Jamie Lynn Tatera, Author at Jamie Lynn Tatera

“I’m not like other kids”

by Jamie Lynn Tatera | Apr 15, 2025 | Jamie Lynn's Journey, Mindfulness, Parenting, Sensitive Children | 0 comments

Or is she!?

Hello Friends,

For the last few months I have been teaching Volume 2 of the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids to a neighbor’s daughter who sometimes struggles with anxiety. The other day when I came to teach her a lesson from the workbook she said to me, “I’m not like other kids, Jamie Lynn.”

“Why not?” I asked her. I expected that she was going to tell me something deeply troubling about herself, and I was prepared to meet whatever she said with compassion.

But she surprised me with her reply, “Because I actually want to do this workbook. I love the comics and all the lands, and I actually want to get this workbook when it comes out and do it again.”

A smile spread across my face, “You are like other kids,” I told her. “Other kids love the workbook, too.”

“Really?” she said.

“Yes,” I responded. “But that’s not common is it? Kids don’t usually love a workbook, do they?”

“No,” she replied. Then a look of realization came across her face, “That’s why you’re making this workbook! Because it’s a workbook that kids really want to do! We have to tell people so more people know!”

It was so sweet that it touched my heart, and I wanted to share. Children in diverse schools in Milwaukee and many of you who have emailed me about how your child loves the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids, Volume 1, know what my neighbor’s daughter just discovered—this is not your ordinary workbook!

My 8-year-old neighbor IS like other kids, but these workbooks are not like other workbooks. It’s so fun that kids don’t even realize that they are learning. But they are learning—so many great mindfulness and self-compassion skills. And this is how learning should be for children (and grown-ups!)—it should feel like play. The Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids, Volumes 1 and 2 make this aspiration a reality.

Jamie-Lynn holding Mindfulness and Self-Compassion workbook for Kids, Volume 1.

Note: Volume 2 will be released January 2026.

If you already know how much kids love these workbooks, please share about it with a friend or give the workbook a review to spread the word! And if you just learned this fun fact for the first time, get a copy of Volume 1 for a child that you care about. It’s a wonderful gift to give a child (or yourself).

Volume 1 is available on Amazon here, or you can support a local bookstore and buy it here.

Buy it locally

Thank you for being on this wondrous journey with me!

Love,

Jamie Lynn

P.S. My mom sent two mechanical, light up bunny rabbits to my daughters for Easter, and here they are playing with them. And yes, they are playing with their Easter rabbits in front of the Christmas nativity that I hadn’t taken down yet. But good news! I just put the nativity back in the attic ;).

Maya and Anjali are playing with Easter rabbits.

Compassion

by Jamie Lynn Tatera | Apr 10, 2025 | Parenting, Parts of Ourselves, Self-Compassion | 0 comments

Do you still judge this mom after you hear the whole story?

Hello Friends,

We oftentimes hear about difficult events in the news, but when it touches our lives personally, we feel it more deeply and the reality becomes more profound.

This past week I was teaching students mindfulness and self-compassion lessons at a school on the north side of Milwaukee. Kids love the lessons from my workbook for kids, but this particular day there was a handful of students in my first hour class who were having a rough time. Before I came in to teach, the first-grade teacher had called the mom of one of the students who had been misbehaving. As I began to teach my lesson, the mom came in, very dysregulated, and started cussing out her child for her misbehavior in front of the whole class. At this point you might be judging the mom, but wait until you hear the whole story in the below video before you judge. I hope the story moves your heart, just as it opened mine.

https://youtu.be/dF-6NuTCUu0

Do you still judge this mom after you hear the whole story? #compassion (https://youtu.be/dF-6NuTCUu0)

This is the poem that I share at the video’s end:

Compassion
By Miller Williams

Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don’t want it.
What appears bad manners,
an ill temper or cynicism is always a sign of things
no ears have heard, no ears have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
down there where the spirit meets the bone.

