A Month of Mindfulness: Week 1

Hands-on ideas to share with your children day-by-day

Photo by Nicola Fioravanti on Unsplash

This is part 1 of the series “A Month of Mindfulness”

We love our children. We really do, but being cooped up with them during the pandemic has left the parents and children feeling stressed, anxious, and tired. Dealing with a pandemic at an age of 20, 30, or even 50 is tough, but dealing with a pandemic at the young age of 5 or 12 has its challenges. Our life experiences have taught us the skills and sharpened the tools we need to deal with the highs and lows, but what about children? Does five years of happy childhood prepare you for a life-changing global crisis?

Let us teach at least one skill to our children that will help them deal with the stressors of the current crisis and, as a bonus, all the roller coasters of life — Mindfulness. Mindfulness is the simple act of being present in the moment, being aware of the sensations in your mind and body, and meeting it with playfulness and curiosity. What a lot of people miss in nurturing mindfulness is the element of playfulness and curiosity. Mindfulness does not have to be about sitting cross-legged in a room with scented candles, trying to push away any thoughts that enter your mind.

But how do we nurture mindfulness in our children? Children get distracted easily, closing their eyes seems like a punishment and they may deem simple breathing exercises as boring after a while. So, let me take you and your children on a journey of mindfulness with a new activity to do each day. Each week we will focus on only one breathing technique that you can do every day at the beginning of the day before you begin your mindfulness activity or at the end of the day. This article is part 1 of a month of mindfulness. Before we start, here are some tips for parents and educators:

1. Use mindfulness in positive situations and not as a means to punish or discipline your children. Remember how we feel when we have our emotions running high, and our friends tell us to ‘Calm down’? Try not to do that with your little ones.
2. Be a model for your child. Practice mindfulness yourself first. Practice what you preach.
3. Make it part of your daily routine. You can make it part of your family time, playtime, study breaks, morning exercise routine, or anything that will engage your child.

So with all set, let us begin week 1 of our mindfulness adventure.

Breathing Exercise for the week:

Belly Breathing

• You can call this either belly breathing or balloon breathing.
• Stand, sit or lie down for this activity.
• Place both of your hands on their belly.
• Either close your eyes or look down at your hands.
• Tell your children we will be breathing in to the count of 1, 2, and 3 through the nose and breathing out to the count of 1, 2 and 3 through the mouth.
• Guide them to take three slow deep breaths and ask them if they can feel their hands moving
• Do this for ten breath cycles.

Guiding questions:

Some questions to reflect on or silently think about while breathing:

• Do you feel your belly move like a balloon?
• When does your belly go in, and when does it fill up?
• What do you think is making your belly move?
• Is your breathing making any sound?
• Can you feel your breath in your nose as well?

Sunday

Calm down Jar

Things needed: Any jar, water, glitter glue or glue and glitter, food color (Optional)

Pro-Tip: Use this time to talk to your children about how mindfulness affects their emotions

How to make the calm down jar?

• For younger children, avoid using glass jars.
• Pour water in your jar till it is half-filled
• Add glitter glue. If you don’t have glitter, you can add glue and mix it thoroughly.
• Add glitter and food coloring if you like.
• Give it a good stir and fill the rest of the jar with water.

Using the calm down jar

• Shake up the jar and show it to your child
• Tell them that whenever they feel angry, upset, or frustrated, this is how their emotions look. It is difficult to see it clearly. All their thoughts are swirling in their mind.
• Tell them to keep the jar still for some time and see if, with time, the glitter settles down.
• Ask if they can see clearly now. Tell them that whenever they feel strong emotions, if they slow down, take deep breaths, their minds will also be clear, and they will be able to better work through their problems.
• Tell them to use the jar whenever they feel strong emotions during the day and watch it as the glitter settles. Ask them if it helps them to be calm.

Monday:

Body Scan

Pro-Tip: This is an excellent activity for children to relax and end their hectic day with calmness and appreciation.

