Mindfulness expert Mark Williams will join Cityview Church Pastor Leeann Younger this fall to start a free, eight-week mindfulness meet-up group for families.

By Ashlee Green

Photo: Mark Williams incorporates singing, movement, and games into his mindfulness curriculum for children. ‘You have to earn the right for [children] to trust you enough to try out what you’re saying,’ he says. Courtesy of Mark Williams

Mindfulness doesn’t have to be exercised in silence. According to Cityview Church Pastor Leeann Younger, who is starting a family friendly mindfulness pilot program this fall with facilitator Mark Williams, there’s an aspect of it that can be “practiced while your kids are running circles around you.”

She’s found hints of mindfulness while chopping vegetables, preparing meals in her kitchen.

“I’ve come to understand it as a practice of focusing,” Younger said. “Focusing for the purpose of learning to pay attention in a way that disarms the part of us that we all have—the part of our brain that’s constantly on guard and looking for threats.”

Williams, a “father, elementary educator, mindfulness student-practitioner-teacher, musician, and community gardener,” according to his website, KinderNeighborhood, holds a master’s of mindfulness education from Antioch University New England and a bachelor of arts in elementary education from Wheaton College. He was already leading music programming at Cityview and sharing mindfulness techniques with its congregation; Younger reached out to him with an idea to take his talents to the community at large. 

“We don’t want it to be a Cityview Church thing,” Williams explained. “We wanted to actually do something in the neighborhood for neighbors—[something] that neighbors wanted.”

If a group is associated with a church, Younger said, it can sometimes create a barrier for nonreligious people. After surveying surrounding neighbors and members of the Cityview congregation, it was decided to refer to the building where the mindfulness program will be held—formerly The Limbach Community Center on Tripoli Street—as, simply, “The Community Center.”

“We wanted to be very intentional about creating a space where people could engage and practice together regardless of their religious convictions,” Younger said. “It’s decidedly nonsectarian.” People can also rent the space for birthday parties; Alcoholics Anonymous groups meet there; and it serves as a women’s drop-in center once a week. 

Starting on Sept. 26 at 6:30 p.m., the mindfulness group will meet for eight weeks. Two or three families, Younger said, have already committed to the free program.  

“Kids are more than welcome, they’re not just tolerated,” Younger said, and coloring books are available for children who don’t want to participate in the group’s main activities.

“If you’re a parent that wants your child to practice mindfulness, all of the research says that you should develop your own practice,” Williams said.  “Showing up as a parent who is mindfully present is the best way to encourage your own children to develop a practice… Benefits from mindfulness only come from practicing it because you want to.”

There’s typically a marked difference between teaching mindfulness to adults versus children. Adults, Williams said, often learn mindfulness in a class or retreat setting. They can progress faster because they already come with self-discipline. With children, though, you have to “lay the groundwork and set the scene for that to happen.”

“You have to earn the right for them to trust you enough to try out what you’re saying,” Williams explained. For him, this means incorporating singing, movement, reading stories, and playing games, all “with a mindful theme.” He’s a self-described “child at heart,” and always “leads with [his] childlike tendencies.” 

While each week’s mindfulness session will build on the previous one, Williams said people can join at any time. The practices he teaches can benefit practitioners of any age.

“Once I fell in love with mindfulness, I realized it’s the only thing I wanted to teach to kids,” Williams said. “Once they develop their own practice, it gives them the ability to access their own inner resources so that they can focus on whatever it is that they want to learn.” In other words, it gives children the “scaffolding they need” to navigate school, listen to their parents, and handle the ups and downs of friendship. 

“The value of mindfulness for families, I think, is critical,” Younger said. “I am finding adults benefiting from learning these skills and really thinking that it would’ve helped all of us to learn them earlier in life.”

Williams pointed to research that proves eight weeks of mindfulness practice is all people need to start seeing neurological benefits related to improved memory, self-awareness, empathy, and stress. He called his eight-week program a “way to encourage each other to try out the practice,” and an “experiment where our own minds are the research place.”

Mindfulness that starts in the family can ultimately, Younger believes, help to heal the world.

“Just look at the news: We’re a society at war with each other, constantly unsure of where we stand with our neighbors,” she said. “Learning to see our neighbors and neighborhoods and even the disagreements we have differently can build the world that we want.”

If you are interested in joining Younger and Williams for an upcoming mindfulness session, email cityviewpgh@gmail.com, or visit KinderNeighborhood.com for more information. You do not need to have children to participate.