books
Dharma Parenting: Understand Your Child’s Brilliant Brain for Greater Happiness, Health, Success, and Fulfillment
R. Keith Wallace, Ph.D. and Fred Travis, Ph.D.
Maharishi University of Management faculty members Dr. Robert Keith Wallace and Dr. Fred Travis’ recently published book on parenting, Dharma Parenting: Understand Your Child’s Brilliant Brain for Greater Happiness, Health, Success, and Fulfillment , is a “how-to” that combines ancient Ayurvedic principles with a modern understanding of child brain development, giving parents practical tools to nurture their child’s particular brain.
The Sanskrit word dharma refers to living in a way that upholds the path of evolution, maintains balance, and supports prosperity and spiritual freedom. “Keith and I feel that the purpose of parenting is to recognize the unique strengths of your children and help them to grow in alignment with their dharma,” said Dr. Travis.
The book examines parents and children from the perspective of the three Ayurvedic mind/body types—vata, pitta, and kapha—and offers various tools that can be customized depending on the child’s body type. The book also describes how brain development will influence how the child’s body type is expressed.
“Know who your kid is and know their tendencies,” said Dr. Wallace. “Focus on the strengths, not the weaknesses.” Some of the advice in the book includes honoring individual differences between family members, following routines to improve family dynamics, cultivating better behavior, and anticipating and adapting to children’s needs.
About the Authors
Dr. Travis is a 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. Wallace is a pioneering researcher on the physiology of consciousness. His research has inspired hundreds of studies on the benefits of Transcendental Meditation and other mind-body techniques. Dr. Wallace’s findings have been published in Science, American Journal of Physiology, and Scientific American.
In addition to discussion of Maharishi AyurVeda and brain/body types, Dharma Parenting recommends the Transcendental Meditation technique for decreasing stress in the physiology and soothing the family dynamic. The holistic approach to parenting presented by Dharma Parenting is truly the first of its kind.