The suffering that children experience is real. I wish there was more we could do to stop the harm, but I do know that bringing compassion and self-compassion to these kids’ classrooms can make a difference.

If you’d like to help self-compassion reach all children, especially children who need it the most, you can contribute to the fundraising effort to get the workbooks translated into Spanish.

Thank you for being on this journey with me.

Wishing you light and love,

Jamie Lynn

The Secret to Engaging Kids in Mindfulness

by Jamie Lynn Tatera | Apr 1, 2025 | Mindfulness, Parenting, Resilience, Self-Compassion | 0 comments

The Power of Curiosity

Hello Friends!

This week, I’m excited to share more about how to help kids (and ourselves) grow the resource of mindfulness. I get excited when I talk about how to best help children grow the resources of mindfulness and self-compassion. Why?

2 reasons:

I know that Mindfulness and Self-Compassion helps kids (and grown-ups) A LOT with their mental health and overall well-being.
I know how to help you make learning mindfulness and self-compassion FUN!

What could be more wonderful!?

Last month I shared about what mindfulness is, and how we can help kids practice Mindfulness (aka the “Spots” habit) more in daily life. Today I’d like to highlight a way that we can make mindfulness more fun for kids: invoke curiosity!

The Curiosity Exercise

When I teach my parent-child mindfulness and self-compassion class or work with kids in school, I bring a coconut oil box with a little chick hidden inside for our first lesson. I tell children that I have something small, soft and yellow inside the box, and I invite them to guess what it is.

Kids eagerly raise their hands, and I ask them if they feel curious. When they say, “Yes!” I invite them to notice what curiosity feels like in their body.

After a series of guesses, I open the box and out comes “Curi,” my curiosity chick. Curi the curious chick appears in all of the comics throughout my workbooks for kids, and accompanies the classes and kids through mindfulness and self-compassion lessons. Curi helps us be curious about our feelings, thoughts, and five senses.

Curiosity is the secret to teaching kids mindfulness. Without it, mindfulness feels like a chore, but with it, mindfulness feels interesting and even fun.

Playful ways to practice mindfulness—Find the ant!

Something else that appears throughout all the comics in my books is a little ant named Anty. Anty is shy, so she is hidden in every comic. Looking for Anty engages kids and makes learning fun.

You can look back at a couple of workbook comics I’ve shared here and here, and try to find the ant.

When kids are looking for ants, they are seeing on purpose (practicing mindfulness). But they don’t even realize it because curiosity drives their engagement.

Here’s a page from the Land of Mindfulness in Volume 1 of the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids that helps kids become conscious of the power of curiosity.

Did you find all ten ants? Notice how easy it is to focus when you’re curious 🙂

I have two more playful mindfulness ideas to share, but I don’t want to make this newsletter too long, so I’ll save them for a future newsletter.

As a reminder, the playful comics and characters are also a part of my parent-child Mindfulness and Self-Compassion class. You can learn more about my parent-child class here.

Next class starts April 28

I appreciate your curiosity and interest in helping kids (and yourself) grow the resources of mindfulness and self-compassion.

Wishing you curiosity and love,

Jamie Lynn

P.S. My daughters and their friend performed at an open mic night last week at a local inn. I feel prateful (proud and grateful) for my girls’ courage and talent!

P.P.S. On Sunday I shared some thoughts and pictures from our (imperfect) family vacation. My blog and short video for paid subscribers included imperfect vacation highlights as well as how embracing imperfection can help us all open to beauty.

Thank you for being on this journey with me.♥️

Be a Part of the Solution

by Jamie Lynn Tatera | Mar 27, 2025 | Mindfulness, Parenting, Self-Compassion | 0 comments

Self-compassion can help children suffer less

Hello friends!

I believe with my whole heart that diverse communities and societies support everyone’s well-being, and there is research to support this truth. When we devalue individuals from marginalized groups, it hurts us all. And when we appreciate the contributions of diverse groups, everybody’s life becomes richer! Please scroll all the way down for ways that you can help self-compassion reach all children, including those from diverse groups.

