Tips For Mindfulness Practice
“Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.”
Mindfulness = Exercising Attention
More than half of the time our minds are wandering and going a million miles a minute, mindfulness practice helps you take a step back and simply acknowledge your thoughts without actually diving into them. Think of sitting on the side of the road and watching the cars go by, except instead of cars it’s your thoughts.
Constant practice has shown to have substantial benefits like decreased anxiety, better focus, happier thoughts, greater confidence, and a strategic way to cope with stress.
Do you know any little human that wouldn’t benefit from that?
Getting started with mindfulness can seem daunting. How do you get a kid to sit down long enough to “observe their own thoughts” if they’re bouncing off the walls half the time? We make it fun for them. Also, patience. Lots and lots of patience.
Here are a few tips when practicing mindfulness with little ones:
Explain - We all know kids like to know WHY, so let’s start there. A great way to engage cooperation and excitement is to explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. You can always present mindfulness as a superpower training - because mindfulness really is like a superpower! Invite them to join in if they’d like, but don’t force them.
Let them pick something - There are countless ways you can practice mindfulness. With body scans, kindness exercises, observing tastes and smells, etc.. you can let them pick what sounds great to them in that particular moment. This ensures that they’re more involved when it comes down to the practice.
Roleplay - Pretend you’re an alien that’s come down from space and you don’t understand anything. This makes it fun and imaginative while still allowing them to explore. If you’re being mindful of taste, pretend the alien has never seen a grape before. What does the alien notice? If you’re practicing mindfulness through body scans you can pretend the alien has never seen toes and fingers. Can they feel their heart beating? What is going on in their fingers? Let’s face it, everything is more fun when you pretend to be an alien.
It’s ok if it doesn’t plan out - Mindfulness is hard and it takes practice. If you find that it’s not working out the first few times, try doing it for a shorter amount of time. Maybe start off with a mindful minute and work your way into more as they start to get used to the practice. Anything is better than nothing!
Diving into something like mindfulness can seem overwhelming because there are so many places where you can start. If you’re looking for a little help to get you started with your little humans download our FREE mindfulness exercise that you can use with your tiny human today.
I know there are a million other things on your plate, that’s why I’ve taken all the hard work out of it so that you can simply follow the steps and enjoy some mindfulness practice alongside your little ones.
Happy training!
