Mindfulness for Children

It is with great pleasure that we can tell about our new collaboration with Pia and Jannik Holgersen from Mindfulness for Children. They have provided three meditation exercises and three exercises with natural sounds for the MY INNER ME app. If you like the exercises, they have even more in their universe.

FINDING PEACE

5:50 min

A calming meditation.

Finding Peace combines breathing and visualisation. Its focus on breathing has a calming effect. When a little extra peace or quiet is needed in your child’s daily life, they can use the breathing technique learned in this exercise to relax.

CONNECTING BREATHING, BODY, THOUGHTS, AND FEELINGS

4:35 min

A mediation to help children and adults become more familiar with their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations.

The Connecting Breathing, Body, Thoughts and Feelings meditation has a profoundly calming and self-assuring effect.

The ability to feel empathy is also improved. When we feel safe and confident about our own emotions, we feel more comfortable with the feelings of others – we broaden our understanding of other people.

After completing this meditation with your child, it’s helpful to talk about what thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations you and your child experienced. Children develop greater awareness when they can describe their physical sensations and how they can change. They learn that thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations are something you have – not something you are.

You can help them understand that if they become angry, they have a feeling, but they are not mad. If they were, they would disappear when the feeling went away!

Remember that it’s important not to put your own words into your child’s mouth. The most important instruction to the adult participant is to listen; do not provide your child with explanations or suggestions. Show respect if your child has nothing to say. That’s OK. Over time, when your child becomes more familiar with the exercise, that may change.

INNER PLACE

12:20 min

Focused attention is practised in this body-scanning meditation for children five years of age and older.

Focused attention is the ability to keep your attention focused on one thing, consciously shutting out distractions that are irrelevant to your chosen focus.

By guiding your awareness of the different parts of your body, your attention is given a focus. Naturally, thoughts will occur in the process; they are acknowledged without judgment, and then, your attention is turned back to your body.

The Inner Place meditation helps children learn that the process of focusing on their own body while tuning out all other thoughts and distractions can become a mental haven for them in times of stress.

Seeing their bodies as an oasis from stress, always available to them, also helps children appreciate their bodies and leads to body confidence and self-acceptance.