Children can feel stressed, angry, preoccupied, and overwhelmed. Help them manage these feelings by teaching mindfulness to children.
What Is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to the present moment.
Paying attention to the here and now shifts your focus from rehashing the past to worrying about the future.
Mindfulness doesn’t just happen. Various techniques (like engaging your senses) help you concentrate on the present.
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The Benefits of Mindfulness for Children
Mindfulness has distinct benefits for kids.
Stress Relief
Little children naturally live in the present. They are often free from worry and don’t rehash the past.
As children age, however, they do feel stress and anxiety.
Mindfulness techniques can help lower their stress levels by drawing their attention to the present moment.
Emotional Regulation
Children feel intense emotions, which can be compounded by their inability to understand them.
Mindfulness can help children learn the life skill of emotional regulation.
Mindfulness techniques can help kids regain control and regulate their emotions.
Focus and Attention
Mindfulness techniques can improve a child’s ability to focus.
Practicing mindfulness before academic work can help students still their bodies and hone their thinking.
How You Teach Mindfulness to Children
You can teach children mindfulness but need to approach it differently.
Keep It Simple
Simple practices like breathing exercises and stretching are ideal to start.
You don’t need to have an assortment of mindfulness exercises. You only need to use the ones that work with your kids.
Make It Visual
Children gravitate toward mindfulness practices that have visual aids.
Using stuffed animals, glitter jars, five fingers, etc. will help them focus on the mindfulness practice.
Talk Them Through
Children will need reminders to use their mindfulness practices.
They may not recognize the need to use one.
Additionally, children benefit from guided mindfulness practices. Talk them through guided visualization or breathing exercises.
Make Mindfulness a Part of the Day
You don’t need to wait for a time of stress or an emotional outburst.
Incorporate mindfulness practices into your daily routine (even when things are going well).
This regularity will help children see mindfulness as a natural part of their lives, not just a tool for times of stress or emotional outbursts.
Techniques for Teaching Mindfulness to Children
The following mindfulness techniques are simple enough for children to learn and use.
You don’t need to introduce all of these at once.
Start with a couple and then add on as needed.
You may find that some work well with your child and others don’t.
Remember, every child is unique, and what works for one may not work for another.
That’s fine. Use the ones that work for your child and feel confident in your ability to adapt mindfulness practices to their needs.
Mindful Breathing
Breathing exercises can help children focus on the present.
Here are a couple of breathing exercises to try.
Stuffed Animal Breathing
Lie down on your back and place a small stuffed animal on your belly button.
Take a long, slow, deep breath that makes the stuffed animal move upward.
Then, exhale, watching the stuffed animal gently lower.
Repeat.
Stuffed animal breathing ensures that children take deep breaths that fully engage the diaphragm and fill the entire lungs.
Starfish Breathing
Lay your hand on a tabletop, fingers spread apart (like a starfish).
With your other hand, trace your finger up the side of your thumb. Inhale.
Then, trace down your thumb as you exhale.
Move on to tracing your pointer finger, inhaling as you trace up and exhaling as you trace down.
Repeat with all five fingers.
Mindful Listening
You can practice mindful listening anywhere.
You can listen to a piece of music (instrumentals work exceptionally well), the sounds of nature, or even the ambient sounds in a room.
Ask your child to close their eyes. What individual sounds can they make out?
How does each sound make them feel?
Sensory Jar
A sensory jar or bottle is typically filled with a viscous liquid and objects like glitter or beads.
You can flip the jar and watch the objects gently float through the liquid.
A sensory jar provides a visual aid to bring your child into the here and now.
It works well as a calming technique.
For directions on how to make a sensory jar, click here.
Sunlight Body Beam
A body scan is a mindfulness exercise that works well right before bed.
This mindfulness technique is perfect for kids who have trouble settling in at night.
As the child lies on his back, tell him to imagine a beam of sunlight shining on his toes.
The kind of light shines through his body, like sunlight through a glass.
As the light passes through his toes, he should note how his toes feel.
Then, the beam of light slowly rises over his feet, ankles, shins, knees, etc. At every juncture, tell your child to mentally note how that body part feels and then move on.
The sunlight body beam should rise all the way up the body to the top of his head.
Guided Visualization
Guided visualization occurs when you set a scene for your child while he closes his eyes and imagines the details.
Here are some ideas for guided visualization.
Nature Walk
Talk her through an imagined nature walk. Note the sights, sounds, and smells of the walk.
Pebble in a Stream
Tell her she is a pebble in a stream. Notice the sensations of the flowing water, the dappled sunlight, and the fish that swim by.
Floating Popcorn
Tell her she is a popcorn kernel being warmed by the sunlight. When she pleasantly warms, she pops and becomes lighter than air, floating over the landscape below.
Gratitude Journal
Focus on the good of the present by encouraging your child to keep a gratitude journal.
You can access a free digital gratitude journal here.
Mindful Coloring
Coloring is calming and can be a mindfulness practice.
Ask your child to focus on the practice of coloring a page with designs.
Notice the crayon’s brightness and the feeling as it skids across the page.
Your child can practice different ways to fill in the spaces: swirls, back-and-forth sweeps, or outline-and-fill.
Check out these free coloring pages that are ideal for mindfulness coloring.
Mindful Color Eating
Make a plate of a few kinds of food. Choose foods that are colorful and have different flavors and textures.
Consider options like colored peppers and hummus, strawberries on peanut butter toast, or crackers, cheese, and dried fruit.
Look at each food and try to describe it.
What exact color is it?
Is it shiny or dull?
What shape is it? What does it remind you of?
Get close to it. What does it look like close-up?
Examine the food’s smell, taste, and texture, and listen to its sound when you chew it.
Mindful eating means bringing your full attention to the taste and texture of your foods, the sensation of chewing, and your feelings of hunger and satiety.
Five Senses Game
You can play this game (which is actually a mindfulness technique) outside. It’s a little like I-Spy but with more senses.
For example, if you see a ladybug, you might say, “I see a ladybug with a shiny red coat. The coat has several black speckles on it. The ladybug’s feet are likely little black eyelashes.”
After you have each played the “see” round, play three more rounds for the other senses: hearing, touch, and smell.
Mindful Stretching or Yoga
Stretching involves paying attention to your body as you stretch, feeling the pull on your muscles, and breathing through the stretch.
You can do regular stretching or go through yoga poses with your kids. Read here for more on yoga for kids.
Nature Walk
Nature is calming, in part, because it brings us into the present.
Take a walk with your child and ask him to point out the sights, sounds, and smells around him.
Mindfulness Techniques for Children
Children benefit from practicing mindfulness, but you need to teach them in the right way.
Utilizing some of these simple practices can help your child reduce stress and regulate his emotions.