Meditation
The research tells us that meditation can do so much good for our children, including improved resilience to stress, attention, and emotional regulation.
Research tells us that meditation activities can help our children develop resilience, improved attention, and emotion regulation, so we’d like to help you find a practice that works for your family - even when you and your child are busy, tired, or just plain resistant. And contrary to what you may think, a meditation practice does NOT require our kids to sit still for a prolonged period of time. These are quick, engaging, and effective at bringing attention to the present. Let’s get into it!
1. Do a body scan. This is a great one to do at the end of a long day when your child is trying to unwind. AND you can do it too! Ask your child to begin with a couple of BIG breaths. Draw their attention to how the breath feels in their body. Move awareness from the belly to other parts of the body, and ask them to bring the breath there. Go to their feet, then their lower legs, upper legs, and so on. With each body part, ask them how that part feels? You can extend this question and ask if that body part feels hot or cold? Wet or dry? Relaxed or busy? Can they say goodnight to it and let it release?
2. Try the 5-4-3-2-1 Mindfulness Method. We love the
visual that the team at Understood.org made to practice this. On your drive home from school or en route to an after school activity, ask your child, “What are 5 things you can see? 4 things you can touch? 3 things you can hear? 2 things you can smell? 1 thing you can taste?” This activity can help bring your child into the present moment.
3. Go for a mindfulness walk with your child. If you’ve got a dog, bring them too :) As you walk, encourage your child to take one minute without talking. Ask your child to spend that minute looking for as many things as they can that are a certain color. When the minute ends, you and your child can share what you saw and see if they match up.
Meditation activities like the ones above help our children to learn to pause IN the moment. This skill is valuable for our children and can help them with important life skills like weighing pros and cons when it comes to problem solving and understanding how their actions or words might impact a friend.
