Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention,

on purpose,

in the present moment,

non-judgmentally.

 

—Jon Kabat-Zinn

Claudia L’Amoreaux

Mindful Digital Life

Main Content

Mindful

Digital Life

 

Practical Strategies for Living Well with Technology

for parents, children, and teenagers

Hello. I’m Claudia L’Amoreaux.

In the last few years I started noticing that almost every parent I know is struggling to live well with the now ubiquitous digital technologies—and to help their kids to do the same.

I started Mindful Digital Life to support parents and young people on that journey towards well-being.

The Mindful Digital Life practice grows out of my work coaching families over the last 25 years. It has roots in my dedication to education for the whole person, conversational process, and technology for good.

Welcome.

Claudia

We are the empathy app.
—Sherry Turkle, Reclaiming Conversation

Transformational 1:1 Coaching

 

FOR PARENTS:

I coach parents in how to navigate the ever-changing challenges & complexities of “digital life”—no matter what age your kids are—toddlers, tweens, or teens. In 1:1 coaching sessions, I help parents clarify values, increase trust, reduce conflict, and deepen connection with their children and teens to create a foundation for healthy and creative technology use.

Learn more

 

FOR TWEENS & TEENS:

I mentor tweens and teens in the vital skills necessary to monitor their own technology use, make healthy choices, and thrive. In 1:1 coaching sessions, I provide a supportive framework for tweens and teens to strengthen self-reflection, deepen interpersonal skills, ground in authentic goals, and make effective course-corrections as needed.

Learn more

Mindful Digital Life blog

Signals of change

© by Claudia L’Amoreaux

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. —Alan Kay

I did my undergraduate work in Alternative Futures with a focus on the Future of Learning. That work in alternative futures (thanks, Professor Mike Wagner) has acted like a beacon in the fog, guiding me to inspiring mentors, colleagues, and projects over many years, and still continues illuminating my way today.

I’ve really appreciated the work of futurist and game designer Jane McGonigal. In 2010, Jane launched the first iteration of an alternative reality game, Evoke, with the World Bank to support social innovation among young people around the world. (Here’s some background for those of you who might be interested in learning more.) In 2011, Jane designed the beautiful Find the Future library game (I encourage you to watch the short YouTube video). Following a fall that led to a serious concussion, Jane created the online multiplayer game SuperBetter with this mission: “SuperBetter builds resilience – the ability to stay strong, motivated and optimistic even in the face of change and difficult challenges. Playing SuperBetter unlocks heroic potential to overcome tough situations and achieve goals that matter most.” I joined the large community and played this game. I’ve been in a huge audience when Jane achieved an impossible feat—she got everyone in the theater up on their feet connecting and playing together. And I’ve been a speaker at a conference she keynoted.

This week I noticed a new interview with Jane on KQED’s MindShift. If you are not familiar with MindShift, here’s their stated mission:

MindShift explores the future of learning and how we raise our kids. We report on how teaching is evolving to better meet the needs of students and how caregivers can better guide their children. This means examining the role of technology, discoveries about the brain, racial and gender bias in education, social and emotional learning, inequities, mental health and many other issues that affect students. We report on shifts in how educators teach as they apply innovative ideas to help students learn.

This interview “Harnessing the power of future-forecasting to help invent a better world” really struck me. Interviewer Paul Darvasi asks:

What are some accessible futurist techniques that might translate well to schools or other youth-oriented environments?

McGonigal: There’s a simple habit of collecting and sharing what we call signals of change. Anybody can gather signals, and they would definitely work for teachers who want to bring future-thinking into their classrooms. A signal of change could be a news story, a surprising social media post, or something from the world around you. It’s something you’ve never seen before that represents a new way of doing things or a new way of being in reality. You can take a picture of it or take notes about it. It’s not a hypothetical idea or fiction: it’s a real change happening somewhere.

…Schools and teachers can create a culture of investigating signals, sharing signals, responding to them, and reflecting on them. Students might discuss whether the signal makes them feel more hopeful or more worried. Does it make them feel powerful? Are they curious to learn how to engage with it? Where will it lead? You can even organize signal scavenger hunts.

Every subject benefits from future-thinking, and it makes learning more relevant because it’s about things happening in the world that are cool, interesting, weird, and surprising. My background is in gaming, so I’m always looking for opportunities to generate the positive emotions that we easily get from games, but maybe not from our everyday lives. The surprise, the delight, the curiosity inspired by signals of change are great ways to bring those positive emotions into the classroom.

Bringing positive emotions into our minds and bodies, homes, and classrooms, is more needed now than ever. This is an exceptional interview. I encourage you to take a moment to read it today. And if you resonate, read Jane’s book, Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything—Even Things That Seem Impossible Today. If a few of you read it and contact me, I’ll coordinate a time we can talk about it on Zoom.

Imaginable Keyword: Urgent Optimism

Milky Way viewed from the International Space Station. NASA.

Media inspiration

Best short film for June: Billions of synchronous fireflies at the Anamalai Tiger Reserve. Watch the 5 minute video at the bottom. “Of more than 2,000 species found throughout the world, only a handful coordinate their flashes into patterns and are known as synchronous fireflies.”

Best long film: Saving the Dark (55 min). Filmmaker Sriram Murali with Chabot Observatory. When was the last time you saw the Milky Way? Where were you? Who were you with? I’d love to hear.

Testimonials

  • You safely Sherpa my nine-year old through the process of using technology to research ideas and explorations in a playful and knowledgeable way...bypassing parent daughter push-pull stuck points. Your learning conversations encourage her to ask questions of herself and investigate further, on self-directed interests. At the same time, you’re helping her to notice things she might not, expanding her options, offering her new strategies.
    L.D., parent of tween
  • In my first conversation with Claudia, she showed empathy for our son's position, and for ours as parents, trying to sort out what made sense for him. Rather than immediately jumping to suggest specific solutions, she mostly asked questions and supported our intuition and observations, offering ideas from her expertise where they fit in—the same approach she took with him. Claudia has been a tremendous resource and ally for our family. 
    L.U., parent of teen