Mindfulness offers children tools to manage their stresses, deal with big emotions, connect to their bodies and their feelings, and support social and emotional development.
Neuroscience shows that whatever we repeatedly focus on changes our brains. Basically, our brains get good at what they practice. If children (or adults) are constantly thinking they aren’t good enough, their brains will be more and more likely to continue to follow that neural pathway. Mindfulness is basically a workout for our brains. We get to build new pathways and habits and see which older ones are useful and which ones aren’t so helpful.
Studies are increasingly showing that mindfulness can help children:
- improve attention
- reduce anxiety
- manage and regulate emotions
- have less reactivity
- increase compassion (for themselves and others)
- increase their sense of calm
At Follow Your Breath, I use games, stories, movement, sounds, and play to introduce mindfulness practices to children. We focus on making children comfortable and teaching them tools and tricks that they can use to help calm and focus themselves whenever they need it. Mindfulness can give kids skills to lead a happier, calmer, less reactive life.
