Thank you for starting this thread - I was planning on doing the same thing in the next few days! I’m a big advocate of mindfulness and awareness training for both adults and children, there is a lot of evidence of its benefit, both emotionally and in concentration skills. Plus for learning to manage difficult emotions, and as a form of relaxation or calming activity.
I found a few interesting articles (but always keen to see more!):
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/08/21/f-vp-handler-schools-brain-lingo-sel.html
http://www.theprovince.com/health/Meditation+helps+kids+attention+leading+researcher+says/6159558/story.html
http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/news/goldie-hawn-discusses-teaching-meditation-and-neuroscience-to-children
http://www.wildmind.org/tag/children
I am personally far more famililar with mindfulness for adults, so I’m very keen to learn more about how to adapt for children. I’ve just ordered / borrowed from the library a few books on mindfulness / meditations:
The Mindful Child: How to Help Your Kid Manage Stress and Become Happier, Kinder, and More Compassionate http://www.amazon.com/The-Mindful-Child-Happier-Compassionate/dp/1416583009/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347022986&sr=8-1&keywords=mindfulness+kids
10 Mindful Minutes: Giving Our Children–and Ourselves–the Social and Emotional Skills to Reduce Stress and Anxiety for Healthier, Happy Lives http://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Minutes-Children---Ourselves---Emotional/dp/039953606X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347023065&sr=8-1&keywords=mindfulness+goldie+hawn
The Centering Book: Awareness Activities for Children, Parents, and Teachers http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0131221841/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00
I haven’t received the last one yet - still waiting for it to arrive.
So for I’ve read the first few chapters of the Mindful Child. It’s a great book written by a teacher very experienced at working with a range of children’s ages. So far there is a greater focus on older children (my DD is 3.5) so I’m thinking about what could be adapted for her. I’ve literally only come up with two or three activities so far! I think that starting very small and building up is the key. The exercises I’ve come across so far are:
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Take three breaths- this can be very helpful to ground us, e.g. just before leaving the house or when you notice you are starting to feel a bit tense. Try to be aware of each breath in, the full exhalation and the gentle pauses between the breaths. Don’t force the breathing. Place a hand on your tummy to feel it move.
I’ve been trying to get DD to do this before she gets out of the car to go to nursery (she’s never keen on transitions) to help. She won’t always do it. I try to do it (and at least helps me a bit to keep calm if nothing else!). It’s too late if they are already very worked up or emotional.
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Rocking your teddy to sleep. We had some success with this the first time but the next times DD also just wanted to talk rather than do the exercise. Before going to sleep, place a favourite small teddy on the child’s tummy while they lie on their back. Say “see if you can feel your head on the pillow and let your body sink down into the mattress. Can you feel the teddy sitting gently on your tummy?” Ask them to rock the bear to sleep with their gentle breathing using the tummy. There’s no need to force the breathing or push it up too high. You could ask them to count the breaths (I usually do up to 5 and then start again - if they get lost or the mind wanders then non-judgementally start at 1 again). You could also ask them to say up and down as he rises and falls. This helps keep a bit of an anchor and focus on the activity. I tried this for literally about 15-30 seconds but you could do longer with a slightly older child. Next step is to try without counting. I did this again for maybe only 10s following straight on from the counting phase. Ask them to watch teddy gently rising and falling and to feel him on their tummy as he moves. If they prefer either with or without counting then you could just do that.
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Sending kindly / friendly wishes. This is adapted from a Buddhist Metta Bhavna meditation, but is really a very non-religious activity and can certainly be modified to fit all different beliefs. The aim is to encourage development of thoughtfulness, compassion and kindness for the self and others. Again a good exercise for bedtime.
Ask the child to send friendly wishes to themselves, imagining that they are happy, having fun, healthy and safe with friends and family.
Then send wishes to a close family member. E.g. "Daddy, I want you to be happy, healthy and strong. I want you to feel lots of love in your life. I want you to get home from work early so you can play with me. I hope you always feel peaceful, calm and are always safe.
Then send kindly wishes to others including friends and family, people they’ve met, they haven’t met yet but would like to, and finally to all living things in the whole world.
“I hope you are happy, healthy and have fun. That you have enough to eat and drink, and people around to love and care for you. I hope you find ways to overcome any difficulties you are facing. I hope for you to be safe and healthy and live a happy life…”
Finally end back with kindly wishes to the child themselves once more.
Older children can send kindly wishes to people who they are having difficulties with but this may be too challenging for young children.
I did this with my daughter recently - a VERY brief version for a 3-year old at bedtime, we stuck with people she knows (she could choose). I think she finds the concept quite abstract so it’s something we will work on very slowly.
For a very talkative child, my feeling is that you might be better off starting with some kind of mindfulness of movement as it may be she has a lot of energy and many children (and adults) find sitting still for long periods very difficult and quite stressful, so the opposite of gaining calmness and relaxation. I personally like mindfuness of walking (some info here http://www.wildmind.org/walking). Classically you focus on the movement of lifting and placing your feet on the ground. I think this could be easily adapted for children - ask them to move in different ways and choose a different part of the body to focus on each time. For example, lets walk around the room. Notice your feet, now do they feel, what is the carpet like underneath, are they warm or cold, what happens with each step. How does it change when you take different types of steps, walk on tiptoes, walk really slowly or run. You could make this into a kind of game - maybe musical statues - where when you say stop, they try to keep still and notice one part of the body. Mindfulness is simply awareness and being present about what is going on in both mind and body, so it is not essential to be completely silent or still. Lying down and then rolling gentlly around whilst noticing the feel of the ground on your body might also be good.
In the Mindful child, the author talks about a Pendulum game for those who find it hard to sit still. The child sits cross legged and gently sways from side to side and stays aware of the movement. You can beat a drum to help keep time and they could try to breath gently in time with the movements.
Anyway, I’m going to keep reading and happy to post the exercises here - it will help keep me focussed. Looking forward to hearing other people’s insight and experiences.
