MINDFULNESS MONDAY: Teach Your Children Well

We’ve talked a lot about mindfulness and how it can benefit us as adults, but can it work for the next generation?

It’s been a difficult year for kids. There has been much upheaval and shifts in learning and socialization. Not only does this effect their learning and friendships, it can have an impact on their mental health. How can mindfulness help?

By being gentle with themselves and accepting of how the present moment is playing out, it might just lower stress levels and bring some relief. And it can be fun, too.

It’s beneficial for kids of all ages to have tricks up their sleeve that help them reduce anxiety in a healthy way; even from their earliest years, learning to just ‘be’ and grow can elicit frustration with language, their bodies and their peers. Life becomes complicated as they start to work through school pressures, relationships and burgeoning independence. 

Simple mindfulness techniques can help our kids with self-awareness, listening to themselves and decreasing self-criticism.  If we help children instigate some practices early, they will become habitual. And it’s not too late to encourage this even if your children are slightly older, too. Hopefully these practices will stay with them into adulthood. 

As parents, sometimes we want to ‘fix’ what is bothering them, but surely it will also be of benefit if we show them how to get relief from difficult experiences. 

Even as adults, our brains don’t stop changing and developing - however, the prefrontal cortex (the zone that deals with cognitive control and focus) is creating pathways at an incredible rate during childhood, laying the foundations of self-control, impulsivity and decision-making.

How do our children learn mindfulness best? I’m afraid I need to pull out the ‘M’ word again... MODELING. The best way they learn is by watching and imitating us, their caregivers and parents. If we don’t exhibit mindfulness and grace in our own lives, it’s unlikely the child will. It isn’t a subject to be taught (though some mindfulness games/hints can be useful as a springboard), but something to be practiced and lived. 

If we allow ourselves to practice mindfulness for a few minutes on a daily basis, not only will it benefit our own stressful lives as adults and parents, it will have a knock-on effect with the younger generation, showing them that we can accept and look after ourselves without being a martyr to outside stressors. 

One mindfulness exercise for kids (and big kids!)

Make up a little ‘cue card’ for your child which says: “When I’m mindful I notice the things I can -

A. see, 

B. touch, 

C. hear, 

D. smell, and 

E. taste.  

Can I do those 5 things right now when I’m feeling anxious?”

Encourage them to pause and practice this when they can.