Mindfulness with Kids: Simple & Proven Practices to Explore
We’re full swing with the holiday season, a season of joy, but also one of stress, overwhelm and big expectations. If you’re raising little humans you know how challenging this time of year can be. Every day there’s something exciting happening, but if your kids are like mine it’s also an emotional rollercoaster. Everyday emotions can be a lot to handle, but add on the power of the holiday season, and as much as we want it to all be fun, our kiddos can be under more stress and overwhelm than we often realize. For that reason I’m devoting this month’s blog posts to providing resources for how to support our children with mindfulness practices.
In some ways I feel like our kids are wired for stress from a young age. With their role models having packed & busy schedules they see what that is on a daily basis, and can mimic that in their own schedule, feeling rushed and overwhelmed. I have every bit of confidence that we’re all we’re doing our best to provide our kids with full and enriching lives - I know I am, and I certainly know you are too. However, full schedules, endless activities and constant stimulation can leave them with stress and anxiety at a very young age.
Whether your kiddo is flexible and easy going, rigid and stubborn, or somewhere in-between, I believe we can all benefit from mindfulness practices and the earlier we start the better! We owe it to our kids to give them tools - ones we can do together, and they can do on their own, so they can navigate the world they live in feeling grounded and confident. In case you missed it, check out last week’s blog which uncovered the top 8 proven benefits of mindfulness practices with children. It makes no difference whether you have mindfulness practices you implement in your own life, or whether this is new to you and your child, wherever you are is the perfect place to start. There’s no better time then now to dig in, have curiosity and explore new options. I love the act of sharing mindfulness practices with my daughters, because it’s a bonding activity, and simultaneously teaching amazing tools to take with them as they grow.
Parenting can feel helpless and frustrating, and there have been many times when I wish for a magical wand to make a situation better. Consider the practices below to be magical wands. Make it fun, be curious and experiment; most of all, remember you have nothing to lose! If you try something and hate it, move on, but if you’re open to exploring options I promise you’ll find mindfulness practices that will serve your little humans and give them very powerful tools to support their journey.
Top 3 Mindfulness Practices to Explore
Now the ever present question, “Great, this sounds helpful, I’d love to help my kids feel more grounded and confident, but where in the heck would I even start?!” Let’s make it simple, as always. I’m sharing my best go-to mindfulness practices, that have been tested in our home time and time again. The beauty is they cost absolutely nothing and you can start experimenting this moment. As I said, what better time than the present to give it a-go? Here are my building blocks for instilling mindfulness practices with our kids
Deep Breathing
Breath is the foundation, and building block of our existence. Breath regulates our central nervous system and can quickly bring our bodies down from fight-or-flight. For this reason, if my daughter is screaming, panicking and having an outburst, you’ll most likely hear me say “take a deep breath.” This can be hard for kids, their mind is spinning and body is racing, but teaching the power of breath is incredibly helpful. First off, it gives them a tool that’s available in any given moment of the day, so if they’re overwhelmed at school they can slow down their breath and instantly feel a shift. Secondly, if we can help them to understand how to take big belly breaths and slow exhales, perhaps even counting to 3 or 4 with each inhale & exhale, it becomes something they can focus on instead of the overwhelm. Shifting their thoughts to the breath will calm their body. The more we practice this technique with our kids in moments of calm, the more it helps them in the chaos & meltdowns.
Bonus - By showing your kids how to breath deeply it also calms our own central nervous system. As you’re counting and giving them the cues to breath big, you’re intuitively telling your body to do the same - win win!
Learn More: Box breathing is an incredibly powerful breathing technique, super easy to follow, but so effective at relieving stress and anxiety. Visit my blog, How to Reset with One Minute of Mindfulness, to learn more.
Emotional Freedom Technique (aka EFT Tapping)
EFT Tapping is a go-to in our house. In case this term is new to you, let me break it down. EFT is an evidence based technique used to release physical pain, negative emotions, limiting beliefs, food cravings, fears, phobias, childhood traumas, anxiety, grief and stress. The technique involves self-applied tapping on meridian end points (similar to acupressure) in combination with a specific type of modern talk therapy. Thru this technique, your body is allowed to heal itself naturally, break through barriers about yourself, and move forward from your past experiences. EFT can facilitate freedom to live your most authentic life!
This is an amazing technique for all ages, but to help kids understand what it looks & feels like, there’s an amazing book I recommend. The book is called “Gorilla Thumps and Bear Hugs” and this was the building block for me to tap with my daughter. This can be found on my Favorite Things page, along with an amazing tapping book I used to deepen my own practice.
Learn More: Visit my blog, EFT Tapping: Woo-woo or life-changing? (Demystifying emotional freedom technique), to learn more. And as a sneak peek, I’m going to dig into this technique in next week’s blog, showing exactly how we use the technique in my family’s daily lives.
Disconnecting
One of my favorite ways to reset is to disconnect is by leaving screens behind and going to play. Old fashioned imagination play with our kids can be so powerful. Our go-to is playing kitchen, where the girls create an elaborate restaurant - one is a server while the other the chef, and the menu is always Michelin worthy. When kids are overwhelmed it can be easy to want to let their mind slow down by watching a show or playing a game on the phone, but it’s been my experience has been that this stimulation frankly makes things worse. In the moment they may calm down but then it’s worse when they disconnect.
Here are my pointers in this area, because I know that screen time can be a triggering topic. First is to establish boundaries. Determine what feels good and right to you, and most importantly aligns with your family values. Use that as a starting point, it will likely change, but it’s a good place to begin. Secondly, let go of comparison. This is so important, and the sooner you do so, the more free and confident you’ll feeI in your choices. I know that my choices don’t work for everyone, and vice versa, and I’m perfectly ok with that. I feel confident that I’m supporting my daughters in a way that feels right to us as parents. We don’t look like everyone else, but we have experimented and found boundaries that work for our family. I encourage you to do the same. Comparison will only lead you to feelings of inadequacy and unhappiness, let it go, and begin to feel empowered and confident in your choices. The best part is that confidence is contagious and you’ll see it come thru in your little ones as well.
Learn More: Visit my blog, Understanding the Power of Disconnecting, to learn more.
Have you figured out my secret underlying message? Mindfulness practices apply to all ages! We often don’t consider them until we’re older, but think of what a beautiful support system we’d be providing our children if we taught these practices to them as they’re little? I love to imagine the idea of my young daughters being teenagers, and as they’re dealing with all that goes along with that age range, they can go to their room and tap or breath and feel a sense of calm again.
This week I encourage you to pick one practice to try with you child. Start small, and simply be curious, and see where it leads you. I do recommend introducing these ideas in a casual way, not when the child is mid-meltdown. I’m a big fan of introducing new ideas during car rides, I like to think they’re more likely to listen to me since it’s a captive audience! So there’s your homework, pick one, and share it in the comments below so I can support your journey!
If this blog has left you inspired to explore more mindfulness practices, check out The Truth Behind Mindfulness for Kids!