Mindfulness Minutes
You may be wondering why mindfulness is important for your child. Mindfulness gives kids the habit of focusing on the present moment and ignoring distractions, promotes happiness and patience by lowering social anxiety and stress, teaches them to stay calm in the face of life’s stressful times, improves attentiveness and impulse control, creates good habits for the future, and so much more. The Mindfulness Minutes series is designed to help children learn about mindfulness and how they can use it in their lives every day. Some of the topics covered in these lessons include social emotional learning, concentration, relaxation, and stress reduction.
What is Mindfulness? (7:46)
In this lesson we will learn what mindfulness is and how to do it. When we practice mindfulness, we are teaching our brains to focus. This helps us feel calmer and more relaxed. This helps us choose which thought to act on and which to let pass. One way we can practice mindfulness is by having good posture, sitting with our feet on the floor or legs crossed, closing our eyes, keeping our hands rested on our knees or in our lap, taking 3 deep breaths, and notice our breath. This is called meditation. There are tons of videos that can help you meditate. Try having your parent find one on this page or on the internet for you to try!
Watch What is Mindfulness on YouTube
Belly Breathing (4:05)
In this lesson we will be learning an exercise that helps us learn how to ‘belly breathe’. Belly breathing allows us to take in more oxygen, calm our bodies, and feel better. It is a key part to mindfulness! For today’s lesson you will need a comfy place to sit. A chair or the floor is perfect.
On & Off (4:13)
In this lesson we will be learning how to turn off bad energy caused by stress. You may be wondering what stress is? Stress is what you feel when you are worried or uncomfortable about something. This worry in your mind can make your body feel bad. You may feel angry, frustrated, scared, or afraid which can give you a stomachache, headache, put you in a bad mood, or even ruin your day. When you're stressed you may not feel like sleeping or eating, or you might sleep or eat too much. You also may feel cranky or have trouble paying attention at school and remembering things at home. Everyone feels stress in different ways. For today’s lesson you will need a comfy place to sit. A chair or the floor is perfect.
Be the Pond (5:35)
In this lesson we will be learning that we are separate from our feelings. Feelings come and go and we can observe them without getting swept up by them. There's a really clever way of remembering this: our mind is like a pond full of fish. The fish are our feelings. If we remember to be the pond (and not the fish), we'll let those feelings just swim by. Be the pond! For today’s lesson you will need a comfy place to sit. A chair or the floor is perfect.
Watch Be the Pond on Cosmic Kids
Master the Monkey (5:49)
In this lesson we will be learning about how our mind can just jump from one thing to another - like a monkey - and will learn about a game that helps our concentration. It’s normal for our minds to wonder and jump from thought to thought but sometimes we need our brain to focus so we can use it! For today’s lesson you will need a comfy place to sit. A chair or the floor is perfect.
Resources
The mindfulness minutes catalog will expand over time. Many of the videos incorporated into our series come from the following websites and resources. These websites are great resources for finding many different videos for you, your child, and your family. Visit these websites on a regular basis and download your favorite videos.
Sustaining Mindfulness
As expected, time is a barrier to almost everything in the world. Sometimes our lives become so busy that it is hard to think about slowing down. The beautiful thing about practicing mindfulness is that it not only helps you regain a sense of control over your day, but you can also practice it anywhere at any time! An easy way to make time is to practice informal mindfulness. This means taking an activity you are already doing (cleaning up, having a conversation, riding in the car), and doing it more mindfully. Pay attention to your senses and thoughts while doing the activity. How does it feel? How does it sound? What do you see? How does it make you feel?