Four quick meditation ideas for you to try with the kids

By Kelly Wilton

After what has been a gruelling year of change, especially for our children, here are some simple ways to get a bit of breath back with some relaxing and meditation ideas. We all need a bit of down time, but sometimes we need to guide our kids to it! 

Just a few minutes a day of mindfulness can boost the quality of our lives in numerous ways. Research confirms that for children mindfulness can:

• Enhance focus in children with ADHD;
• Reduce attention problems;
• Improve mental health and wellbeing;
• Improve social skills when well taught and practiced with children and adolescents.

It’s important for caregivers to provide ‘age and stage’-appropriate mindfulness practices to children.  For example, creating mindfulness strategies with tools like pictures, objects, food, simple movements and music, can help kids develop an ability to better focus their attention and stay present.

If this is new to you all, here are some helpful tips to get started:

• Make sure your child is ready to give mindfulness a try; if they are full of energy and itching to run and play, it may not be the best time for practicing mindfulness for the first time!
• Make sure your child is ready to give mindfulness a try; if they are full of energy and itching to run and play, it may not be the best time for practicing mindfulness for the first time!
• Make sure your child is ready to give mindfulness a try; if they are full of energy and itching to run and play, it may not be the best time for practicing mindfulness for the first time!
• Offer to practice mindfulness with them; sometimes having a model makes all the difference.

1 Mindful Posing

One easy way for children to dip their toes into mindfulness is through body poses.  Doing fun poses can help them feel strong, brave, and happy, especially when you mix it into one of their favourite characters:

The Superman:  is practiced by standing with the feet just wider than the hips, fists clenched, and arms reached out to the sky, stretching the body as tall as possible.

The Wonder Woman:  is struck by standing tall with legs wider than hip-width apart and hands or fists placed on the hips

2 Spidey-Senses

This one will teach kids how to stay present.  It’s a classic mindfulness exercise and encourages observation and curiosity.

Ask your kids to turn-on their “Spidey senses” – i.e. senses of smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch that Spiderman uses to keep tabs on the world around him. This will encourage them to pause and focus their attention on the present, opening their awareness to the information their senses bring in.

3 Five-finger starfish meditation

This breathing technique has kids holding up one hand in a starfish position (fingers spread wide) while they gently trace up and down each finger with the other hand, focusing on regular breathing at the same time.

4 Mindfulness Apps

You might light to check out Headspace – Meditation for Kids https://www.headspace.com/meditation/kids or Smiling Minds App at https://www.smilingmind.com.au/smiling-mind-app  ; for some further ways to incorporate meditation and mindfulness into your daily routines