Help self-compassion reach all children, including those from diverse groups.

I have a beautiful podcast interview to share with you today. I interviewed Veronica Diaz—a mother, a naturalized American citizen, Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Children and Caregivers teacher, engineer and project manager, and a woman with a passion for helping EVERYONE, including Spanish-speaking children, develop the resource of self-compassion.

Be a Part of the Solution Podcast with Veronica Diaz

In our interview, Veronica shares about the oppression that she and many other Latinos have encountered both in the US as well as in their countries of origin. She also shares self-compassion tools that can help to soothe and empower. We discuss the effects that anti-immigrant rhetoric has on minority groups, as well as her efforts to help Spanish-speaking children discover self-compassion, both in the United States and abroad (more on how you can help in the next section). You can access our heart-warming and insightful conversation on YouTube (below) or your favorite podcast app!

Help bring Self-Compassion to Spanish-Speaking Children

If your heart breaks when you hear about about Spanish-speaking children and families experiencing fear and oppression in the US and abroad, and you wish to help, there’s something you can do. Veronica Diaz and Mercy Bedoya-Shiekh have started a fundraiser to make the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbooks for Kids accessible for children in Spanish. You can help self-compassion reach Spanish-speaking children here: https://mcst.betterworld.org/campaigns/Help-Spanish-Speaking-Children.

Donate to Help

Valuing Linguistic Diversity

Last year, many of you donated workbooks that I gave to children at Fratney Elementary School. There were so many grateful children—thank you! I have been volunteering at Fratney this year teaching lessons from the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids, Volume 2 (release date Jan. 2026), which kids are highly engaged with each week!

Part of what makes Fratney amazing is that it’s a 2-way bilingual school. In a 2-way bilingual school, half of the students that attend the school are native Spanish speakers, and half of the children who attend the school are native English speakers. These two groups of children learn both Spanish and English side-by-side, and everyone ends up bilingual. It is so beautiful!

Midnfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids, Volume 1.

I studied Spanish in high school and college, and I remember my first experience encountering an individual who spoke only Spanish. While my Spanish was wobbly and imperfect, we were able to have a conversation, and I could sense that beyond linguistic differences, this individual had a beautiful culture entirely different from my own, and I felt drawn to learn more.

I studied abroad in Ecuador my Junior year in college, and I minored in Spanish. Later, I became a bilingual teacher and wrote my Masters thesis on helping children grow up bilingual. I continue to teach in both English and Spanish, and I dream of sharing the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbooks for Kids with diverse English and Spanish-speaking children both locally and abroad when Veronica and Mercy’s fundraising efforts are complete!

Parent-Child Self-Compassion Class in English and Spanish!

This past year my colleague Veronica and I have been teaching the Parent-Child Mindfulness and Self-Compassion class for a research study funded by a Mind and Life grant. We are getting phenomenal feedback from course participants, and have found significant decreases in anxiety for children taking the class with their parents. I can’t wait to share the full study results with you when we publish them! I will be teaching my next English-speaking Parent-Child Mindfulness and Self-Compassion class in May.

Learn about Parent-Child Class

The Mind and Life grant includes funds for teaching the parent-child class in Spanish. Veronica and I will be teaching our first Spanish-speaking cohort of the Parent-Child Mindfulness and Self-Compassion class in April. You can register below if your family speaks Spanish and/or share this opportunity with any Spanish-speaking families you know who have children between the ages of 8-11. The April Spanish-speaking cohort is fully funded by the grant, so it’s free for participants.

Autocompasión para Niños y Cuidadores

We are in it Together

This mission is so much bigger than any one class or book. It’s about helping all children and their caregivers suffer less through the power of self-compassion. Please share about this newsletter and our fundraising efforts with others. Together we can be advocates for children’s (and grown-ups!) well-being and work to ensure that no child suffers without resources.

