Just like adults, mindfulness provides children with a skill set for managing stress, negative thoughts and building up their confidence. Oftentimes, with significantly fewer years of mental programming, and more elastic minds, children actually pick up on and accept the principles of mindfulness with much more ease than adults. As mentioned by Andy Puddicombe, co-founder of Headspace, kids seem to pick up the basics of meditation with tremendous ease. Not only do they find present moment awareness entirely natural, but they are also often willing and open to trying something new with great adaptability.
Mindfulness and meditation for kids can help them find inner calm in moments of pressure so that they can respond accordingly before reacting to a situation negatively. By processing their experiences, and detaching from the stressors, and perhaps the meaning they have attached to those stressors, mindfulness can help children manage stress. Equipping kids with these skills from a young age can help them grow into confident adolescents and adults, who are able to manage their stress, emotions, ability to focus, as well as the quality of their studies and activities.
Why Teach Mindfulness To Kids?
Mindfulness, whether it is for adults or for children, is the exercise of awareness and attention. When it comes to teaching this to children, there are a variety of exercises that can be utilized. Overall, teaching mindfulness or meditation to children means simplifying the lessons in a way that is easy, enjoyable, and understandable for anybody. This can be simple awareness exercises, lessons, or sometimes flexible meditation activities. Mindfulness for kids is a section of mindfulness specifically focused on teaching children from a young age, the lessons about stress management and self-awareness that really do help any of us, regardless of age. Starting these lessons at a young age can help create resilient kids who can manage their own stress levels with ease. When on the inside of the experience, being a kid can be hard and confusing at times. Having a good set of tools to manage challenging experiences can make a world of difference. According to Annaka Harris, an author of mindfulness content and books for kids, “for children, mindfulness can offer relief from whatever difficulties they might be encountering in life. It also gives them the beauty of being in the present moment”.
Mindfulness Activities For Children
Introducing mindfulness lessons to kids is often done best through activities and engaging exercises that children find intriguing and fun. In many cases, this can be done very simply, by taking seemingly mundane elements of a kid’s day and turning them into a game of awareness. As we all know, when done with focused attention and full presence, nearly anything can become a meditation or an exercise in mindfulness. Whether this is done through an eating activity, a craft, or a sport, it is usually easy to mix these lessons into the activities kids already enjoy.
If you are looking for some ideas, here is a list of 10 easy mindfulness activities for parents and kids.
Balloon Belly Breathing.
Lie down in a comfortable position and focus on the feeling of the belly rising and falling with each passing breath. Imagine that the belly is a balloon, filling with air and deflating with each breath. By focusing on the sensations and the experience of breathing in this way, children can practice breath awareness and presence. This may also be a good opportunity to teach how good the breath can be to bring it back into our bodies and to calm us down in moments of stress.
Food Savouring Exercise.
When you give them a treat or food they enjoy, you can turn that moment into a simple exercise in mindfulness. Encourage them to savor their treat slowly, taking the time to enjoy and notice every little bit of taste and texture. The goal is to have them focus their attention on the present experience of the food. This exercise can help them become more aware of the sensory experience of eating, as well as strengthen their focus and attention.
Visualize Your Happy Place.
This exercise is equally as simple as it sounds. Have your child intentionally use their imagination to dream up their happy place. By focusing their intention on visualization, this exercise can help bring kids into the present moment, and to relax them. This also helps strengthen the creative centers of the mind and improves the skill of creative thinking.
Listen To Your Surroundings.
Sometimes, mindfulness can be as simple as slowing down to pay attention to our surroundings. This is especially important when we are feeling pressure or stress during our day. Teaching kids to take a short pause with the goal of grounding themselves in their bodies and the present moment can be a great lesson for them. Have your child close their eyes, and pay close attention to all of the sounds, smells, and sensations in their immediate surroundings. The goal is to focus on the experience, allowing it to show up however it may. This can help kids calm themselves down, while strengthening their ability to accept the world as it is, without frustration or anger.
Gratitude Journaling
One of the best exercises for kids and adults alike to reinforce the habit of positive thinking is to journal or to repeat positive thoughts and affirmations. By journaling and listing out the things we are grateful for, we can shift the natural “negativity bias” of the mind toward more positive thoughts and experiences. Every one of us has things we are grateful for, and it can be an uplifting thing to remind ourselves of on a regular basis.
Happy Thoughts Meditation.
This exercise can happen in the form of traditional, eyes closed meditation, or through journaling or affirmations. If your child chooses the meditation route, have them repeat positive thoughts that make them feel good either mentally, or out loud. If they choose to journal this exercise or speak them aloud that is fine too. Having them repeat positive thoughts to themselves out loud, in front of a mirror, mentally, or journaling will accomplish the same goal. Reinforcing to them that when they are able to, they can choose which kinds of thoughts they want to think, can set them up with the skills to combat negative self-talk or overthinking when it arises.
