Welcome to another fun week of sharing mindfulness with your children!
Remember, if you are not feeling ready to teach this to your kids, that’s fine! Continue your own practice, and you can teach your kids in due time.
Liam is back with me today to demonstrate some more mindfulness practices, and play a few mindfulness games with me.
Video Highlights:
- Starfish breathing: as you breathe, trace your outstretched fingers with a finger from your other hand. This is very calming and soothing!
- Animal breathing: experiment with different ways of breathing, to help children become familiar with noticing the sensations of the breath.
- Bumble Bee: buzz through pursed lips
- Bunny: Sniff like a bunny (not too many times, though, or you’ll get light-headed!)
- Horse: blow through your lips and let your lips flap like a horse
- Lion: Deep breath in and a forceful “HAAAAAAAA!!!” on the exhale
- Dragon: Deep breath in a more controlled release, like a dragon slowly blowing out fire
- Thunderstorm: create a thunderstorm by gently patting the body, then pounding the floor, etc., to create a storm that goes from gentle rain, to loud thunder and lightning, and then back to gentle rain. Talk about how emotions are very similar — they feel like a big storm but they pass on their own time.
- The Shhh Game: everyone gets really quiet, and when it’s your turn you wait until you notice something (sound, sensation, feeling, smell, etc.), and then say, “Shhh….. I notice (XYZ).” A fun way to encourage present-moment awareness. (from Breathe, Chill.)
Share Your Thoughts!
What mindfulness activities do you do with your littles?
I use guided imagery with my 8 year old twins. One daughter tends to have anxiety at night before bed, so this is a way to help refocus her mind on pleasant topics. We also do 3 deep breaths each night, where they smell the yummy cake and blow out the candles. We’ve been doing these things for the past two years now.