Mindful Mabel -Who am I to write a children's book about mindfulness?!
- Amy Leigh
- Nov 2
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 3
Alright! For the past year, I’ve been working on a children’s book called, “Mindful Mabel. It’s recently been submitted to my publisher for another round of edits (and because I’m human, I’m impatiently waiting for
more feedback and to hear how it lands).
But why, and who am I to even write a book about mindfulness?! I’ve thought about this question long and hard before even beginning to write and submit my children’s book for review. So- I wanted to write a blog post about it to show my experience with the topic. Basically, the who, what, where, when, and why mindfulness and living an intentional life is so important to me!
My first book, Fleetwood Dreams, is a memoir that shares my journey of discovering mindfulness and how it grew into a true passion of mine. If you’ve read it- you’re more familiar with the grief, loss and tragedy I lived through growing up. Maybe you know it all too well too and can relate to some of the topics discussed in my memoir.
I (like many others) grew up in a split home with parents who unintentionally carried their generational trauma with them. Then came the unexpected tragic losses of both my mom and twin brother. And while my childhood still had some truly beautiful moments (and parents who tried the best they could with what they were taught), I didn’t realize (as a kid) how much I longed for calm and stability. How- in my adolescence and adulthood, calm would even begin to feel foreign. So much so, that perhaps I started to create my own chaos because my nervous system was more used to chaos than calm.
Not having the tools to regulate my emotions when I was younger — to label them, work through them, and simply sit with how I was feeling — made me realize just how important emotional awareness is. Our kiddos need to learn these tools early on. They need to learn how to notice and name what they feel, so that when life happens (big or small), they’re prepared and have the skills to be mindful and resilient.
So, why me?!
After years of therapy, studying and becoming certified in holistic practices (like Reiki and yoga), teaching yoga to both adults and children for nine years, and working in the human services field for nearly a decade — where I witnessed how deeply trauma affects families — I felt called to do more!
Add to that over-coming my own hardships, reading a myriad of self-help books (probably more than one should read in a lifetime), becoming sober over the past three and a half years to truly face my trauma head on, exploring minimalism (and how it influences our daily lives), speaking at libraries and with high school students about my experiences, currently working alongside therapists (as a client coordinator) at a therapy practice, and raising a daughter who also navigates anxiety — it all led me here!
This book touches on the topics of mindfulness, paying attention to how you’re feeling and what you need in the moment, treating yourself and others with kindness, and teaches deep breathing and grounding techniques to help kids navigate big feelings. And all done so in a playful way!
And the best part?! It’s all told from a six-year-old’s perspective!
Mabel is confident, quirky, fun, creative, chatty, and of course — mindful. She loves all the things six-year-olds do: playing outside, catching frogs and fireflies, getting messy, collecting stickers and gems, and exploring the world around her.
I’m SO excited for this book’s release and hopeful that Mindful Mabel will help teach our kiddos more about mindfulness and kindness — lessons that will stay with them for years to come!
Stay tuned for more about this chapter (no pun intended) as it unfolds!💛
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