Mindfulness With Children Part 1

In this series, I will be sharing tips that can be implemented with kids. I have used them with my own children and in the schools in which I teach mindfulness. Do it along with them. And most importantly, keep it simple. Mindfulness is being aware. Remind them of this by asking how they are doing at any point throughout the day.

In this episode, I will be sharing 7 easy steps to implement the practice of mindfulness for children

Transcript

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all doing good.

Happy December.

So today's topic I would like to share something about that's very close to me is mindfulness for children.

I've been teaching mindfulness meditation in schools for the past six years now,

I guess.

And children are so easy to adapt to these mindfulness tools and tips.

And over here moving to US,

I realized the amount of anxiety and stress they are carrying is starting at very early stages.

And it's kind of overwhelming what's on their plate as well to juggle things and to be themselves as well.

So I want to share something,

Some easy tools and tips that we as adults and children can also follow.

I find personally anything the kids can do,

It's so fun and as adults,

If we can follow,

We are going to break the habit easily.

Then stereotyping as adults,

It needs to be tough or we need to have a different mask on like,

You know.

But when we step out of it and get to our own inner child connection,

Things are much easier or go more in the flow.

Here in today,

I'm just going to share some seven easy steps that we all can try.

So I always start with mindfulness as one of the powerful tools that you can practice throughout the day.

It's not like a meditation where you just need to allocate 30 minutes and that's it.

But mindfulness is such a versatile thing,

It has got so many things from few seconds to few minutes to an hour you can spend doing it.

The most important thing to be aware is it's easy to integrate into your lifestyles.

That's the best part here.

And mindfulness is all about being aware and the exact place that you're in,

The clothes that you're wearing,

Who you're with,

What you're thinking about in this very single moment.

And that is being present in this moment of awareness and what noticing what thoughts you're having without being judgmental or just simply observing them here.

Children like the sponges,

They soak up all the information we give them.

So it's about like why not give them the best,

Right?

And kids right now,

They're taking a lot more information than our own ages when we were younger.

It's due to the social media,

Due to the media channels,

The education system could be various reasons here and not here to finger point anything.

But we are all moving.

This is where the generation changes as well,

Right?

And they're being stressed and developing a lot of health and emotional issues at a much younger ages.

And that's a fact,

Something that we have to agree and address and see how we can rather than debating.

No,

It's not.

Or trying to put it behind not agreeing with it.

Right.

And mindfulness can be so beneficial then,

But it's even better as a family.

We all can practice together.

If you have children at home,

Definitely do it together.

Or if you have nieces and nephews,

Grandchildren,

Do practice with them as well.

Like,

You know,

And that's going to be something fun and also have accountability for each other.

Hey,

Have we doing this?

Like,

You know,

And can we share what you felt or what I felt?

It's just amazing space.

Yeah.

The younger that you can start these tools with,

It's easy for them to hold on to.

And as they get older,

They are not going to question.

But then,

You know,

Being in the consistent practice,

Things have been working for them.

So these tools are something that they can completely hold on to the lifetime.

And I have found these tools help them to open up,

Have conversations,

Share deep emotions in a safe place.

The big joke about the teens are they don't talk like,

You know,

But through mindfulness,

I always find there are many things we can talk.

It's just they need to know that we are listening,

Not being judgmental,

Just listening to them.

Yeah.

And these tools will benefit children with the special needs as well.

With autism,

It could be or ADHD,

It could be.

And mindfulness is a truly beneficial one for all.

And through mindfulness,

We're being taught to acknowledge our emotions and then to check the origin of them.

Say,

For example,

You're feeling joyful today.

But is it coming from if you're feeling sad,

Where is it coming from and where is it sitting in your body and you're just being respectful of your own feelings and also loving yourself,

Caring,

Being grateful or being kind and just being aware of your body presence,

Awareness and not only yours,

But around the surroundings as well.

And these are just a couple of things that you would notice within a week,

Practicing of mindfulness or even a day as well.

You'll be just opening up to the realm that we haven't seen with the consciousness.

And.

Rather than practicing some of these fun things as like I have to do it or like let it be like a chore,

It's impossible.

It looks like a burden or a boring task,

But just like making it sound like,

You know,

Hey,

Let's do some fun activity that changes the tone.

And even for us,

We loosen up and we say,

Hey,

Let's try it.

Like,

You know,

And definitely if you're going to try with children.

Don't tell them to do,

But do it together.

Definitely.

