Meditation and mindfulness are so on-trend right now.
The practice of calming the mind and bringing awareness and attention to the present moment is excellent for busy adults, but asking a child to sit still for five minutes? Good luck.
“I became really sad about the amount of shouting I was doing”
As a mother of three young kids, the bedtime battles were on-going. We had meltdowns and endless trips to the toilet. I’d spend more than two hours (at best) trying to get my kids to settle down. I got to a point where I became really sad about the amount of shouting I was doing from the rage of feeling out of control.
As a nutritionist, it’s one thing for me to teach my children to care for their physical wellbeing by eating nourishing foods and getting enough sleep, but when it came to teaching my children how to manage their emotions, I wasn’t so clear.
Kathleen with her five and three-year-old. Source: Instagram.
I finally embraced the calm and phased in a daily bedtime ‘zen’ ritual. At first, it was hard not to giggle while I watched my five and three year-old’s eyes glaze over as I babbled on about ‘deep breaths’, and ‘calm’.
There’s an app that works!
Desperate, of course, I ditched the conceptual language and gave the latest Trolls-inspired meditation by the Smiling Mind app a whirl. Genius! A few sessions in and we were getting some runs on the board. Eventually my kids were getting to grips with easing into a more relaxed state, in preparation for sleep.
A growing number of experts are sighting the benefits of teaching mindfulness to children and linking it to the ability to calm themselves when upset, by enhancing awareness and management of their emotions.
A way to learn to manage their emotions. Source: Stocksy.
Many schools across the country are incorporating mindfulness-based exercises as a tool to improve student wellbeing and enhance academic performance.
Detention replaced by deep breathing
Some schools throughout the U.S. are replacing detention classes in primary schools with ‘mindful moment room’ where kids are guided through breathing and meditation practices.
But meditation for kids encounters its fair share of skeptics. Some may argue that children, in many ways, are better than adults at embracing the present moment naturally and that forcing meditation onto kids is just another thing that parents feel they should be doing.
However proponents argue that simple mindfulness meditation, like learning to take deep breaths can actually help to develop that skill of ‘being in the moment’ further. As children grow up, they may lose the ability to be completely absorbed in the moment.
But there is one caveat most experts seem to agree on: keep it playful and maintain a flexible approach.
Finding serenity in the madness
No surprise, then, that those ten Zen minutes have become an essential part of my kids’ bedtime routine. Sure, we have our moments, but the one thing I’ve learnt is that I can’t always control my kids’ actions. I can however always control my own. Being mindful has helped me find serenity in the moments of madness.
I’m a lot calmer and it’s gone on to help my children, too. Now there’s nothing more comforting then snuggling up with a freshly bathed little munchkin for a couple of beloved stories. Most certainly the highlight of my busy parent’s day.
