Mindful Seeing For Kids

This session introduces the technique of mindful seeing. Kids will learn how to focus on the task at hand and grow the skills of focused attention as they learn to tune into what they are seeing, as it is for what it is. By the end of the session, they will have a collection of techniques to obverse their physical world, have another tool to combat boredom, as well as discover new, unique and fascinating details about their worlds. This track is taken from my course, ‘Mindfulness Meditation & Calm Breathing For Kids’, available now via my profile.

Transcript

Hello,

And welcome to the next session of mindfulness meditation and calm breathing for kids.

In the previous session,

We looked at the idea of doing some loving kindness as a way to help us calm down after an argument or a disagreement,

To let go of some negative emotions,

And to send some good positive feelings to other people.

Let's do a little bit right now.

Take a seat.

Take a long,

Slow,

Deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

And just imagine someone in your mind's eye or in your heart.

And just say to yourself,

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you feel good.

And picture that lovely big ball of healing energy,

Whatever color it is for you,

Going all over them and all around them and just making them feel good.

Okay,

So today we're going to be looking at improving our focus,

Getting super focus abilities.

And really,

All we're going to be doing is paying extra close attention to different things.

For this session,

You're going to need a focus object.

This object can be anything you like.

It could be a soft toy,

Or a rock,

Or a leaf,

Or a crystal,

Or literally anything.

But it'd be preferable if you could choose something that isn't your favorite toy,

Something that you can hold in your hands.

We're going to refer to this as your focus object.

And all I want you to do is just hold it in your hand and feel how heavy it feels,

Or how light it feels.

And look at it,

Look at it super closely.

I want you to try and notice something new about that object,

Something you weren't aware of before,

Or something you didn't realize.

Look at how shiny it is,

Or if it's bumpy,

Or if there's any little cracks or divots,

Or little sort of variations.

Have you noticed something new about your focus object?

Turn it over,

And turn it around in your hand.

Look at it from a different perspective.

Really focus on it.

Can you see or feel anything new?

What have you discovered about your focus What have you discovered about your focus object?

Great work.

Now put that focus object on the ground and stand up.

And what I want you to do is look at the focus object and get right down super close to it,

And really get right in there.

And now I want you to take three steps away from the focus object,

And look at it again.

Notice how it changes.

It looks like it's getting smaller.

Some details might be harder to see.

So now I want you to go to the other side of the room,

And look at your focus object from all the way across the other side of the room.

Does it look different?

You're doing so good.

Okay,

Now go right back up super,

Super,

Super,

Super close to your focus object.

Get right down there,

And pick it up again.

Great work.

Hopefully,

This activity has shown you something new.

It's a little bit different than what I showed you something new.

Something new about your focus object,

Whatever it is.

But do you know what this also teaches us?

It teaches us that if we pay careful attention to the things in our life,

To the random objects,

To the stuff in our house,

To the people in our house,

We might notice new things all the time.

It's easy to just take a quick,

Casual glance at something and be like,

Eh,

I've seen it before.

But just by looking at our focus object,

We noticed something new.

We noticed something unique.

We noticed some different things about it.

Imagine what else we could discover if we paid careful,

Close attention.

So now,

With the person sitting next to you,

I want you to turn and look at each other in the eyes.

I want you to look at each other in the eyes,

And with the same focused attention that you paid to that focus rock,

See if you can notice anything new about their eyes,

Or about their face.

Really closely look.

You could slowly get close.

Don't bump heads!

Slowly get close to each other,

And slowly move away.

Have you noticed anything new?

Maybe you're seeing some different flecks of colour in their eye.

Or maybe you're noticing how their hair sits,

Or their eyebrows,

Or the shape of their lips,

Or their cheeks.

Who knows what you'll see?

But I bet you,

I bet you you're seeing something new,

Or you've noticed some new details.

Okay,

So now for the last focus activity.

Just take a little look around the room,

Or the area you're in right now.

Slowly,

Carefully scan,

And just see if you noticed anything new.

Perhaps there's items on the table,

Or the bench,

Or on the wall that you didn't know that were there.

Or maybe there's some divots,

Or shapes,

Or colours,

Or textures that you hadn't seen before.

Maybe you're noticing something that needs to be cleaned up.

Who knows?

But I bet you that you're noticing something new.

I'm going to go silent for,

I don't know,

Let's say 15 seconds.

And I just want you to look around the room,

And notice all of the new things that you didn't realise were there.

You ready?

Go for it.

Great work.

So how'd you go?

Just like the mindful hearing we did a little while ago.

Remember where we rang the bell,

And then you put your hands up?

And how we listened to the sounds that we didn't know that were there,

And we just paid super careful attention to the sounds?

Well just like mindful hearing,

Paying super careful attention with mindful seeing,

Is a great way to alleviate boredom.

If you've got nothing to do,

Rather than going,

Oh I'm bored.

Instead,

Look and listen,

And be curious.

Because you probably,

You might just,

See something new.

And here's the really interesting part.

Those things were always there.

They weren't hiding.

But it was just us,

Not paying enough attention to see them all the time.

It's almost like,

Some parts of the world is playing hide and seek with us.

And it's up to us to be mindful,

So we can see and hear them whenever we like.

So give it a try now.

We're going to take three slow,

Calm breaths,

And just practice our mindful seeing.

We might look at our focus object,

We might look at the person sitting next to us,

Their eyes,

Or just around the room and see something new.

Let's do it.

Great work.

Now if you have any questions about mindful seeing,

Or about focus objects,

Get the person sitting with you to ask in the classroom,

And I'll answer the question for you straight away.

Have a great day.

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 on my profile.

Enjoy.