With love and gratitude,

Jamie Lynn

P.S. Our family went on vacation earlier this week. It was beautiful, imperfect, and so much fun! Two highlights included a lovely meal at La Morenita, a small roadside restaurant in Indiana, and beautiful dune hikes—we did the the “Three Dunes Challenge” at the Indiana Dunes State Park.

How Can We Support Diversity?

by Jamie Lynn Tatera | Mar 18, 2025 | Mindfulness, Parenting, Resilience, Self-Compassion | 0 comments

Supporting Neurodivergent and Racially Diverse Children with Self-Compassion

Hello friends,

I am passionate about self-compassion for youth because it can help children and caregivers suffer less. Suffering can have many sources, including life events, our internal experiences, and external oppression. Today I’d like to unpack the topic of suffering as it relates to diversity and self-compassion. And in next week’s newsletter, I will share more about what we can DO to help.

Supporting Children with Neurodiversity

My colleague Kate Lynch is the mom of a neurodiverse child, author, and the host of the Atypical Kids, Mindful Parents Podcast. Kate and I had a phenomenal conversation about how self-compassion can help us to raise neurodivergent youth with resilience. You can listen to our interview on this topic on Youtube or Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast app to discover ways to help yourself and youth with neurodiversity (including ADHD, autism, learning, and sensory differences) grow this important resource.

https://youtu.be/i9MA4OGpwSI

Want to Help Neurodivergent Kids THRIVE? Watch This Now (https://youtu.be/i9MA4OGpwSI)

“You will never know what it’s like”

In next week’s newsletter, I will be addressing the topic of linguistic and racial diversity.

I was talking to a dear friend the other day who was sharing her concerns relating to anti-diversity executive orders and rhetoric propagated by our current administration. “I understand,” I said to my friend.

“No you don’t,” she responded. “You will never understand. You will never know what it is like to be a woman of color living through this.”

I paused to soak in the truth of her words. “You are right.” I responded. And I listened.

Cultural Humility

It is with deep humility that I write this blog and share next week’s podcast episode on diversity and self-compassion. As a female, I have been on the receiving end of sexism (see my podcast episode on countering gender stereotypes), but I do not know what it is like to live with racial and linguistic discrimination. So I listen, I learn, and I care deeply.

Attending a small Catholic K-8 school in Green Bay, my early years were devoid of the enrichment of diversity. My horizons broadened somewhat when I went to high school, and they broadened even further when I went to college. It’s in college that I truly learned the value of diversity, including linguistic and ethnic diversity. I will share more about this journey next week.

In college I also took classes on anti-racism. This is where I learned to see many of my own unconscious biases. And this is why I try to follow the lead of individuals from diverse groups when it comes to justice movements.

Diversity in My Work with Kids

I frequently teach in Milwaukee Public Schools with children of diverse backgrounds, and when I created the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids, Volumes 1 & 2, I was intentional about including diverse voices.

I asked children from diverse backgrounds to help me create and edit the book, which made my book richer for everyone!

Here’s a picture of the kids who helped to shape and share their personal experiences in the book:

Jamie-Lynn with kids who helped to shape and share their personal experiences in the book: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids, Volumes 1 & 2.

And here are the delightful characters that appear in the comics:

Delightful characters from the book: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids, Volumes 1 & 2.

I tried to incorporate racial diversity, gender diversity, and a diversity of feeling and thinking habits into my characters so that as many children as possible could see their own experience reflected in the book (see this article on feelings habits). I wish for all children to see and sense that self-compassion is for them!

What we can DO

Something I love about my community of readers is that we are all deeply committed to helping children suffer less through the power of self-compassion. Next week, I will unpack more about about how self-compassion can help us respond to diversity-related oppression, and also what we can ALL do to help. I can barely wait!

Thank you for being on team compassion and self-compassion with me, especially for the most vulnerable of our youth.

Wishing you light and love,

Jamie Lynn

P.S. Last weekend I got to go up North and spend time with my family. This was special for two reasons: