Dharma Parenting by Robert Keith Wallace and Frederick Travis

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge,from TarcherPerigee//Penguin Random House, for review and giveaway purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it

Continuing our weekly look at parenting books, this new book releases next week!

Subtitled:
Understand Your Child's Brilliant Brain for Greater Happiness, Health, Success, and Fulfillment

Two renowned neuroscientists and pioneers in documenting the benefits of Transcendental Meditation give parents a guided tour of their children's brains through contemporary science and ancient Ayurvedic typology (parents can "type" their kids and themselves) for a wealth of methods and insights to maximize your child's learning and behavioral style.

Synopsis:

In this ground-breaking title, Wallace and Travis draw on contemporary scientific research and the time-tested knowledge of Ayurvedic typology to explain our children’s natural inclinations (i.e. why one child learns quickly and forgets quickly while another learns slowly and forgets slowly; why one child is hyperactive and another slow moving; or why one falls asleep quickly but wakes in the night while another takes hours to fall asleep).

Using a simple quiz to ascertain your children’s unique brain/body type, readers will discover how to bring each one into a state of balance. Readers will also learn:

- What kinds of foods best support each individual child’s brain/body type
- Which routines best suit each brain/body type
- How to choose activities that bring each child greater enjoyment and well-being
- How parents can determine their own brain/body type, and how it impacts their relationship with their kids
·       - How parents should alter their parenting approach for each age group

Review:

There are three brain/body types in Ayurvedic typology- Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Once you start breaking down each, with the help of the included quiz in the book, you and your child's personality conflicts will suddenly start making sense, especially if you are 2 different types. Once you take the quiz and read the different dynamics of each type, you may start seeing all of the traits in your child and go 'whoa!". Then if you read yours, you will see immediately why conflicts can, and will occur. It really is just THAT simple.

But once you understand those principles, for example Miss Grace is a Vata (like a Tigger from Winnie the Pooh), whereas I'm Pitta (more like Rabbit), you can take the authors recommendations for dealing with each type (they have a whole chapter on how parents with same or different types should relate to their kids), and apply the basic principles to everything- from chores, daily routines, to special events, to reduce conflicts and allow for a more peaceful house.

Did you know that from ages 4-9 kids make the largest amounts of brain connections they will ever have? Yup, and between 10 and 17, the brain 'prunes' 2% of all of that away EACH year. So literally your teen is NOT the same person from day to day. Add to that the trauma of puberty and teen years, and you can see where if you can learn EARLY how to keep your child on an even keel, you can help them to not only retain more in their brains, but to reduce stress (which can have a domino effect).

The parenting suggestions in the book really make sense, especially if you are a different type than your child. They help you to understand balance and how your kids will react, when they get OUT of balance. This in turn helps you to keep conflict FROM happening, and if it does, to have a better control to help stop it quickly, using the recommended 6 tools in the book, for each age group. I also like how the book includes Note from MOM sections-they offer real world examples and suggestions that are easily doable and offer great insight, from Moms who have used the formulas in the book. 

This is a great book to read BEFORE school starts, to offer some suggestions for maybe changing your morning and after-school routines around, to better accommodate the needs of your child. And right now you can go to the Dharma Parenting website and take their brain/body quiz for free, to see if you and your child are different (it's free for only a LIMITED time). Then get this book and learn HOW you can make changes to benefit you both!

About the Authors: 

ROBERT KEITH WALLACE is a pioneering researcher on the physiology of consciousness. His research has inspired hundreds of studies on the benefits of meditation and other mind-body techniques. Dr. Wallace's findings have been published in Science, American Journal of Physiology, and Scientific American. He received his BS in physics and his PhD in physiology from UCLA and conducted postgraduate research at Harvard University. Dr. Wallace is the founding president of Maharishi University of Management (MUM) in Fairfield, Iowa.

FREDERICK TRAVIS is a world-renowned neuroscientist who has discovered brain wave patterns in children and young people that correlate with greater moral reasoning, happiness, emotional stability, and academic performance. Dr. Travis has authored or coauthored 70 scientific papers, many published in leading peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Travis received his masters and PhD in psychology from Maharishi University of Management (MUM). After a two-year post-doctoral position at University of California at Davis, he returned to MUM to direct the EEG, Consciousness, and Cognition Lab.