6 Ways You Can Teach Your Children About Mindfulness
It is the duty of any parent to bring up happy and respectful children who are in good health, both mentally and physically. While this is by no means an easy task, it’s possible if you put in the work. It’s also important to teach them mindfulness, and the following are six ways in which you can teach it to your children.
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Establish an After-School Quiet Hour In Your Home
Every parent knows just how noisy children can be. In fact, a house with children has become synonymous with noise, but you can try to change this in your home for a better cause. Establish a quiet hour in your home after your children get home from school. During this time, they can practice some meditation or do something constructive. Even if they’re in a private school, 87% of which have less than 300 students, there will still be higher noise levels at school than at home, and this should help with enforcing the quiet hour.
Practice Breathing Exercises
Breathing exercises are great because they help with anxiety and enable those who practice them to get better sleep at night because they are able to keep calm all through the day. When you teach your children breathing exercises, they won’t feel stressed and worn out by the daily challenges that life throws their way.
Learn Kid-Friendly Yoga
Yoga is another great way to teach your children to be mindful because of its ability to help people slow down. Kid-friendly yoga is available in a number of studios, so you might find one locally. If not, you can simply search for resources online and start to practice with your child. It will be a welcome break from the 437 questions that an average four-year-old child can ask in a day!
Make Healthy Snacks and Eat Slowly
Eating slowly will help your child learn mindfulness in an easy way. Guide them by providing healthy snacks and reminding them to eat slowly and paying extra attention to the snack. Tell them to take time to really savor the snack, at least for the first few bites, and they will get into this habit sooner or later.
Set Up a Space In Your Home for Meditation
If you have extra space in your home, set aside a spot for meditation. Its presence will be enough to remind you all to meditate often, and this is a practice that will improve your children’s mindfulness. With around 80% of homeowners sticking to the budget they set for their home improvement and repair projects, you can do a minor renovation and introduce a meditation space in your home. You can be sure that this space will be used for a long time by all members of the family if you teach them early enough.
Take a Walk Through Nature
Nature is extremely calming and grounding, and being outside in nature is often a remedy for tension and stress that may accumulate while one is indoors. To give your children a break from their classrooms and rooms at home, you can go for a walk through a nearby park with them. Point out details, listen to your kids describe their feelings during the excursion, and you will realize that this is one of the easiest ways to teach a child mindfulness.
With the six methods above, you can start to teach your children to be mindful. They will be happy you took the time to do so, and you can be sure that they will pass this down to their children and other people they interact with.
