Train Your Brain To Focus For Kids

Support your child (and yourself) in strengthening your focus and concentration muscles. In this practice, kids engage in a simple yet powerful exercise—breathing and counting. By taking slow, deliberate breaths and counting each inhale and exhale, children learn to anchor their attention in the present moment. Learning how to focus is a life skill that can help them sustain concentration in school, complete tasks with more ease, and enjoy the world around them more fully.

Similar to how athletes train their bodies, this mindfulness exercise is a way for kids to train their minds, fostering life skills that will support them in daily life. The practice includes two anchoring exercises: a breath practice and a mindful seeing practice, each lasting 90 seconds.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Abbey.

Today we're going to practice growing our focus muscle.

Have you ever been told to pay attention?

I know I have,

A lot,

But I was never taught how to pay attention and I didn't learn how until I was a grown-up.

So in this practice,

I'll teach you how to pay attention and then we'll do a focus practice together.

But first,

Let's chat about why learning how to focus is important.

Focusing helps us in many ways.

When we learn how to focus for longer periods of time,

We can learn things more quickly,

Which can help with learning things like new sports or getting better at sports that we are currently playing,

Learning a musical instrument and reading music,

Learning lyrics to our new favorite song so we can sing along.

And focusing even helps with being a better friend.

When we know how to pay attention to our friends,

It nourishes the relationship that we have with them.

Being able to focus can even help when playing your favorite video games,

Reading a book or even solving puzzles.

Of course,

Focusing even helps with learning in school.

When you can concentrate for a longer period of time,

You can do these activities even better.

So there are many benefits to learning how to focus,

But to sustain focus can be really challenging.

So today we're going to practice on building our focus muscle.

And just like a regular muscle,

It takes time to grow and get strong.

Just like if we were lifting weights to make our arms stronger,

We don't pick up weights just once and that's it.

We have to pick them up and put them down and pick them up and put them down and make time to practice every day.

And it's the same thing for our concentration muscle.

To be able to concentrate for longer periods of time,

We have to put our attention on something like our breath,

To notice when our mind gets distracted and stops thinking about our breath,

And then bring our attention back to your breath.

And every time you do this where you notice your mind wanders and you bring your attention back to what you're trying to focus on,

That's like one rep for your focus muscle.

Sometimes,

Or a lot of times,

Focusing can be tricky.

Our minds love to explore and they want to know what's going on around us.

So it is perfectly normal for our minds to wander off,

To think about things,

To get distracted,

To want to do other things.

But when we notice that it has wandered,

We want to learn to kindly bring it back to what we're trying to focus on.

Oh,

Hey mind,

I see you want to go look at this.

Come bring it back.

We're paying attention to our breath right now.

We can do that later,

Right?

We just want to kindly talk to our mind when it gets distracted.

So we'll begin by finding a comfortable seat with your eyes closed or looking down so your attention is on you.

Start by taking a deep breath in through your nose,

Feeling your breath move through your body,

And then exhaling it slowly out,

Either through your nose or your mouth.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Breathing in and breathing out.

We're going to practice building our focus muscle by counting our breaths.

So as you breathe in,

You're going to count silently to yourself.

You can,

As you breathe in,

In your mind say,

Inhale one,

Or breathing in one,

Or just the number one.

And as you breathe out,

You're going to count silently,

Exhale one,

Or breathing out one,

Or silently one.

And then you're going to continue this with each breath.

So for the first breath,

Breathing in one,

Breathing out one,

Breathing in two,

Breathing out two,

Breathing in three,

Breathing out three.

And you're going to continue this counting with each breath.

Now if your mind starts to wander,

It's totally okay.

Just notice,

Oh my mind has wandered,

And gently bring it back to the count.

If you forgot the number that you're on,

That's totally okay too.

You can start from the number one again.

So let's practice for a few moments.

You'll know this practice is over when you hear the sound of the singing bowl.

You can gently open your eyes if they were closed,

And now start to look around the room,

And choose an object to focus on.

And just spend a few minutes observing this object that you've chosen to focus on.

Notice its colors,

Its shapes,

Its textures,

Or anything you haven't noticed before about this object.

And again,

As you're focusing on this object,

If your mind starts to wander,

It's totally okay.

Just notice your mind has wandered,

And gently bring it back to focusing on this object.

Now notice how it felt both focusing on your breath and an object.

Was one easier than the other?

Did you notice how it felt in your mind or in your body to focus on one thing,

Like your breath or an object?

Did you notice if your mind wandered,

And were you able to kindly bring it back?

That is the most important part about building the focus muscle.

It's noticing when your mind wanders,

And kindly bringing it back.

So think about a time during your day that you can focus on your breath for a few counts,

Or an object,

Or something else where you can start to really build that focus muscle.

And remember that each time that you practice,

You're making your focus muscle stronger.

Thank you so much for practicing with me.