• Lie down on the floor or the bed.
• Close your eyes.
• Take deep two-three deep belly breaths.
• Tell your children to feel relaxed and let everything loose in their bodies.
• Tell them we will be going to pay attention to one body part at the time.
• Start with the feet and ask how they are feeling in their feet. Do they feel warm, cold, heavy, or light?
• Move to lower legs, spend time noticing how it feels, and taking a few breaths.
• Slowly move upward covering your upper legs, pelvic area, belly, chest, back, shoulders, arms, fingers, neck, face, and head.
• Finally, spend some time noticing the whole body.

Guiding questions

• Did you feel different sensations in different body parts?
• Did you notice something new today that you hadn’t noticed before when you slowed down?
• Do you feel calm and relaxed?

Tuesday:

Blowing Bubbles

Photo by Maxime Bhm on Unsplash

Things you will need: Water, Dish soap, a bubble wand — straw, a piece of wire, and a pipe cleaner.

• Create the bubble water by mixing water with dish soap.
• Ask your child to sit up tall and take a long deep breath and blow slowly into your bubble wand.
• Encourage them to pay attention to how the bubbles are forming, where they are floating, and when it pops before blowing the next bubble.

Guiding questions

• Does blowing fast or blowing slow get you big bubbles?
• How far did your bubble go?
• Did you see any colors in the bubble?

Wednesday:

Texture Bag

Things you will need: A bag, several items of varying textures like cotton, sandpaper, rock, wool, stick

• This sensory game engages your child’s attention and curiosity.
• In a bag, put a small collection of items with various textures.
• Ask your child to reach to close their eyes and take a deep breath.
• Ask them to take one item from the bag and describe what they feel instead of what the thing is.
• With every new collection you present, he/she will have a unique experience in this mindfulness game.
• If your child has siblings, each one can select the collection for their brother/sister.

Thursday:

Gratitude Time

This is something I have been doing for over a year, and let me tell you it is life-changing.

Photo by Howie R on Unsplash

Pro-Tip: This is a great activity to do right before you tuck your children in or right after they wake up. I have seen thinking about the things I am grateful for has always made me realize no matter how bad the day seems, there is always some sunshine to be thankful for.

• Ask your children to share what they are grateful for in their life.
• You can push them to think harder by setting a number, for example, tell me 20 things, people, or experiences you are grateful for.
• Start by sharing all the things you feel grateful for
• Once they have shared, ask them how they feel.
• You can also set themes to make it interesting. For example, tell me all the people you are grateful for or tell me who are you thankful for in your school and why.
• Take this opportunity to talk to your children about how all of us are interdependent in this world.

Friday:

Color your feelings

Things you need: Paper and colors (crayons, markers)

Pro-Tip: This works very well to help children to name their emotions.

• Explain to your child that everyone has different types of feelings and it is normal.
• Brainstorm with your child and list all the emotions.
• Ask them to choose one color for each emotion — for example, yellow for happiness, red for anger, blue for sad
• Draw a heart.
• Inside the heart, ask the child to color how much in their heart, they feel an emotion right now. For example, if they feel a lot of happiness and little sadness, they will color most of their heart yellow and some of their heart blue.

Guided Questions

You can use this activity as a conversation starter to talk about their emotions

• When did you feel sad?
• What made you feel anxious?
• What made you feel happy?

Saturday:

Blindfold tasting

Photo by demi huang on Unsplash

Things you need: Small pieces of food like a raisin, a grape or a piece of chocolate

• Blindfold your child
• Place three dishes in front of them with three small pieces of food items like a raisin, pineapple, and a grape.
• Ask your child to pick one food item and feel the texture.
• Ask them to put the food in their mouth but tell them not to eat it right away. Ask them how is the food feeling in the mouth?
• Ask them to eat it very slowly, noticing the different taste, smell, sound, and texture of the food.
• Repeat the same with the other two.
• Ask them to guess what they ate, and in the order they ate them.
• You can turn the tables and ask your child to pick the food items and blindfold you.

Here is a week of fun, engaging mindful activities for you and your children to do together. In part 2, we will discuss what are the benefits of mindfulness and venture into the second week of our mindfulness adventure with new activities.

Enjoy the present of being present!

A Month of Mindfulness: Week 2