Meditation for children
Compiled by Kamal Barua
As a parent of two young daughters, I have always wondered if meditation could be of help to my children. After attending Vipassana courses Guruji S. N. Goenka’s Centres in India four years back, it became my first priority to introduce meditation to children under trained teachers. After organizing such workshops for children in homes and meditation camps, I would like to share my experience along with some guidelines for meditation for kids.
As a parent of two young daughters, I have always wondered if meditation could be of help to my children. After attending Vipassana courses Guruji S. N. Goenka’s Centres in India four years back, it became my first priority to introduce meditation to children under trained teachers. After organizing such workshops for children in homes and meditation camps, I would like to share my experience along with some guidelines for meditation for kids.
It is now well established that mindful meditation derived from Buddhist tradition is a very simple and effective meditation technique for children as well. In USA and other European countries, regular meditation sessions are held for the students and teachers alike. Mindfulness is increasingly being used in schools to help children deal with stress and to improve their ability to manage their emotions. It also helps with focus, attention, and memory. In some schools where mindfulness has been taught, detention rates have decreased dramatically — even dropping to zero. (source :www.wildmind.org).
The traditional name for this meditation practice is Anapanasati. This word simply means mindfulness (sati) of breathing (pana) in and out. This is a meditation practice where we use the breath as the object of attention to which we return every time we notice that the mind has wandered. In simple terms, ask the kids to watch their normal breath as it goes in and comes out. As the mind wanders while doing so, ask them to simply come back to their breath. In a nutshell, this practice works mainly through us withdrawing our attention from distracting thoughts and redirecting our attention to the physical sensations of the breath. By doing so, we are putting less energy into the emotional states of restlessness, anxiety, craving, ill will, etc that drive those thoughts. Over time the mind becomes calmer and our emotional states become more balanced and positive, and our experience becomes more positive.
The traditional name for this meditation practice is Anapanasati. This word simply means mindfulness (sati) of breathing (pana) in and out. This is a meditation practice where we use the breath as the object of attention to which we return every time we notice that the mind has wandered. In simple terms, ask the kids to watch their normal breath as it goes in and comes out. As the mind wanders while doing so, ask them to simply come back to their breath. In a nutshell, this practice works mainly through us withdrawing our attention from distracting thoughts and redirecting our attention to the physical sensations of the breath. By doing so, we are putting less energy into the emotional states of restlessness, anxiety, craving, ill will, etc that drive those thoughts. Over time the mind becomes calmer and our emotional states become more balanced and positive, and our experience becomes more positive.
(source :www.wildmind.org)
Bell Listening Exercise
If the children find it difficult to feel their breath (which is common and perfectly normal) try the Bell Listening Exercise.
Ring a bell and ask the kids to listen closely to the vibration of the ringing sound. Tell them to remain silent and raise their hands when they no longer hear the sound of the bell. Then tell them to remain silent for one minute and pay close attention to the other sounds they hear once the ringing has stopped. After, go around in a circle and ask the kids to tell you every sound they noticed during that minute. This exercise is fun and gets kids interested in sharing their experiences. (source : www.inforum.com)
Another way is to practice with a breathing buddy. For young children, an instruction to simply “pay attention to the breath” can be hard to follow.
In this Edutopia video, Daniel Goleman describes a 2nd-grade classroom that does a “breathing buddy” exercise: each student grabs a stuffed animal, and then lies down on their back with their buddy on their belly.
They focus their attention on the rise and fall of the stuffed animal as they breathe in and out. You should definitely check out the video — it’s less than 2 minutes and explains the exercise and all the good stuff that it teaches kids!
(source : www.leftbrainbuddha.com)
In this Edutopia video, Daniel Goleman describes a 2nd-grade classroom that does a “breathing buddy” exercise: each student grabs a stuffed animal, and then lies down on their back with their buddy on their belly.
Daniel Goleman: Breathing Buddies
They focus their attention on the rise and fall of the stuffed animal as they breathe in and out. You should definitely check out the video — it’s less than 2 minutes and explains the exercise and all the good stuff that it teaches kids!
(source : www.leftbrainbuddha.com)
Mindful Eating Exercise
Practice mindful eating. The exercise of mindfully eating a cake or a favourite chocolate is a staple of mindfulness education, and is a great activity for kids. This is a fun way to teach children to pay attention to and savor their food, and by extension, the present moment.
Mindfulness Eating
The whole objective is to let them participate in meditation and learn to be in touch with their own self and inner wisdom and help them grow into responsible human beings.
Above all, remember to have fun and keep it simple. You can provide your children with many opportunities to add helpful practices to their toolkit — some of them will work for them and some won’t. But it’s fun to experiment!