Hello and welcome back to another session of mindfulness meditation and calm breathing for kids.
So in the last session we learned a little bit about calm breathing to help us manage our pain and frustration.
Remember if you're feeling a bit angry,
A little bit upset or there's a little bit of yelling or maybe if you've hurt yourself you just take three slow calm breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth and you'll feel a lot better.
So let's take our seat on the ground or on a chair our backs nice and straight and tall our heads up to the roof and we're going to take and our hands on our laps and we're going to take three slow calm breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth just to settle in.
You ready?
Let's do it together.
That's a great job.
So how do you feel?
Okay so today we're going to be looking at the idea of mindful hearing.
We're going to be exploring what we can hear in the room and in the world around us and the reason we're going to do this is because mindful hearing is one of the many tools that you're going to learn in this course about how to get rid of boredom.
If you're ever thinking to yourself oh I'm so bored right now I've got nothing to do.
One of the things you can do is practice mindful hearing.
Let me tell you what it is.
What you're going to do is sit up nice and straight nice and calm and you're going to close your eyes and you're going to listen to the sounds you can hear wherever you are.
What can you hear right now?
Pay super careful attention.
Perhaps it's a car driving past or some birds cheeping in the background.
Maybe someone's talking or the tv's on.
Or maybe there's some construction workers.
Maybe the wind's blowing or it's raining.
I'm going to go super quiet for the next 15 seconds and I want you to try and hear things that you couldn't hear already.
Try super duper hard to hear absolutely everything you can.
Are you ready?
Go for it.
So what could you hear?
Did you hear anything new?
So what we're going to try now is a little bit of a game.
Very soon I'm going to ring a bell and you have to listen super carefully because when the bell stops,
When you can't hear that sound anymore,
You're going to put both hands up in the air.
Are you ready?
Let's give it a practice try now.
Remember,
When you can't hear the sound anymore,
You put your hands up.
Are your hands up in the air?
Great work.
Let's try it again.
Some of the bells might go for a super long time,
So you've got to pay careful attention.
Other times the bells will be super quick,
So you've got to be ready.
Okay,
We're going to do three bells.
Are you ready?
Here's the first bell.
Okay,
Did you get it?
Did you put your hands up when the bell stopped ringing?
All right,
Here's the second bell.
Pay super careful attention and remember,
Put both your hands up in the air when you can't hear the bell anymore.
Ready?
Did you hear when the bell stopped?
Are your hands up in the air?
All right,
Final bell.
Pay super careful attention and remember,
Hands go up as soon as you can't hear the bell anymore.
Ready?
Okay,
How'd you go?
The bell game is interesting because you have to pay super careful attention,
But you're not listening to when the sound starts.
You're paying so close attention to the sound,
Really listening to it,
Really focusing on it,
And then all of a sudden you realise there's no more sound.
The bell's gone,
And that's when your hands go up.
Okay,
You ready for one more?
Are you ready for one final mindful hearing activity?
This time we're going to go back to listening to the sounds in our environment.
Whatever sounds you hear right now,
And with the person sitting next to you,
You're going to say whatever sounds you can hear.
Just one word.
So if you hear someone talking,
You'll say talking.
If you hear a car,
You'll say car.
If you hear a plane flying over the head,
You'll say plane.
If you hear the wind,
You'll say wind.
Whatever you hear,
Just label it.
Just say it out loud.
Okay?
So for the next 30 seconds,
I'm going to go silent,
And you're going to play the labelling game.
Sit super quiet and listen very carefully.
And if you hear a sound,
Say what that sound is.
Are you ready?
Go for it.
Great work.
So,
How did you go?
How many different sounds did you label?
If you're ever feeling bored with nothing to do,
You can take a seat,
Take a couple of slow calm breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth,
And start doing some mindful hearing.
All you need to do is think to yourself,
Really pay attention.
What can I hear right now?
And listen.
And who knows,
You might be able to hear some things that you didn't even know was there in the first place.
I know that when I do some mindful hearing,
I hear all sorts of amazing sounds.
Right now,
When we were meditating together,
Do you know what I heard?
I heard a rooster.
A rooster crowing.
It was amazing.
I would never have heard that had I not been doing some mindful hearing.
Now,
Remember,
If you have any questions that you'd like to ask me about mindful hearing or anything else,
Just get the person next to you to ask a question in the classroom,
And I'll answer it for you.
Okay.
So,
Let's take a big slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth,
And then I'm going to ring the bell one more time,
And I want your hands to go up.
Are you ready?
Big calm breath.
Okay.
Listen to that bell.
Did you hear the end of the sound?
Great job today,
Guys.
I will see you in the next session.
Hey there.
I just wanted to let you know that this track was from my course,
Mindfulness Meditation and Calm Breathing for Kids.
It's out now,
And you can check it out at my profile.
Enjoy.
