moment-to-moment realities of parenting. We will explore exercises for maintaining clear awareness while engaged in activities as well as methods for working with our minds and emotions in the midst of chaotic, challenging, and rapidly changing conditions. Some questions we will explore: What does it really mean to be present with our children? Why does it matter? Is being mindful a passive or active stance?  How can I care deeply and let go at the same time?  What is most important for me to be aware of as a parent? How can I learn to tolerate the feelings and reactions that arise as I tend to my family with love and deep care? This application of awareness-in-action is about meeting our own direct experience, our life more fully as it is, and responding to things as they are from our unique wisdom.

This session is one of four taught by Teresa LaMendola Kabat-Zinn and Will Kabat-Zinn in the Contemplation By Design Summit. You are welcome to join one or all sessions. The other sessions include a lecture titled Mindful Parenting in a Changing World: Nurturing Connection, Creativity, and Independence in our Children and Ourselves on October 17, a guided practice with Teresa titled Cultivating Connection on October 21, and a guided practice with Will titled Embracing Emotions on October 23.

Teresa LaMendola Kabat-Zinn, MA, LMFT, is a Marriage and Family Therapist currently in private practice in the Bay Area. She has over two decades of professional experience supporting parents, families, children, and adolescents in various settings, including schools, private practice, and specialized therapeutic environments. Teresa co-developed and taught an in-depth mindfulness curriculum for parents of children with special needs as part of a long-term study on stress and cell aging at UCSF. She has developed and facilitated programs for Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Center, presented at the Wisdom 2.O Conference Parenting Intensive, and provides parent training, coaching, and consultation.

Will Kabat-Zinn, MA, has been practicing meditation for over two decades and has spent extended time in silent retreat both in the US and in Burma. He is passionate about helping people put into practice and experience for themselves the liberating power of mindfulness. Will has taught mindfulness and other meditative practices to diverse populations—including incarcerated youth, educators, scientists, law enforcement officers, parents, and business and technology leaders—and spent a year as an executive in residence at the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business.  He conducts regular retreats and practice intensives around the country and in Europe and leads a local meditation community in Berkeley where he lives with his wife and two children.

This sessions is part of the FREE Contemplation by Design Summit, Oct. 15-27, 2025.

The full summit schedule is posted at: https://med.stanford.edu/contemplation/summit.html.

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stanford-contemplation-by-design-summit-2025-online-oct-15-27-registration-1520413249959