Hi and welcome back to the next session of mindfulness meditation and calm breathing for kids.
In the last session we looked at the idea of doing a body scan as a way to calm us down and potentially get us ready for bed.
Let's do one now.
Please lie down or take a seat and take a couple of big calm breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Let's begin.
So now I want you to draw your attention to different parts of your body and just note down how that part of the body is feeling.
You can say it out loud to the person next to you or you can just think it inside your head.
So how do your feet feel right now?
What about your legs?
How do your legs feel right now?
And how is your belly feeling right now?
What about your chest?
How does your chest feel?
And how is your back feeling?
How are your arms feeling right now?
And what about your hands?
How are your hands feeling?
And now turn your attention to your face and your head.
What are your face and head feeling right now?
Great work.
Remember you can do a little body scan like that all by yourself if you like and it can help you to calm down,
Get you ready for bed,
As well as highlight any things that you might need to tell your parents about.
If you're feeling a little bit sore or stiff or itchy or if there's sore or stiff or itchy or if there's any pain you can do a quick body scan and tell them exactly what's up.
Let's take another slow and deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
So today we're going to learn another way that you can use meditation to help you deal with frustration and pain.
It's called a visualization.
You're going to visualize some healing light,
Some healing energy coming down and entering your body and making you feel oh so good.
You do this whenever you're feeling a bit frustrated,
A little bit angry or a little bit of pain.
It's very simple.
What you do is,
Like always,
You get nice and comfortable.
You can either sit down or lay down.
It's up to you and you can close your eyes or you can keep them open.
That's up to you as well and you start with a couple of deep slow breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth and then you imagine that right above your head is an amazing bright beam of energy and you can choose whatever color you like that energy to be.
It could be white or gold or red or green or blue or pink.
Whatever color that you feel feels like healing,
Feels like safety,
Feels like warmth,
Feels like growth,
Feels like happiness.
Just imagine a big glowing ball of color right above your head and every time you breathe in that color,
That ball,
That light of energy is going all the way over your body,
All the way through your body down to your feet.
Are you ready?
Big deep breath in and you're going to imagine that color going all the way through your body from your head to your toes.
Let's do three breaths now.
Remember each breath in,
The energy is coming through your body and making you feel super nice,
Super good,
Super happy,
Super healthy.
You can just picture that color going all the way through you,
All the way over you,
Covering you entirely.
So now we're going to combine the idea of visualizations with the body scans from the last session.
I want you to keep breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth super slowly,
Super calmly,
But I just want you to do a little bit of a body scan.
While you're slowly breathing,
Just move your attention around your body and look for any points of tension or niggling or pain or itchiness or just any sort of discomfort.
And while you're slowly breathing in,
Your body is scanning.
You're scanning your body and if you find a place that's a little bit uncomfortable,
I want you to just notice that place.
Just become aware of it.
You can move and scratch and adjust if you need to,
But if you can,
Just watch it.
Just look at it and say,
Hey,
I feel you.
I understand.
I accept.
And then on your next in-breath,
Imagine that big ball of colorful energy coming down through your head and into the part of the body that you're focusing on.
You ready?
With your next breath,
You're going to imagine that big ball of energy,
That big ball of beautiful colored light,
Whatever color you want it to be,
Coming into your body,
Onto that point of discomfort or annoyance in your body.
And when you breathe out,
You're letting it go.
So you're breathing in that wonderful healing color into that part of the body,
And then you're going to breathe it all out and let it go.
So focus on that part of the body and breathe in the color.
And then breathe it all out again.
Great work.
You were doing so good.
Now,
If that point of discomfort has gone,
If you feel better,
You can scan your body again and find another point,
Or you can choose to stay,
Focusing on wherever it is you're focusing.
If the point disappears or reduces,
You know it's working.
If the point disappears or reduces,
You know it's working.
So choose a new spot and let's do three slow,
Calm breaths into that spot.
Breathing in the color,
Breathing in the light,
Breathing in the healing,
And breathing out all of the tension.
Let's do three together.
Great work.
So this technique,
This visualization technique,
Can be done anywhere you like.
It can be done in the morning to help you wake up.
You can imagine the energy,
The light,
It's giving you super energy in the morning,
Making you feel super ready for the day.
Or you can imagine that light to be a calming down light,
A night light,
Something that will help you to let go of all of the worries,
All of the thoughts,
All of the everything that was going on during the day.
Just let it go and allow you to sleep.
The color might be the same or it might be different.
When I get my son Archer doing this technique,
Sometimes the color changes.
His healing color is sometimes different to his sleepy color,
Which is sometimes different to his waking up color.
What we do is we take our seat,
Take a couple of slow breaths,
And just feel whatever color comes to us.
Might be the same,
Might be different,
But either way,
Whenever we breathe in,
We're imagining that color going into us,
Healing us,
Doing what we need it to do.
And when we breathe out,
We imagine all that tension,
All that energy,
All the upsetness,
All the pain just floating away.
And you know what?
You can do this technique whenever you like.
If you find yourself in need of a little bit of a boost,
Just take a seat,
Take a couple of slow breaths,
And imagine that healing light coming into you.
Let's do it one more time,
Okay?
Great work.
And remember,
If you have any questions about the body scan or the visualizations,
Get the person that's meditating with you to ask a question in the classroom,
And I'll answer it for you.
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.
