World Meditation Day 2024: What is mindfulness? Know how it helps children in emotional development

In the contemporary world, kids often find themselves at the intersection of social pressures, extracurricular engagements and academic commitments. It certainly is ‘business as usual’. Amidst the noise, meditation seems to emerge as an effective tool for improving self-organization and facilitating emotional health during the development stage. What it does instead is it helps children acquire appropriate coping strategies for anxiety and enhance their self-regulatory skills through their engagement in age-appropriate mindfulness practices.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the intuitive capacity to devote one fully, consciously, and with compassion to the now. Furthermore, it is a skill that could be developed through mental exercises.

When we spoke to Tejaswani Arora Clinical Psychologist at LISSUN, she said that children performing mindfulness exercises may practice the skill of being aware of their feelings as they arise in the present moment and being able to possess the ability to identify, understand, utilize, and manage these feelings. The combination of feelings, thoughts and bodily states develops in children a recognition of the connection that exists among the three components.

How does mindfulness support emotional development?

Mindfulness teaches kids to regulate their emotions

The essence of mindfulness revolves around attention and being in the present tense. Children begin to understand how emotions feel in their bodies, what situations create certain emotions and how those emotions can be managed by focusing on their thoughts and feelings. Children who learn to identify emotions are better able to regulate and respond to them. 

Mindfulness helps focus

 Increased focus is among the most well-known advantages of mindfulness. Children who can concentrate do better in school, pay attention at home and go on to succeed in college and the workplace.

By teaching kids to focus on their breathing, feelings, or particular actions, mindfulness exercises help them become more attentive and focused.

Mindfulness helps improve behaviour

Engaging in mindfulness exercises can help children behave healthier by fostering improved impulse control and lowering hyperactivity. Children who engage in mindfulness exercises become more conscious of their behaviour and the effects it has on others. This knowledge encourages individuals to think things out before acting, which results in more deliberate and compassionate actions.

Introducing mindfulness to children

Spidey-Senses: Tell the kids to activate their “Spidey senses,” which are the intensely focused senses of taste, smell, sight, hearing, and touch that Spider-Man uses to monitor his surroundings. This will motivate children to stop and concentrate on the present moment, allowing them to become more receptive to the data that their senses provide. It also stimulates curiosity and observation.

Body Scan: This exercise is an excellent way to teach kids how to control their stress by practising mindfulness. Have your students sit still at their desks or lie down on the floor to begin the body scan. Ask them to list all of the feelings or sensations they experience from head to toe. Give them instructions to accept these emotions as they arise, and then on to the next body part.

Mindful Eating Activity: Give kids a treat, like a piece of candy. Tell them to concentrate on the tastes and feelings they experience as they chew it. When they’re done eating, ask them to talk about or describe any significant aspects of the meal, such as its colour, flavour, texture, and smell.

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