Mindfulness For Children and Parents

Teaching Mindfulness to Children

Mindfulness has a natural, child like quality to it. When you are being mindful, you are connecting with your own inner sense of curiosity, wonder and innocence. In this sense, children are naturally mindful. Unfortunately, due to excessive use of modern technology and high levels of fear and stress, children need to be taught different techniques so that they have ways of coping with the various pressures placed upon them.

Here are some things to remember when teaching your child to be mindful:

- Be light-hearted rather than serious. If you can make the mindfulness exercises into a game, you are more likely to succeed in encouraging your child to try them out.

- Keep the mindfulness exercises short - children cannot focus for as long as adults, so a few minutes may be more than enough

- Avoid pressure - if you force your child to be mindful, you loose the freedom and joy of mindfulness and the exercise is no longer a mindful one

- Be patient - you're not likely to be successful every time you try to teach your child to be mindful. Experiment with different techniques and see what works.

There are lots of little mindfulness exercises you can do with your child. For example, if you child is very young, you can ask them to lie down and place a teddy bear on their belly. Then, ask them to become aware of the teddy bear rising and falling as they breathe in and out. Ask them if they can make the teddy bear move up and down more slowly. At the end, ask them how they feel compared to how they felt at the beginning of the 'teddy bear meditation'! 

Mindful Parenting

Parenting is the most difficult, important and rewarding job in the world. Mindfulness can really give you a helping hand so that you can manage your stress levels and be more present for your child. Everyone knows that children need love, but that love comes from giving attention. That's why children who are sadly not given enough love become 'attention-seeking'. Mindfulness is about training you to giving attention and so is ideal for parenting. A mindful parent practises mindfulness meditation on a regular basis, makes time for their children and gives them their full attention and warmth and also looks after themselves. Parenting is a tiring business and so you need to make time for you. As you learn to become more mindful, you become more aware of your own needs and learn to look after yourself in creative ways. 

Here are some tips:

- The heart of mindful parenting involving practising some mindfulness meditation on a daily basis, whether you choose to practise for 5 minutes or 45 minutes, a daily routine is very helpful

- Use opportunities when you are with your child to give them your full attention rather than constantly multi-tasking. Just as you get annoyed when someone doesn't give you their attention, so children feel frustrated when their parents are constantly ignoring them.

- Try and see things from your child's perspective. This may help you to be a little more patient.

- Take time to look after yourself. You could treat yourself to a night out, or go for a mindful walk from time to time or take on a new hobby to take your mind off things for a while. Although these may sound like difficult things to find time to do, if you make the effort, you'll feel better in the long run and will gain in energy. Mindfulness is about being kind and understanding towards yourself as well as others.

- See the fun side of things when you can. Mindfulness is not about being hyper-aware and serious all the time. See if you can laugh at your own imperfections as well as those of your child.

Here's a couple of books I recommend. Mindfulness For Dummies has a chapter on mindfulness for children and parents, and the 'Mindful Child' is all about that subject. Check them out :)

Your comments and questions would be more that welcome - Thank you!