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Mindful Parenting

By Jenty Siswanto

Jenty Siswanto is an advocate of promoting mindfulness in daily life.
She struggled with emotional ups and downs as a college student,
and during her career, while moving up the corporate ladder. With
the benefit of meditation training and a positive mindset, she not only
survived the ordeal of riding on her emotional rollercoaster but she
also gained lasting happiness and confidence along the way.

Jenty has a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and Marketing from
Curtin University of Technology, Australia; and a Diploma in Food and
Beverage Management from Bandung Tourism Institute (NHI). She
lived in Kuala Lumpur from 2000 to 2003 and was a Sunday School
teacher at the Buddhist Institution Sunday Dharma School. Jenty has
also spoken at a TED session which can be accessed as follows: https://
youtu.be/zb9UGngfvI8

Tedx Talk: Happy Parents will Change the
world Benny Liow asked Jenty to share with Eastern Horizon her thoughts
on how she applied mindfulness practice as a parent and as a Dharma
social worker and teacher in Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim
country.

Where did you learn mindfulness? arrived at Plum Village in France. sulking but by the end of the first
How long have you been practicing We stayed at Lower Hamlet during day, he had made friends and settled
and promoting it as a parent? the off-season retreat. It was spring, in, playing badminton and football

beautiful, serene and peaceful. with them. We were there for a
It started when I began reading Zen During our short stay, we learnt week, and the experience changed
Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s books and that meditation wasn’t just about my relationship with my son.
participated in discussion groups sitting and walking, but a practice After the retreat, I found it easier
which focused on his writings. From which could be integrated into our to communicate with him and I
there, I gradually developed a better daily lives. The visit made a deep became more than just a mother
understanding of the Dharma, and of impression, and I promised myself to him; I was also his friend. On
my emotions which were causing me that I would bring my son along for my part, I stopped yelling at him,
so much suffering. future retreats. whenever he did anything which I
wasn’t pleased about, and instead,
My visits to the world-renowned In 2015 I brought my son to Plum adopted a gentler tone.
“Plum Villages” in Europe and other Village for a Children’s Retreat
parts of the globe with my family in 2015; he was then 12 years In 2017, we went to Plum Village
have had an immense impact on old, a rebellious age. It was his Hong Kong for a family retreat.
my practice as well. The first was first retreat and not one which he By then, my son was 14, and he
in 2007, when my husband and I attended willingly. Initially, he was fitted right in with the interesting