A Month of Mindfulness: Week 2
Hands-on ideas to share with your children day-by-day
This is Part 2. See Part 1 of the series here.
In this hustle culture, we are rewarded continuously for being busy, productive, and multi-tasking, which means our brains are always occupied by at least five different things we want to do, are doing, or need to be done. When the pandemic closed down everything, the brain that had a constant stream of stimuli was forced to slow down. I won’t lie. When it happened to me, it wasn’t easy. Even after daily meditation, it was downright painful to slow down actively. It took me almost 25 years and a global pandemic to realize I don’t know how to relax or slow down. Our children’s worlds are not significantly different than ours. Continuously being occupied with school, extra-curricular, friends, and screen time, they live their own PG-13 hustle culture. Practicing daily mindfulness ensures they exercise the muscle of slowing down. Unlike me, they don’t have to wait for another pandemic to have their epiphany.
Mindfulness also helps build the 21st Century skills our children need to survive and thrive in tomorrow’s world. Mindfulness impacts children’s cognitive functioning, mainly executive functioning. Executive functions are our abilities to self-regulate, manage emotions, plan, organize, and analyze information. Practicing mindfulness affects the overall mental health and well-being of children. The pandemic is one of the crises our children will face in their lifetimes. Having a self-care habit that allows them to take care of their minds and bodies helps sustain well-being. Another bonus benefit of mindfulness is that it increases self-esteem in children. Many children struggle with body-image or identities as they enter the teenage phase. Mindfulness helps children build self-esteem through self-acceptance and self-compassion.
I guess that’s enough motivation to continue our journey into week 2 of a month of mindfulness.
Breathing Exercise for the week:
Starfish Meditation
You can also call this five finger meditation, but I like the playful element of calling it starfish meditation.
- Sit in a comfortable position.
- Close your eyes and take three big deep breathes in through your nose and out through your mouth.
- Spread your fingers of one hand out wide like a starfish in front of you.
- Using your other hand’s index finger, slowly trace the hand.
- As you trace up the thumb, inhale through your nose.
- Take a pause on the top and as you trace down the thumb on the other side, exhale through your mouth.
- Repeat this with all the other fingers, until you have reached the end of your little pinky finger.
- Repeat the same exercise with your other hand
Sunday
Spidey-Senses
If your kids are into super-hero movies, then they will love this mindfulness practice.
- Warm-up by talking to your children about five senses — sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell.
- Ask them to turn on their superpower senses to spiderman level, i.e., how they are always aware of their surroundings.
- Ask them to notice and observe
- What do they see right now?
- What do you hear right now?
- What do you taste right now?
- What do you smell right now?
- What do you feel right now?
- Another variation of these spidey senses is to ask:
- Five things you can see
- Four things you can hear
- Three things you can feel
- Two things you can smell
- One thing you can taste
Pro-Tip: You can also turn this into an art activity where the children can draw the things they see, hear, feel, smell, and taste or have them write down their favorite sights, sounds, texture, smells, and taste.
Guiding question
- Ask them if they notice something in their superpower state that they hadn’t noticed before. For example, the feeling of the wind on their face or the feeling of clothes on their body.
Monday
Self Portrait
Things needed: Paper, Pencil, Art Supplies
- Your children can make their portrait on drawing sheets, or you can switch up this activity to have more fun by creating a life-size picture of themselves.
- Ask your children to draw themselves.
- They can either look at themselves in the mirror while drawing or draw from memory. It can be hard to remember your features.
- If you are doing the life-size version, ask your child to lay down on the paper while you trace their body outline.
- If your children are older, ask these questions before they begin drawing.
- What kind of hairstyle do you want?
- What kind of clothes do you want to be wearing?
- What expressions do you want to have on your face?
- Do you want to hold anything in your hand in your portrait?
Pro-Tip:
- It is also helpful to have a conversation about self-acceptance if your children are older. Remind them that they are beautiful.
