7 Ways to Teach Your Child Mindfulness

1. Listen to the Bell

An easy way for children to practice mindfulness is to focus their attention on what they can hear. You can use a singing bowl, a bell, a chime set, or a phone app with different sounds. Tell your child that you are going to make a sound, and ask them to listen closely until they can no longer hear it (which usually takes between 30 seconds and a minute).

2. Practice with a Breathing Buddy

Following an instruction like 'focus on your breath' can be challenging for young children. In a video on Edutopia, Daniel Goleman describes a 'breathing buddy' exercise from a second-grade classroom. Each student takes a stuffed animal, lies down on their back, and places the toy on their belly. As they breathe in and out, they focus their attention on the gentle rising and falling of their breathing buddy.

3. Take Mindful Walks

One of my children's favorite summer activities is a 'noticing walk.' We walk through our neighborhood and try to spot things we've never noticed before. We dedicate just one minute of the walk to complete silence, focusing entirely on all the sounds we can hear—frogs, woodpeckers, or lawnmowers.

4. Cultivate a Gratitude Practice

Teaching our children gratitude—to appreciate the abundance in their lives rather than focusing on all the toys and things they desire—is a fundamental component of mindfulness.

5. Try the 'Spider-Man' Meditation

My five-year-old son loves everything about superheroes, and this Spider-Man meditation is perfect for him. It teaches kids to activate their 'spider-senses' and focus their attention on everything they can smell, taste, and hear in the present moment. It's a wonderful way to ground themselves!

6. Check Your Personal Weather Report

In her book 'Sitting Still Like a Frog', Eline Snel encourages children to 'give a weather report that best describes their feelings in that moment.' Is it sunny, rainy, stormy, calm, windy, or a tsunami? This activity allows children to observe their current state without over-identifying with their emotions. Just as we cannot change the weather outside, we cannot instantly force our emotions to change. What we can change is how we relate to them. As Snel describes, children can realize: 'I am not the downpour, but I notice that it is raining; I am not a fearful person, but I notice a tight feeling of fear near my throat right now.'

7. Create a Mind Jar

A mind jar is like a snow globe—shake it up and watch the storm! But if we sit, breathe, and simply watch the swirling glitter, it soon settles to the bottom. Our minds work the same way. When trying these activities, remember to keep things fun and simple. You can offer many opportunities to weave these beneficial practices into your child's growth—some will resonate with them, and others won't. But the journey of trying them together is always beautiful and rewarding!