Meet Tania Villaseñor and Diana Urrea, founders of Mindful Kids Mexico
Interviewed by Diane Cyr
You don’t need to know Spanish to catch the enthusiasm of Mindful Kids Mexico, the five-year-old program created by Guadalajara mindfulness instructors Tania Villaseñor and Diana Urrea. The two women bring inventive fun into yoga, breathwork and art classes for kids and families at all socioeconomic levels, gently promoting the value of mindful awareness in a tradition-oriented society. They’re also working on a Spanish-language mindfulness app, due out later this year, while continuing to teach at the nonprofit Atentamente, where Villasenor instructs teachers in how to work with children, and Urrea works directly with the children themselves. As her five cats and “gordito” pet pig, Francis, snooze in the background, Villaseñor shares by Zoom her thoughts on kids, families and mindfulness in Mexico.
HOW DID YOU COME TO TEACHING MINDFULNESS?
About 20 years ago I started studying Buddhism. I was really young—18—and really enthusiastic, and I wanted to share with my little sister all the knowledge and practices that were changing me and teaching me more about myself. She was really my motivation. So I started a small meditation group because I really wanted to create that kind of space for children.
Then Diana and I met Susan Kaiser-Greenland in Guadalajara, and we realized we could begin teaching in a way that we hadn’t seen here. We began adding in mindfulness exercises and becoming more involved with the children, teaching them with games and making them understand the importance of self-regulation. After that, every time Susan came to Guadalajara we became part of her teaching, and we were very enthusiastic about learning more.
HOW ELSE HAVE YOU EVOLVED THE PROGRAM?
We learned to create a safe space for children and families to practice and just be. That’s difficult to find in Mexico. And we also love that mindfulness is not religious. That’s the most important thing: Everyone can integrate the practice into their own lives, but it’s not going to transform what you believe or the way you think. It’s very respectful.
WAS IT HARD TO CONVINCE PEOPLE OF THE VALUE OF MINDFULNESS?
There were parents and teachers who were resistant, but with children, that never happened. The kids always embraced their time with silence and space and with the games. But in this last year, as the pandemic started to affect all of us, we saw more adults begin really appreciating taking care of themselves. They now see the value of mental health and calm spaces and the ability to talk about feelings and to have regulation tools—everything that we are practicing. It used to be that adults would drop off their children and think they were just coming here to play. Now for the first time they’re seeing real value in this work.
I also see more adults committed to their own kinds of practices, and I see more parents that are willing to practice some kind of exercise or games with the children. Of course they have more time at home now, instead of spending one or two hours a day just in traffic. But we also have more parents asking for this kind of thing. I feel really happy when families tell me that they are now setting aside time during the day just for being in silence. That’s a small practice that any family can start integrating.
WHAT AGE GROUPS DO YOU WORK WITH?
We really love to work with children from age 2 to 18. I love preschool kids because they’re really honest. I love the art they make: it’s brutally honest. But I have a special feeling for teenagers because they also need a lot of love but they don’t know most of the time how to ask for it. They just want love.
I also really enjoy playing games with teenagers when we have to move really fast and then be quiet. It’s funny to see how they can move and then freeze, and they have to make a lot of effort to stay in that same position. They especially love being a mountain and a volcano: They stay still and never move, and then they explode. They see that they can control their own bodies, and that they can take care of their bodies. And most important, they’re learning that staying still can be funny!
HAVE YOU WORKED WITH DIFFERENT POPULATIONS OF KIDS?
We’ve taught at Montessori schools, at public and private schools, and at a lot of associations that have programs for abandoned kids or kids with physical disabilities. So we have experience with many kinds of populations, but at the same time, when you look at any of the kids’ drawings, or listen to the things they say in classes, it all feels the same. It all connects. That’s what’s important to realize: That whatever the level of your life, we all want to be happy and stop suffering.
Tania and DIana work at Atentamente. We also spoke with their colleague Daniela Labra in a previous shout out which you can ready here.