So it's not like as if they're being punished and keep it simple and maybe have a book or audio or even just listening to this and doing together will be even super helpful.

And any part of the day is good to practice these steps that I'm going to share either the morning or later in the evening when it's less busy and less rush hour for everyone in the family.

It all depends on like,

You know,

Your timings,

The family,

The structure and who's going to be together.

So the first thing is breathing.

People who know me well,

I always talk about the consciousness,

Breathing rather anything like,

You know,

It could be in Reiki.

I will be talking about it.

Meditation is it.

I would be talking about it or Akashic records.

I'll be talking about breath is one of the most important thing that we need to remind ourselves.

Like,

Hey,

Are we not breathing?

We are breathing,

But it's more of like,

You know,

From the chest,

Not actually being conscious of your breath.

Even a couple of times a day is good.

And the kids always when I say this,

They always giggle and that's like,

You know,

We are breathing.

Are you joking?

Like,

You know,

You're saying me to remember to breathe like,

You know,

But that awareness is the most important thing.

Breathing in from the belly and breathing out from the belly and either with your mouth closed or open mouth.

That's OK,

But it is just noticing that the belly is rising up and down,

Like,

You know,

As you're blowing the balloon and the air is going out or like the waves coming to the shore and going back.

And that's exactly like,

You know,

How you'll be noticing your breath going in and out.

And this whole process helps with the full body relaxing,

The mind calming just within like,

You know,

A few seconds.

And that's the biggest change,

Like,

You know,

So you're right now with me,

Like,

You know,

You all can practice it.

Place your hands on your belly and take a nice deep breath.

Hold it and breathe out.

Breathe,

Hold,

Breathe out.

Now here you can do this breathing technique as one to five,

Five to one as well.

Some people love it,

Like something to be looking at.

Say,

Breathe,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Hold one two,

Three,

Four.

Organize breathe out one two,

Three,

Four.

Breathe in one two,

Three,

Four.

Hold one two,

Three,

Four.

Dig breath out one two three,

Four.