- Ask your children to name their drawing as ‘The ___________ Me’ where the blank can be any word they want like beautiful, amazing, awesome, unique, powerful, strong.
- You can also ask them to write all the words they associate with themselves around the portrait.
Tuesday
Tense and Relax
This one is longer and has more guided instructions.
- Lie down and relax your body.
- Close your eyes and take three deep breaths to calm yourself.
- Continue breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth as we proceed.
- You can guide your children through this activity.
- Start with your face — close your eyes shut, press your lips together, scrunch your eyebrows, and wrinkle your nose. Squeeze your face for one deep breath and then slowly relax your face and make everything soft.
- Next, we will focus on the shoulders — press your shoulders up closer to your ears. Do this for one deep breath and relax your neck and shoulders.
- Now imagine that your arms are made of wood. Stiffen them up and pull them closer to your body. Tense your arms and hands for one deep breath. Relax slowly and make your arms soft
- Now let us focus on your hands. Imagine you have two squishy balls in your hand. Press them as tight as you can for one cycle of breath, relax and wiggle your fingers.
- Focus your attention on your chest and belly. Tighten it up and squeeze your belly muscles. Relax after one deep breath.
- Now it is time to tense your bum. Tense it, take a deep breath, and relax.
- Coming down, it is time to tense your legs. Imagine you have wooden legs that have stiffened up. Tense for one breath and relax
- Last, before we end, tense your feet, curl your toes. Relax and breathe
- Now, tense your whole body, take one breath and relax!
Guiding Questions
- How are you feeling?
- Did you notice that some of your body parts were already tensed?
- Next time you are angry or sad, notice if you are tensing your body and slowly relax.
Wednesday
Happy Feet
This can get slightly messy, but during the pandemic, we can let cleanliness slide for once!
Things needed: Papers, paint.
- Use this activity to help your children ground down with a little fun.
- Pour some paint on a plate or container big enough to fit your children’s feet.
- Spread the paper on the floor.
- Ask the children to dip their feet in the paint and slowly walk on paper, feeling the sensations in their feet as they walk.
- Children can use different colors and walk mindfully at home when they can not step out.
Pro-Tip: Make them clean up later to teach responsibility (haha)!
Thursday
Affirmations
Affirmations can be powerful when done consistently. That is why your children must make their affirmations.
Things needed: Paper and art supplies.
- Along with your children, create five affirmations.
- Ask them to include things they believe about themselves, their goals, and things they can’t do yet.
- Sample affirmations — I get better every day, I can do hard things, I am creative.
- Encourage your child to say their affirmations in the morning, before bed, or before mealtime.
- A better idea is having a visual representation (drawing or collage) of their affirmations where they can see every day.
- You can also affirm your children using the affirmations they have chosen. Hug them and tell them they are loved, and they are wonderful.
Friday
Kids Yoga
Yoga has been one of the practices that have allowed me to be present, especially when I am trying to balance postures. If you have practiced yoga, you know what I am talking about. You are perfectly balanced as long as your present, the moment your mind starts wandering, your end up wobbling.
Instead of me suggesting videos, there are a lot of kids yoga postures and videos on the internet, that you can explore. You will find experts training your children to be mindful.
Saturday
Blind drawing
This one is more fun with a partner
Things you need — Paper, pencil, colors
- Choose a partner, or take an object if you don’t have a partner
- Parents can become partners too. Playtime with your children is a great bonding time.
- Remember to wash your hands properly if you are working with a partner.
- Feel the face of your partner with one hand.
- Using the other hand, draw the partner’s face on the paper.
- Feel the outlines of the face and the texture.
- Repeat this exercise with eyes closed.
- Compare both the drawings
Guiding questions
- What did you notice when you were touching your partner’s face or an object?
- How are your drawings different?
Here goes another week of mindfulness. We are almost half-way through.
Enjoy the present of being present!