For More Mindfulness Exercises And Activities Feel Free To Visit The Following Links:
25 Fun Mindfulness Activities For Children From PositivePsychology.com
18 Mindfulness Games, Worksheets, And Activities For Kids From PositivePsychology.com
51 Mindfulness Exercises For Kids In The Classroom
Tips For Teaching Mindfulness To Kids
When it comes to meditation, there really are no rules about how to practice is properly. The same goes for mindfulness activities for children. With this in mind, mindfulness education for kids can come in a wide variety of forms and can be quite flexible. Feel encouraged to put your own twist on lessons, or to adapt the exercises to better suit your child’s needs. The end goals are still the same, to teach children how to manage stress, reconnect with the present moment, and recognize that their thoughts do not have control over them. With all of this in mind, there are several tips you can keep in mind when designing or choosing an activity that is right for your child.
- Children of different ages, have different levels of attention span. The amount of time you put your child through a mindfulness activity should reflect their age, and their ability to stay on task and enjoy themselves. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, here are some recommended guidelines to follow when choosing frequency and length of exercises.
- Preschool children: a few minutes each day.
- Grade school children: 3 to 10 minutes, twice daily.
- Teens and adults: 5-45 minutes per day, according to personal preference.
- If you have a child with difficulty sleeping, simple relaxation meditations may be a great tool for helping them improve their ability to fall asleep, as well as the quality of their sleep. Mindfulness and meditation have become some of the best tools for adults to improve their rest and relax before sleep, and this is no different for children.
- Remind kids during moments of stress, frustration and anger, that before allowing themselves to be swept up in their emotions, that they can choose how they want to respond to any situation in their lives. Experiencing emotions is absolutely normal and in fact important for mental well-being, but allowing them to dictate our state of mind entirely may not be so healthy. The goal is to teach children that they can choose how they show up in the world, without outright blocking their emotions or experiences. We can simply feel certain emotions or experiences, without allowing them to control us for an ongoing amount of time – this is the goal of the lesson.
- There are a variety of different ways to practice meditation, and every child is different. Feel encouraged to bring mindfulness to whatever activity you feel is right for your child.
- Many parents and children’s mindfulness educators like to teach the STOP method to their children. This is a popular exercise for teaching kids the basics of meditation and mindfulness through the following sequence. This is a program you can teach your kids to embrace whenever they feel they need to.
- Stop – everything, and take a brief moment to pause, no matter what you are doing.
- Take – a deep breath. Pay attention to the feelings of breathing, and bring yourself back to the present moment.
- Observe – how you feel, what is happening around you, and what is happening in your head. Notice how you feel, and whether good or bad, give it a moment of attention.
- Proceed – after taking a moment to ground yourself, continue what you were doing.
Meditation For Big Kids And Teenagers
The older children are, the more similar their meditations and mindfulness activities can be to those that adults utilize. Oftentimes, children this age actually enjoy using guided meditations that are available on YouTube, or through meditation apps. There are in fact several mindfulness apps designed for children of this age that may be useful to download. Many older kids also enjoy journaling. The key is to let them do what they find comfortable to them, and for as long as they feel they need to. At this age, life can feel overwhelming at times, and any mindfulness they are practicing is a positive thing that will help them in the long run.
Meditation For Preschool Kids.
Around this age, children are beginning to become more conscious of their minds and bodies. If you choose to as the parent, this can be a time when teaching these lessons with a little bit more intention can begin. This is a good age to begin introducing some of the activities listed above, such as belly breathing, or present moment awareness exercises. For preschool-aged children, the mindfulness journey can be as simple as going for a walk, or eating a treat with them, and teaching them how they can find, and stay calm when they are feeling emotionally reactive. This is early on in a child’s developmental journey, but it can help them develop an understanding they when they feel stress, they also possess the tools and know-how to control it.
Meditation Exercises For Toddlers
Realistically, at this age meditation looks more like learning how to self-soothe than anything else. Many parents like to first introduce their toddlers to mindfulness by reinforcing the power of a healthy deep breath. They encourage their child to breathe the stress away in moments of tension, which can serve as the foundation for more mindfulness in the future. According to Lorraine Murray, author of Calm Kids: Help Children Relax With Mindful Activities, and founder of Connected Kids, a program to teach parents how to bring mindfulness to their children, “you’re training the brain to recognize signals of stress and respond with practices that bring the body back into balance”.
