Melbourne-based psychologist Liv Downing drew on her personal experience with burnout to release children’s book You are Loved.
“I know the full effects of burnout and its relationship to anxiety, and in my work as a psychologist, I’ve seen the increased levels of anxiety amongst men and women of all ages,” she said.
“The rates of poor childhood mental health in Australia is alarming, with one in 14 children aged between 4 to 17 years diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
“Research tells us we do best when we feel connected, and I wanted to create a book that would help children learn how to access that sense of connection for themselves.”
Liv wanted to share the tool that has provided so much support to her during challenging times in her life.
“Meditation has many proven benefits and should be part of everyone’s daily routine, like showering and brushing our teeth,” she said.
“Through meditation, we build our skills of mindfulness, which means we can learn to manage our busy and distractible minds more effectively.
“If parents can learn to be more present and attuned, children’s nervous systems will wire more effectively and as a result it is likely rates of clinical anxiety will reduce.
“It is not our fault as parents that we are busy and stressed, the pace of the modern world is out of control, but it absolutely is our responsibility to choose another way.”
As a mother of two boys, Liv has experienced first-hand the benefits of mindfulness and meditation in parenting.
Through her work, she was involved in developing the Beyond Blue mindfulness-based parenting program, Mind the Bump, and Smiling Mind, Australia’s leading mindfulness app.
This involved working directly with children and educators in schools.
Seven years ago, Liv experienced the grief of losing her mother, the stress of looking after her unwell father, and the overwhelm of starting a new business – all while parenting her two boys.
This combination of factors led to complete burnout.
Burnout had also gripped her 15 years earlier, when starting her career as a graduate psychologist.
She found herself in bed, completely exhausted, and feeling disconnected, lonely and unworthy.
When it happened for the second time, the key difference was that she had built a strong mindfulness meditation practice into her daily life.
Rather than feeling disconnected or unworthy, she felt a deep sense of unconditional love carrying her through the physical exhaustion.
“Meditation helped me to fully accept myself, no matter what was going on in my life,” she said.
“I wanted to share this discovery.
“My vision is that kids know, and parents show, that love does not need to be earned and that we are all worthy of love and belonging, no matter what.
“Decades of research tells us that it is the quality of our relationships and how we are loved that has the biggest impact on our mental health.
“For me, mindfulness meditation was the pathway to accessing that unconditional love.”
