What is mindfulness?
Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, is quoted on the NHS website defining mindfulness:
“It’s easy to stop noticing the world around us. It’s also easy to lose touch with the way our bodies are feeling and to end up living ‘in our heads’ – caught up in our thoughts without stopping to notice how those thoughts are driving our emotions and behaviour. An important part of mindfulness is reconnecting with our bodies and the sensations they experience…Another important part of mindfulness is an awareness of our thoughts and feelings as they happen moment to moment. It’s about allowing ourselves to see the present moment clearly. When we do that, it can positively change the way we see ourselves and our lives.”
Williams (2018) www.nhs.uk
Read more here
Creating good mindfulness practices in early years children can help them to feel calmer and more aware of their emotions. Mindfulness can teach children techniques to use when they need to calm down in every day situations or are feeling anxious during a transition.
Early years children spend much of their time on the move: playing, running, learning and exploring. The areas of their brain which regulate self-control and the ability to focus are still developing. This can make the combination of sitting still, listening and focussing feel extremely challenging.
However, contrary to popular belief, you do not have to sit for hours on end in the lotus position to be more mindful. There are countless ways of incorporating mindfulness techniques into your day to day living, and perhaps much more powerful practices than the typical sitting meditation to support children in their mindfulness journeys.
Pruess, a child therapist, believes that mindfulness can have life changing benefits for children including:
- Strengthens self-control.
- Lower’s anxiety and stress.
- Increases positive moods.
- Better decision making.
- Improves emotional regulation skills.
- Increases self-esteem.
- Improves health and body Image.
- Improves social skills and communication
Source: Pruess, www.parentswithconfidence.com/mindfulness-with-kids
Practical ways to engage babies and young children in mindfulness are:
Stories
Books are a great way to introduce babies and young children to mindfulness. You’ll find a list of books and resources here
Yoga
Yoga is an activity that includes breathing techniques, yoga poses and mindfulness.
Guided meditation
Breathing techniques
Gratitude
Parent mindfulness
Mindful with Your Baby is a mindfulness-based intervention for mothers experiencing stress, mother-child interaction problems and/or children who find regulation challenging. There is also a group for toddlers. During mindful parenting training, parents learn to observe and listen to their child in a special way: deliberately, with full attention, and without judgment. Further, they learn to recognize and to make a distinction between their own emotions and those of the child, to lower parental reactivity in parent–child interactions, and to feel compassionate for themselves and their child. You can read more about the research into this programme here. Other programmes focus on the value of practising mindfulness during pregnancy.