Volcano Meditation For Kids

Join me on the Big Island of Hawai'i for this guided meditation using volcano imagery. This meditation uses breathing and progressive muscle relaxation to help young children learn to regulate their emotions. This practice calms the nervous system and builds skills to release emotions in healthy ways. These very short practices, done consistently, help children build coping skills over time.

Transcript

Hello friends. I'd love for you to join me for a short volcano meditation here on the Big Island of Hawaii where we have one of the most active volcanoes in the world and it's actually erupting right now. So we're going to harness some of that energy and help release it just as the earth takes its energy and releases it in the form of lava. So get in a comfortable position for you that can be seated, Lying down, Or even standing up if that's how you feel for the moment is most comfortable. Once you're in that comfortable position let's begin by placing our right hand on our belly and our left hand on our chest and this belly is actually a magma chamber today and we're going to fill up that magma chamber with a deep breath so that you feel your hand moving forward expanding that magma chamber. So let's take that deep breath filling your magma chamber and then blow it out through your mouth as though you're letting out steam from the steam vents of the volcano. Inhale fill that magma chamber and exhale blow out the steam. Inhale through the magma chamber and exhale your steam. Now we're going to create some rocks just like the volcano does. Beginning with our hands we're going to squeeze our hands together and create lava rocks with them and then we'll relax them down. Now let's try to squeeze our upper arms. Oh make them tight make them tight and relax them down. We're creating rocks with our whole body. Now let's tighten that magma chamber make it really tight and create rocks and then relax it. Moving down to the legs and your bottom we're going to squeeze those legs tight squeeze your bottom tight hold those muscles tight like you're creating rocks with them and then relax and with your lower legs the same tighten those leg muscles feel your calf muscles the bottom of your leg tighten up creating rocks and relaxing. And finally down the bottoms of your feet and your toes you can curl them up creating rocks and then relaxing. Now you've relaxed your whole body it's starting to feel like lava. So let's take our hands take a deep inhalation our hands up to our heart and we're going to exhale and let out the lava from the volcano. I'm bringing them back to our hearts we're going to inhale again and we're going to exhale and let the lava come out and the energy come out and slowly bringing them back to our chest another deep inhalation filling our magma chamber again and then letting the lava out let it flow out filling up that magma chamber and letting out that lava. And if you just want to shake out your body now you're flowing lava. This is a pahoehoe flow of lava. Smooth and flowing. Thank you for joining me today and breathing and making lava rocks and magma and lava just like the volcano is right now. Join me next time for another nature meditation. See you next time.