Simple Mindfulness Activities
Focus on the Breath
Create space for you & your child’s mindfulness practice through simple breathing practice.
“I am rooted, but I flow.” -Virginia Woolf.
It is important for you the parent to have your own mindfulness practice. Children learn much more from how we engage in the world than what we say to them. There are two types of mindful practice:
Formal when you sit down and meditate.
Informal when you go about your daily tasks in a mindful manner.
Try these 1 minute mindfulness practices:
Allow yourself time to incorporate this 1 minute breathing meditation into your day to ground you.
You can teach your child (age 3-6)belly breathing: Lie alongside your child and put a teddy on their tummy, put your hands on your bellies and watch them and the teddy go up when you breathe in and down when you breathe out.
For the older child (age 7-11) Ask them to try 4-6 breathing: This is wonderful for adults too.
The inhale lasts for four counts and the exhale lasts for six counts. This is a wonderful way to calm down if we are in fight or flight mode. You can compare it to balloon inflating and deflating.
Or to smelling a flower and blowing out a candle.
One minute of breathing like this helps us to realign by calming the parasympathetic system.
Try out the Guided Meditations on this website for children, teenagers and adults.
Emotions board/ charades
You can try this with your child. You can print out the emotions or in this case a 6 year old drew her own and I wrote the corresponding word. She chose to keep all the emotions on the left and place how she is feeling on the right under ‘TODAY’.
This is a great way to help a child become aware of what they are feeling and why. It can open up conversation regarding why they feel that way and how it feels in their body or how it causes them to behave. All emotions are observed and accepted.
You can also choose to randomly pick cards with the emotions on them and play emotions charades. This works very well with smaller children too.
Noticing Joy & Mindful Play
The more mindful you become the more open you are to being playful, anytime or any place. Your five senses are more alive to the sound of a song, the smell of a flower or the rain drops on your face.
Human brains are hardwired to focus on negative events or threats. This can lead to paying less attention to neutral or positive events. Noticing Joy is when we intentionally notice moments of happiness.
Children do this naturally and will find fun in nearly all circumstances. If we are mindfully noticing we can follow their lead. “There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” ― Alfred Wainwright.
You can encourage your child to maintain this natural way of being it just takes 1 minute: Simply by pointing out how happy they seem and asking them how does it feel?
William Blake describes it perfectly in his poem Eternity.
He who binds to himself a joy. Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies. Lives in eternity's sun rise.
Mindfulness & Creativity
Any activity can be approached in a mindful manner. Painting, drawing, playing a game, even reading are all wonderful ways of getting into the flow. Here are some other ideas:
Collecting items in nature, stones or shells and painting them.
Gardening together, either planting little seeds or watering plants.
Mindful coloring. There is a vast variety of sheets you can print out free from online or pick up a coloring book. You can also contact me and I will email you some mindful colouring sheets.
It’s a wonderful way to relax and an activity that can be engaged in quietly alongside each other. Lighting a candle and putting on relaxing instrumental music can create the right environment.
The Mindful Walk
Nature is the ultimate mindfulness playground. Mindful walks are a great opportunity for you and your child to explore and observe your environment. The goal is to notice as many things as possible on the walk. Sometimes if we are quiet we can experience our surrounds in a whole new way. Children love to touch, feel and smell flowers and trees. It’s grounding and calming for them.
Explore ordinary places - Once outside you can easily engage all the senses: Ask your child what can you see, hear, taste, feel, smell.
You can encourage children to try these simple ideas:
For age 3-6: after the walk draw pictures together of what you saw. You can compare them to previous walks to see what might have changed. You can also do a nature treasure hunt.
For age 7-11: List 10 things you can do that will look after your environment. Research who used to live in your neighborhood, take photos and find old one online to compare how much things have changed.
Practice Gratitude
Research shows people who practice gratitude are happier than those who do not!
Ask you child what was the best thing/ top 3 things about your day?
Ask them to spend 30 seconds thinking about one thing they are thankful for and why.
If a child is having a hard time it is important to acknowledge that and include AND.
For example you could say ‘I hear you when you say you were disappointed you did not get player of the match AND you are thankful for the cuddles from our pet dog.’
This helps the child to remember the good and to keep the hard thing in perspective.
Do the gratitude alphabet
Encourage your child to find one thing beginning with each letter of the alphabet that they are grateful for. Even better do it together.
Being present in your relationships
To be there for our children we must look after and enjoy ourselves and ensure we have adult company too.
Make the most of the company of a friend or family member.
Relish the experience of conversation or an activity together.
Really listening, hearing and seeing each other nourishes us.
Good food, company and laughter are all enhanced when we are really present in the moment.