Now at the very start it's going to be hard to follow this but give it a chance give it a day or two and you will notice it's getting easier you're able to hold your breath and to go with the flow of it yeah and this is the beautiful reminder for every day of ourselves to anchor to something so breath is the best anchor to ourselves like you know at this moment you will feel you're more alive more present more absorbent like you know the light could be stronger the colors could be very vibrant because you are tuning all your senses dropping into that body that body to be aware of everything so we did only two rounds and already I can see the difference like you know and that is how beautiful like you know set a reminder like couple of hours in a gap like in the morning afternoon and evening breathe and that's it like you know enter three rounds of it or five rounds of it you can do it for and that's you are more refreshed and if you are like a person who needs a coffee at three o'clock you might notice actually you don't need it anymore because you are more active you're not having that brain fog or the sluggish energies here and this is just a reminder to breathe and fully pump the oxygen into your body let's say that you have a stress or homework or perhaps a rage towards a friend in this breathing practice will help you when implemented and help you get back to the particular problem with a solution or this few seconds of a pause will create a space for you to come back to feeling recharge and get a new ideas that into totally back in the space rather than feeling spaced out all the time so here you go one more time let's do it breathe into the belly hold and breathe out breathe into the belly hold and breathe out breathe into the belly hold and breathe out and the longer you're practicing these you'll notice that you're able to have a very slow deep breath hold it and slow deep breath out here rather but it's more like deep calm and peaceful and slowly it just gets into the whole body system holding and slowly breathing out so give it a try with that like as you're listening even and see has it made a difference if so immediately put a reminder in your calendar every couple of hours to breathe and this is where you're going to take accountability with your family member as well hey have you been practicing breathing how are you feeling and it's just going to lessen your anxiety your overwhelming as it's your stress and definitely it helps you in getting a better sleep as well and so the next tip I wanted to share is about gratitude all the time favorite topic gratitude that has changed my life that I totally see as a divine gift here so gratitude is something beautiful gift that we are giving to ourselves each and every day all you need to do is like either in a journal or on a piece of paper you can write things that you're grateful for or even in your mind I you can just recollect the memories of what are the three things that you're grateful for at the very start some may struggle to find things to write about but others will write tons of things but with children I have found it is they're super good at being grateful for and writing it down as well so it's much easier we do think about like you know oh is that really what it means or am I forgetting something so actually let's start with the basics what are you grateful for right now at this particular moment of time like you know and you can just say even I'm grateful for my home cozy bed or a family or myself I'm breathing up my family members my parents my siblings if you have cats and dogs or any pets again being grateful for them or children for their toys or her gadgets right now or to school the teachers the friends the numerous things like healthy food you're able to consume in the water and now that's the best thing the amount of things that you will be grateful will be unlimited the more we awaken to it and the more we are going to realize oh my gosh my life is full of exciting things and when you're grateful in that moment you won't feel any sadness any lack or any other energies and that's the best thing about being grateful for and this is where I love about like going a little more deeper is the things that you're grateful for expand them a little deeper is say I'm saying I'm grateful for my bed so I'm going to say even deeper expanding is I'm super grateful for my bed that's warm and cozy that gives me a good night of a sleep I love looking forward to getting back to the bed and resting my body so you can be more and you know what happening is when you're expanding it you're actually refilling everything in that expansion and you're telling the universe hey I loved it so much I want it again pretty quick like you know so you're going to have many sleep sleep nights and a deep relaxing times as well it's not about like sleeping all the time but a good deep ones are so important so your day is fresh and you're active as well so that definitely helps you so that is the gratitude action that you can try and made of one numb as doing it together and each part of the family member writing a gratitude the next one I would love to share oh yeah even in the gratitude so in the gratitude you can also make a mention about like the non-material things generally is what the children do and they this helps them acknowledging what they already have it and what they are wanting so this is the perfect time of the year like you know to do it at the Thanksgiving around or like the Christmas writing a list to the Santa it could be anything it's always a great as the moment you're grateful for you're anchoring yourself into the presence and with that whatever you wanted like you know if you have a laptop you want a Mac you are saying I'm super grateful for the laptop that I'm having but also like this Mac will give me much more better performance like you know it could be anything but yours first thing is you are happy about what you have and then you are looking forward to having a new things in your life you know so that is again another awesome way to be connecting on the next one is glitter jar glitter jar or a snow globe are a perfect ones to calm our mind to be in the present and anchor to the mindfulness part of us and here I always love to do this activity with the children having a glitter jar so take any old bottle clean and wash it and in that put some glitter glue and some confetti is some and also sparkles in it and pour some warm water and close and seal it tight especially the children are going to do it make sure you're helping them if they are young enough in close and seal it so when you shake it you're going to see all the glitter exploded all in the bottle and as a settling down you'll see your mind is settling down as you are noticing it so that is a beautiful observation to be doing it and I love to do this activity and suggest to do it in the night have this glitter jar shake it up and do the observations couple of times and you will notice you're sleeping better because you are just unwinding yourself by physically observing something and your mind taught are slowly settling in like with all those stirrups everything that's happening in the day it's your breathing as well that's coming your mind and the body so it's a total relaxing and unwinding time as well and you can ask them to take a notice of how the glitters are settling in and what are the colors they're noticing in and so there are no one interrupting thoughts but they're just observing something and I find it totally as a hypnotizing state for the children to be in that space like an even for me I love it like it's totally hypnosis and make it as a fun be creative and glitter jar making if you type up you'll find loads of information about it and go crazy go crazy so you can have one in the bedroom one near your study table like you know different places in the house so you are utilizing it very well the next one is the bells the sound gong bells the Tibetan bells or sound bars these are all