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2 days ago · This gives them time to decide what they want to do about the upsetting feeling, rather than reacting immediately. For example, mindfulness can help them feel less anxious. It can stop them from having a tantrum if they are frustrated or angry. One mindfulness coach helps kids understand it by having them find their “still, quiet place.”
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Dec 6, 2023 · Mindfulness practices can help children to quiet their minds, pay attention to a single task at hand, and enhance their concentration. This can help them at school, where they’re learning and navigating relationships outside the home. 3. Stress reduction. Kids can experience stress, whether from schoolwork, peer interactions, or family dynamics.
Oct 18, 2016 · Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for children (MBCT-C) has also been shown to help improve attention and behavior problems, and reduce anxiety in kids who started out with high anxiety levels.
Sep 18, 2018 · Here are seven evidence-based ways that practicing mindfulness meditation can help children: It can give kids the habit of focusing on the present moment and ignoring distractions.
- Overview
- What is mindfulness, exactly?
- Benefits of mindfulness for kids
- Techniques to use with infants
- Techniques to use with toddlers and preschoolers
- Techniques to use with elementary school-age kids
- Techniques to use with tweens and teens
- The takeaway
Parenting is hard work. There are so many ages and stages — and they go by super fast. You may feel like you’re hanging on for dear life. Or maybe you’re in search of some new tricks to try when the going gets rough.
Whatever the case may be, mindfulness is more than just a parenting tactic. It’s a way of life, and it may help your kids (and you!) with far more than just tantrums or sibling spats.
Mindfulness is a practice all about living in the moment. The focus is brought to the thoughts and feelings you’re experiencing in the now without adding a layer of judgement or over-thinking.
Sometimes mindfulness can take the form of meditation, using guided imagery or breathing to get in tune with the body and mind. Other times, mindfulness is employed using different methods to lessen stress and otherwise relax.
With kids, the goal of mindfulness is to help them move beyond thoughts of the past or future that may be draining, negative, or worrisome. Instead, it’s giving children the tools they need to connect with what’s going on in their world at the present moment. It’s about empowering them to accept their current thoughts and feelings and to form healthy habits for coping with all the big emotions they may have.
Related: 14 mindfulness tricks to reduce anxiety
There are a number of benefits to mindfulness that have science backing them. In short, a meditation or mindfulness practice may help with anything from anxiety and chronic pain to insomnia and depression. Specifically with kids, the research surrounds the sorts of parenting challenges that leave caregivers feeling the most baffled or bewildered.
You may not think tiny babies would know what’s going on… much less understand a big concept like mindfulness.
While babies may not be able to articulate their feelings with anything but crying, infants as young as 6 to 8 weeks of age can recognize voices and the scents of their parents. Mindfulness at this age may be about tapping into those budding senses.
Really, though, at this stage it might be mostly about you developing more mindfulness as a parent so that you’re better able to help your child learn it as they grow.
Practicing daily infant massage may be one way to start a mindfulness practice with your baby. To begin, wait about 45 minutes after a feeding so your baby won’t spit up milk. Tune in to your baby’s cues — notice if they’re calm and alert or fussy.
Use gentle pressure to massage your child. You might start on their stomach and then work the head, neck, shoulders, and other parts of the body for around a minute in each area — between 5 and 10 minutes total. Go about this slowly and calmly, paying attention to how your little one responds to your gaze and touch.
Researched possible benefits of infant massage may include enhanced bond between baby and caregiver, better sleep/relaxation, positive boost in hormones that control stress, and reduced crying.
Meditation with a 3-year-old? Maybe not. Kids in this age group are all about testing limits and gaining independence. This means lots of tantrums and tough moments for parents and tots alike. You’ve probably heard of the “terrible twos.”
Mindfulness strategies for tots revolve around the senses and getting kids to recognize what they’re feeling on the inside before acting out in a negative way.
Children in grade school deal with many situations at home and at school that test their emotions, focus, and ability to handle themselves. Now that kids have more language, they may better use techniques to further their mindfulness practice.
Experts at Concordia University explain that when kids this age feel overwhelmed, they can now take a step back and ask themselves questions like, “Am I confused? Hungry? Tired? Do I need to take a breath?”
As kids get older (and even grow into young adults), many of these same techniques are still useful. Expert and mindfulness coach Karen Bluth says that at this age, kids may be particularly skeptical and even resistant to trying mindfulness techniques, so it’s all about presentation.
Tips:
•Space matters. Bluth taught at-risk teens different techniques and says that the room in which the teens practiced had a big impact on their overall experience. Have your tween or teen relax in a space that doesn’t produce negative emotions. In this case, it took moving from a classroom to a gymnasium. In your home, this may mean moving to a quiet room away from siblings or handheld devices.
•Play it cool. Teens may not want to be told to try mindfulness techniques. Instead, it’s good if the idea is presented to them and they get to choose whether or not they want to participate. Pushing the idea may backfire. Try gently suggesting.
•Model. Yeah, it’s important to practice what you preach — even with the tween/teen set. If your child is particularly resistant to the idea, try your best not to judge. Bluth says to “trust that they will participate when they are ready.”
•Try a variety of techniques. If straight meditation doesn’t work for your teen, offer many options, like yoga, body scans, breathing exercises, or guided imagery. The specific technique doesn’t matter so much as your teen’s desire to engage.
The research so far on teaching mindfulness to children has mostly been done with organized programs, usually in a therapeutic (and possibly school) setting. But it may very well be beneficial for you as a parent to teach these principles to your kids.
In fact, incorporating mindfulness techniques into everyday life may have powerful effects on your child — and on your overall family culture. If one technique doesn’t speak to your little one, try something else. Every person is different, so what works for you may not be as compelling to your 4-year-old or tween.
- Ashley Marcin
Preschool children: A few minutes per day. Gradeschool children: 3-10 minutes twice a day. Teens and adults: 5-45 minutes per day or more based on preference. Try incorporating deep breathing into your children's daily bedtime routine—it can help them wind down for the night and make meditation easier to do when other situations arise.
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Aug 8, 2023 · Simple mindfulness exercises may be able to help kids find new emotional balance. Exercises to promote mindfulness — nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment — have been shown to reduce rumination, improve focus, and help children and adults feel less anxious and stressed. “We know that mindfulness skills help kids who have ...
