When I had my son James, I tried to be mindful for the first time in my life.

I had practised yoga and meditation and read books on Buddhism and spiritual enlightenment before. I even did a 10-day juice detox during which I hallucinated colours while in a particularly intense reiki session. But I dont think much of it sank in. Id go through these phases of being present while half-starving on brown rice and spirulina tea and then return to eating canap dinners and moaning about my charming commitment-phobe boyfriend of the moment.

But as I found out fast after my son came shrieking into the world, there is really no way of caring for a newborn other than to surrender to the experience. As the old gospel song says, you gotta walk that lonesome valley for yourself aint nobody else gonna walk it for you.

Being alone all day with a baby, I quickly realized, is much easier if you can quiet your mind and go to the baby place in your brain. This is a state where you can spend several minutes, and eventually hours, simply laying on the floor and empathizing with your infant by feeling the sun on your face and occasionally thinking, Oooh, look how my fingers move. I think I might do a poo now.

Of course, many books will have you believe that to effectively care for a newborn you must spend your days sterilizing, pumping and swaddling according to a strict, incremented schedule, but I didnt do any of that. I just sort sloped around braless for a few months, silently communing with Jamess oceanic ego and changing an endless stream of diapers.

Eventually I went back to work and before I knew it Id turned into that mother the one in the supermarket lineup scrolling through work e-mails, snapping at the five-year-old to put down the candy NOW and nearly driving off leaving the baby in the cart.

So I started reading up on the practice of mindful parenting, which incorporates the techniques of mindfulness into family life. There was no shortage of material to choose from: In the past few months alone, several new books have come out on the subject. I started reading the daily tips on The Mindful Parent website and even signed James up for toddler yoga and meditation classes at my local wellness centre.

Much of the advice effective breathing techniques, strategies to still the racing mind, tips for existing in the moment rather than ruminating about the past or fretting about the future is stuff Ive read before. Cultivating stillness is difficult, but its also simple.

After all this theory, it was time for practice. I decided to start with one of the most basic exercises on The Mindful Parent blog. The idea is to gather your family together and suggest a minute of silence, and in this way, insert a pause at a time when everyone is otherwise caught up and engaged in the doing of things. How sweet, I thought, imagining my stepson Freddie and James clasping hands around the kitchen table and doing cleansing breaths.

I decided Saturday breakfast was my best window of opportunity. First, I made sure my English husband had gone out to buy the paper because, although he is very good at being silent and calm, he has an admittedly low tolerance for what he calls North American hippy bollocks. Once Freddie and James were finished munching their muesli, I announced in my best Mary Poppins voice that we were going to play a game called being silent for one minute. The boys stared at me in confusion, but I persisted. Doesnt that sound fun? So on the count of three we all say nothing and keep very still for one minute. Okay, one, two

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What happened when I tried to be a mindful parent