Mindfulness For Kids
Mindfulness is kind of a buzzword these days, right? It seems to be closely linked to “self-care” in the lexicon of hot topics in this era, and for good reason: mindfulness WORKS. I am so reliant on my own mindfulness practice, and I often notice how differently my mood and my outlook on my day changes if I’ve missed my morning meditation. Now, I’m not talking sitting in complete silence for an hour...that’s way beyond my skill set and attention span. For me, just five or ten minutes of meditation every morning does the trick, or sitting on my porch and engaging all of my senses for a few minutes at the end of the day.
There is lots of research out there that explores the impacts that mindfulness has on our physical and emotional well-being, and the great thing is, it’s so easy that kids can do it too. Today, I’ve put together some of my favorite ways to practice mindfulness with children. I find that teaching children to use mindfulness helps promote emotional regulation and coping with stress, and it helps me feel great too!
Breathing Activities: I have lots of different types of breaths in my toolbox, because I never know what a child will be drawn to on a particular day. These strategies are a great way to practice deep breathing and get children in touch with their breath. Some of these come from one of my favorite mindfulness tools, Yoga Pretzels.
Have the child touch the tip of their nose with their finger, breathing in deeply through the nose and out through the mouth. Prompt them to notice how the out breath feels against their hand.
Have the child lie on the floor and place a stuffed animal on their belly. Have them breath deeply in and out so that they can watch the stuffed animal rise and fall with their breath.
Flower Breath: Prompt the child to imagine they are walking through a field of the most beautiful flowers they have ever seen. Talk about what the flowers look like, what color they are, how big they are (they don’t have to be realistic...I’ve had children imagine rainbow flowers that are actually cupcakes!). Pretend to pick a flower, and practice breathing in deeply through the nose to smell the flower, imagining what they might smell like.
Pizza Breath: Similar to the Flower Breath, have the child pretend to make their favorite pizza with their hand, adding all their favorite toppings. Pretend putting it in the oven and baking it, and pulling it out. The imaginary pizza is too hot to eat right away, but it smells delicious, so take a deep breath in through the nose to smell the yummy pizza, then blow out through the mouth to cool the pizza down. After a few of these breaths, eat your pretend pizza!
Bee Breath/Snake Breath: Take a deep breath in through the nose, and on the out breath, buzz like a bee or hiss like a snake. It is sometimes fun to make it into a competition to see who can make their buzz or hiss go on the longest!
Bunny Breath: Using your hands as bunny ears, give the air three short sniffs and blow out through the mouth.
Bear Breath: Pretend to be hibernating bears, snoozing for the winter. Take a deep breath in to fill up your big bear tummy, and growl or make a snoring sound on the out breath.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation: There is a great script here for doing some progressive muscle relaxation with children, where you pretend to squeeze lemons, squish feet in mud, and wiggle a fly off your nose, among other things.
Five Senses Countdown: Take turns naming five things you see, four things you feel, three things you hear, two things you smell, and one thing you taste. An alternative for older children is naming five things you see, five things you hear, and five things you feel, then four of each, three of each, two of each, and then one of each.
Safe Place Visualization Activity: You can use a script for this (there is a good one here) or not, but the idea is to have the child imagine a place where they feel completely safe, calm, and relaxed. Have them engage all of their senses as they imagine this place. What can they see? What sounds are present? What does the air feel like? What can they smell? Is there anything they can taste? What does their body feel like in their safe place? A bonus addition to this activity is to draw a picture of your safe places together and hang them somewhere special.
These activities are just a few of my favorites, but there are so many more. Here are some links to get you started if you are looking for more ways to practice mindfulness with your children:
HuffPost: 8 Ways to Teach Mindfulness to Kids
Mindful.org: Mindfulness for Kids
New York Times: Mindfulness for Children
Enjoy noticing and practicing being present!