Being there for your kids - Be Mindful. Get More Out of LIfe

Episode Date: August 15, 2026

Mindfulness is one of those funky words that only shrinks use. However, most of us know how to be present, to focus on your now. In Mentalligent Psychotherapy (MPT) this helps you set aside issues and redirecting your energy on what works to soar. Be mindful and embrace possibilities for soaring. Check out my new book, The Healing Journey: Overcoming Adversity on the Path to the Good Life. Buy your copy at amazonbooks.com. Click on this link: https://a.co/d/0dxH5xOL. Blessings, Dr. Jon

Hi, I'm Dr. John Robinson, and this is Teachable Moments. Let me ask you a question. Are you mindful? You know, living in the present? Mindfulness, such an official yet funny word. Only a shrink would use mindfulness in a sentence. However, make it a question or an adverb. Are you mindful? Suddenly you have a meaningful expression that captures the process of living in the present. So, why be present in your life? The present is where you live physically. It's also where you can be emotionally. What a powerful means of leaving your stuckness behind and soaring.

Why did that happen to me in my childhood? Doesn't matter. When will he stop picking fights with me? Don't bother. What's going to happen to me? One step at a time. Are you mindful? If you are, then you know how to live in the present moment.

Okay, Brett, I began after my next patient has settled into my office. He was 27, a married steel worker with a three-year-old. son. Today, I'd like to introduce you to mindfulness. Okay, yeah, what's that? He crossed his legs and folded his arms across his chest. Well, then, I thought, this is going to be challenging. It's about trying to be right here, right now, all of you. I ain't going nowhere, Doc. This stuff is court-ordered after I hit my wife, but you know that. And that's why I want to equip you with the tools to avoid further difficulties. Okay? Yeah, whatever. I explained the next to you. I explained the nature of mindfulness as a means of clearing debris from your mind and only focusing on the now.

What's the now? Okay. So, work with me here. Close your eyes. Sit back in your chair. Uncross your arms and legs. Begin taking deeper breaths. Brett complied. Now, let's go through your senses. What do you see? Here. Touch. Smell. Experience. Right now. Brett answered each sensory focus in turn. that, Brett, is your now. How do you feel? Well, I guess focused and present, I added. It's not only about your sensory focus. That just clears your mind. When you live in the now, you are energized to focus on what matters and on how to soar. What has stuck you all of these years can fade into a distant memory. It's not in your present. You are also more likely to find alternative positive references for all your bad stuff, what we call cognitive reframing. There you go again, Doc, psychobabble, but I understand.

I got to think differently. If I'm going to survive, I guess I'll give this living in the present thing a try. It can't hurt, right? There you go. Brett continued under my clinical care on a biweekly basis with occasional couples therapies as well. With mental and psychotherapy, that is MPT, he used mindfulness, positive psychology, and cognitive behavioral therapy resources to leave his stuckness behind and to begin to soar.

Follow his story in my new book, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path of the Good Life. Buy your copy at Amazonbooks.coms. If my comments, start questions of your own, contact me through my website at www.org for my kids.com

or email me at John Robinson 0.0.0.bilsouth.net. I'm Dr. Jonathan C. Robinson licensed clinical psychologist and author of Teachable Moments Building Blocks of Christian Parenting and my new book, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path of the Good Life. Blessings, Dr. John. Teachable Moments, Building Blocks of Christian Parenting is available online at Amazonbooks.com and in local and national bookstores. More on Dr. Robinson at TMC-P-I-N-C.com.