Mindfulness for Kids

Children may experience difficulties with navigating their emotions, focusing on tasks, and reducing stress from time to time. Helping them build skills to increase overall well-being and promote balance is essential, and this is what mindfulness for kids can accomplish.

Here, we’ll discuss mindfulness for kids, why it can be beneficial for them, and how to use different mindfulness tools in a playful and accessible way.

What is Mindfulness for Kids?

Before we dive into the benefits of teaching mindfulness to a child, we first have to understand what mindfulness for kids is.

Mindfulness is, simply put, paying attention to what is happening right now in the present moment. It can be what you see, feel, hear, or anything else that you notice calling your attention.

There is no need to reach a place of calm or clear your mind; it is just an honest look at what you are experiencing at the moment.

Why is Mindfulness Important for Kids?

Mindfulness is important for kids because it allows them to build confidence, cope with stress, and deal with uncomfortable or challenging moments. The earlier we teach mindfulness to children, the greater to help them cultivate resilience and develop their mindfulness practice as they develop and mature.

Mindfulness can also teach children three critical skills that are developed in early childhood:

• Remembering information and paying attention
• Shifting back and forth between tasks
• Behaving appropriately with others

These are executive functions that are required for more advanced tasks such as planning, problem-solving, reasoning, and building positive social relationships.

Related Article: 10 Important Social Skills for Kids

What are the Benefits of Mindfulness for Kids?

There are many benefits of practicing mindfulness for kids. Here are some that your child may experience:

• Lower levels of stress, depression, anxiety, and disruptive behavior
• Improved focus, attention, and self-control
• More classroom participation
• More compassion for others
• Improved academic performance and ability to resolve conflict
• Improved focus and concentration
• Better emotional regulation
• Enhanced empathy and self-awareness
• Better sleep quality
• Increased resilience
• Improved well-being

At What Age Can Kids Start Practicing Mindfulness?

Kids can start practicing mindfulness at school age, around six years old and up. At this age, children better understand and participate in more structured meditation. Mindfulness practices such as focusing on the breath, body, or senses can help them build better skills for self-awareness and focus.

Mindfulness Activities for Kids

There are several activities for teaching mindfulness that you can try with your children.

Mindful Posing

An easy way for kids to dabble in mindfulness is through body poses. These are essentially poses that your child can do to feel strong, brave, or happy.

In a safe and comfortable space, demonstrate different poses to your child. One is the Superman pose, which involves standing with feet just wider than the hips. Clench your fists and extend your arms out to the sky, stretching your body as tall as possible. Another pose your child can do is the Wonder Woman pose. Stand tall with your legs wider than hip-width apart and place the hands on the hips.

Ask your kids how they feel after a few rounds of posing. You might be surprised to hear their answers!

Heartbeat Exercise

Have your child sit and monitor their heartbeat and breathing after exercising. As they tune in to their heart rate and breathing, they become more mindful of how their body feels.

Cool the Pizza Breathing

Mindful breathing can turn into a fun activity if you pretend like you are cooling down a hot pizza with slow, gentle breaths. Demonstrate to your child how to gently breathe on an imaginary hot pizza that needs cooling. As they do this activity, they will reduce stress.

Related Handout: Benefits of Belly Breathing

Relax One Body Part at a Time

A great exercise you can do with your child is focusing on relaxing each body part, one at a time. It is an excellent way to promote body awareness and relaxation. Similar to this activity is the DBT mindfulness exercise, the body scan. You can do one or both, depending on how you feel.

Spidey Senses

Teaching kids how to stay present can be a lot of fun; just use a superhero to help them stay focused. You can instruct your kids to turn on their “Spidey senses” to encourage them to focus on their heightened five senses. This will get them to pay attention to the present and open their awareness to what they are experiencing through their senses.

Safari

The Safari exercise is an excellent way to make everyday walks into more exciting adventures while teaching mindfulness.

Tell your child that you will be going on a safari and that their goal is to notice as many animals as they can on your walk. Whatever the animal is, whether an ant, caterpillar, bird, or bugs, they will need to focus all of their senses during the walk to find them.

Emotions Bottles

Have your child draw a picture of a bottle on a piece of paper. Inside the bottle, they can write all the things they are feeling. You can then discuss these feelings with your child. This activity teaches them not to bottle up their feelings and how to be more mindful of their emotions.

Related Handouts: Feelings and Emotions Chart for Kids

Tips for Integrating Mindfulness into a Child’s Daily Routine

Explain mindfulness in simple words. It also helps to give examples of what mindfulness is not so that you can better illustrate it.

• Make sure your children are ready to give mindfulness exercises a try. That is, do mindfulness exercises when they are calm and relaxed rather than bursting with energy and itching to run and play.
• Make mindfulness part of your daily routine.
• Use imagery to help kids imagine what mindfulness is like. You could say, “Pretend you are a tree. Feel your branches swaying in the wind, and listen to your leaves rustling. Imagine how solid you feel on the ground, standing strong and tall.” This imager helps kids understand being present and feeling the different sensations with their senses.
• Encourage your child to share their experiences with mindfulness, whether they were good or not as ideal. Each session can end with each person sharing how it went for them.

The Bottom Line

Imagine giving your child a toolbox to handle life's challenges. Mindfulness practices are those tools. These simple exercises can become daily habits, helping them stay calm, focus better, and understand themselves. Start exploring how to teach mindfulness to a child today – you'll be amazed by how much it helps them thrive.

When in doubt, it’s always best to reach out to a licensed mental health professional to ensure your child’s well-being. You can also check out some of our mindfulness tools, such as this handout on managing stress with mindfulness.

DBT is a type of therapy that incorporates mindfulness as a core skill. Feel free to check out our DBT worksheets to learn more about mindfulness skills along with other helpful skills to improve management of emotions and interactions with others.