the different bells that you can hear listen to and generally most of the houses have some bells like in the around here I'm just going to so that is a Tibetan ball sound which helps you to relax and settling to your body so so this is very good like you know if you don't have one that's perfectly okay as well you can just listen to type up on YouTube or any other places you will find loads of music related to it you can just listen to it and when the bell rings we are so calm and focused on invert and also I do this activity of asking children to listen to the sound and raise your hands when you stop listening to it so that for those seconds they are totally into the sound and once the sound stops they're raising their hand they're back to themselves like you know so but also they're training their mind to be totally quiet and focus only on one thing a lot of us are being trained to multitask and focus on many things at a time and then it's overwhelming because neither of one things we have done it like you know you might be like even as other like you know you might be scrolling from one app to other but you're not focusing on any one thing in particular so this could be a bit of a good habit that we can practice with bells and breathing in now gently while your minds are calmer is going to be super beneficial as the bells are the sound is going and going around the room taking turns with the bells helps them as well taking the responsibility so like you know as a family if you all would like to sit in just for two minutes so around your dinner table even like you know or after your dinner you can go around to each one of like passing the bell and everyone gets a go to click on the gong or something and you're just settling in breathing in and out and the conversations are going to be so smooth no one is going to talk over each other everyone is more in a Zen space and more conversations do come up because you have no filters and just helps us to have a proper sync with the other person yeah again simple thing sometimes is like you know get a stuff that you have in the kitchen that she can make a sound with that doesn't break like right so that's again the whole idea about is listen to a sound letting you take over and we settling into that beautiful space and the next one is the body scan meditation in this beautiful way like you know body scan meditation it can be done anytime but I find it like you know it's super effective when we do it in the night or throughout the day as well but like in the night it helps you to just gently go into the sleep it's a form of meditation we go through thanking each part of the body from the toes to the head and relaxing them and again kids love to lead the group as they like to take the responsibility so you can tell them this is how you do it and you do it and show them and then and let them do rule reverse like you know let them talk about the body scan meditation from each part of the body and you're relaxing so it's more fun as well they love to be showing as a guidance to us and what happens is as they're guiding it or they're receiving it totally again it's a calm space again it can be done from 10 minutes to 15 minutes or 20 minutes the time is what you want I'm sure like if kids are doing it they might be done in like a minute or less like you know but slowly we can teach them you can go bit slow like you know totally sinking back into the physical body and just breathing how wonderful it is that right and when your body and mind is relaxed you'll have more physical energy you'll have less pain so you are more energized active and clutter free as well so you can try with that and see how you feel about it so mindful eating I think the mindful eating of one always remembers about eating a raisin I think it's been so popular you see it all the time but the most important thing is being mindful of what you're eating also tasting and smelling of it and just being aware of it helps in bringing your awareness on the food to the table just like we are aware of your breath breathing in and out when you are sitting on the table when you're having your lunch break when you can just activate all your senses and eat you're going to enjoy what you're eating more maybe the foods that you didn't like you might like it more or when you know your tummy is full actually you're going to stop stuffing yourself in and eating slowly help the better digestion as well and better nutrients to go into your body and this totally helps you to appreciate the food you have in front of you and to feel the comfortable asking for information about the food even where it is coming from and how I can bless the food and just makes it so interesting to have that conversations around the children so give it a try with the mindful eating and just allow yourself to feel the process now I would suggest is try with something that you like enjoy the food so rather than trying the foods that you don't like it's going to be make more challenging and the other thing is maybe if you are in a rush try it only for the first three spoonfuls or first three cups of tea or sips of tea or first three sips of a coffee so at least you are in that moment able to enjoy that yeah rather than committing oh I'm going to enjoy the whole thing and then you lose track you are to TV or you're talking to people and not being mindful the eating so being practical I follow is the first three spoonfuls at least being mindful so I'm observing the taste and everything what I like what I don't like how is my body reacting to it how are my senses so that is a super fun thing so the other thing is reversing the daily activity so this is a very fun exercise like you know for example if you are brushing your teeth with left hand and try instead brushing with your right hand or if you eat with your right hand try eating with your left hand and see what happens with this whole reversal process if that brings you into attention rather than in autopilot more and more aware of the task that's a best gift and of course role reversal always works like you know because you you you brush your teeth on autopilot if you're right-handed but if you're brushing with the left hand you need to be very cautious that the brush stays inside the mouth it's going to all the corners the curves and everything so it does take time of course but also it gets you into the present moment of like observing oh am I brushing my teeth do I remember it actually yes you do and try this exercise with the normal daily activities as a warning it does slow you down but if a child is a hyper this will help them to calm down again making it as a fun doing it together like you know that's the most important thing and here as an adult if you're driving to work on a normal route take some other direction and see the difference like you know you become more vigilant or you're noticing more on the flowers or the nature around like you know the housing estates so everything is becoming more like a slow motion you're noticing you're more in the body and ultimately all these seven beautiful tools are to bring you into conscious awareness not on autopilot and be more observant and when you're observant life happens and that's the best gift you're going to give to yourself and you're going to take it forward from here on so with that I wish you all the best give it a try and let me know how you felt and what have you noticed as well and what are your favorite ones so watch out for the next one as well where I'll be talking about mindfulness more tips coming through and how you can and share right if you have any difficult moments so I can see if I can include that in the tips and how we can work it together because I've been doing mindfulness for like eight nine years some things I have discovered so I can better share those as well so thank you guys for listening in and stay tuned for the next one until the next one stay safe and stay healthy and be mindful of your breathing happy days thank you namaste