5 Meditation Guidelines to Help Kids Practice Mindfulness
Recently, the term mindfulness has become increasingly popular, including children's development and education. Actually, what is meant by mindfulness? In general, mindfulness focuses entirely on what is being done, or self-awareness of the moment where we are. A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry stated that mindfulness in children can improve the quality of children's learning processes and their social relationships. Mindfulness will help children focus, reduce stress, recognize and control emotions and feel empathy.
There are many ways you can teach your children mindfulness.
One of them is using meditation, which is different from the method of
meditation for adults. Through meditation, the child will learn to control his
body, energy and emotions, things that are needed to practice mindfulness. Do
you want to know the correct way of meditation to help children apply
mindfulness in their daily lives? Check out the following tips:
1. Do it in a fun way
This is the most significant difference between a child and
an adult's way of meditation. Child meditation needs to be done in a way that
is attractive to children and in language that is also interesting and easy to
understand. For example, if an adult can easily follow the "feel your
breath" instructions, then the child could substitute the instruction by
asking him to place a small toy on his stomach and watch how the toy will move
up and down with his breath. Want to teach your child to take deep breaths?
Just ask him to move the toy on his stomach as slowly as possible.
 |
| Kids Meditation - Cute little child gurl meditating alone in lotus pose at lake shore with namaskar gesture in windy |
2. Take advantage of the child's imagination
It is not easy to explain how to meditate to children because
children still have difficulty understanding abstract concepts. However,
children have an imagination that you can use to make meditation more
comfortable and more enjoyable. For example, so that your child can sit still,
invite him to pretend to be a statue for a few counts. The winner is the one
who can become the statue the longest.
3. Give an example
Your little one likes to imitate adults because, in this way,
he feels like an adult too. So, the best way to invite children to meditate is
to do meditation.
4. do it for a moment
Given the short attention span of children and they're the tendency to quickly get bored, the correct way to meditate for children is to
do it for a while. A guide to determining the time is the child's age plus 1. If
the child is eight years old, then the appropriate meditation time is 9
minutes.
 |
| Meditation for Kids - Breathing |
5. Ask how their experience was
After the meditation session is over, ask them to share
their experiences earlier. This part can also be done via drawing. Ask the
children to describe their experiences or feelings before and after meditation.
This method will help the child to identify himself and express it. Mothers
need to be supportive of what they have to say because there is nothing wrong
with this.