Mindfulness for Children: A little Kindness and Imagination Goes a Long Way
I am loving practising Yoga in bright light! I picked up this quote from Eckhart Tolle which I used in my Yoga classes recently:
’Ask yourself: is there joy, ease and lightness in what I am doing. If there isn’t, then time is covering up the present moment and life is perceived as a burden or a struggle’
Looking for Joy, Ease and Lightness around us is precisely what the practice of Yoga can help us train for. It is not innate, we need to work at it!
These are practices and techniques that we can share with Children.
Looking for the Good and Joy is inherent to the practices we learn on the Children Yoga Teacher Training Courses, it’s transformative:
Join along some of these key practices
- Inhaling Light and Energy through cupped hands in front of the heart, exhale share the light throughout your body
- Inhaling Space through the centre of the palm and creating circles of outward expansion on the exhale
- Bringing the Hands in Namaste, Inhale warmth and join through the hands and heart, soften with the exhalation
Children enjoy it particularly if you can use imagery in your language. Perhaps describe the hands cupped in front of the heart as a little golden butter cup shining out its radiance in the summer. ‘Do you like butter ?’ Make it engaging by using interactions and drawing on their ideas and suggestions. Make it playful and inviting as you bring children on a journey through the fields or the forest describing experience drawing through all five senses. They will soon come up with sounds that match your Yoga adventure. A journey sing our 5 senses can really increase the level of presence, especially as we deepen our connection to nature, becoming a sure way for our nervous systems to feel safe and connected as a group. Co-regulation between teachers and pupils will being delight to both teachers and little yogis, reducing the need for reminders to join in and ensuring a good time for all.
Keep your visualisation short and once there, take an opportunity to practice some breathing techniques. It might be smelling the flowers or taking a moist breath through misty clouds! Only a few rounds of breathing are necessary when teaching children. I always recommend to start with 3 breaths together and 3 breaths on your own, given it your best like you really mean it, and enjoying it.
Then pause and notice how you feel
It is as simple and enjoyable as that!
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