Yay! You are interested in starting meditation with your child! This is so huge. Meditation has been shown to reduce anxiety, reduce depression, increase well-being, increase focus, increase emotional regulation, and lead to better decision-making in children.
Whether your child is 10 months old or 8 years old, starting meditation is a wonderful step in helping them lead their best lives possible.
How should we start?
Be an Example
The first step in starting meditation with your children is by starting meditating yourself, and letting them see you do it. Often young children want to imitate what the bigger kids or adults around them are doing. This will lead to them being curious about the practice and maybe even start to join in.
Use a Guided Meditation
This meditation can vary in time but can solely involve having your child try to mimic a way of sitting or looking.
For example, sit down with your child and see how long you both can focus on a ball or a cloud in the sky. You can also prompt your child with seeing if they can sit like a frog. They will focus on trying to get their hands and their legs right.
Meditating doesn’t have to be sitting still with your eyes closed, it can simply be focusing on one thought, one movement, or one action.
Have Them Watch Their Belly
By watching how their stomach rises and lowers can help them to focus on their breathing. They may even try to see how high and low they can make their stomach. This can help them to relax and better engage with their breath.
Set Realistic Expectations
The goal is to calm the mind and this can be done in even brief intervals. And a little wiggling and looking around the room is fine.
How long your child is able to meditate depends on your child’s age. As a toddler, your child may only sit still for 10 seconds. That is okay! As an 8 year old, they may last for one minute.
The point is that after the meditation, your child feels a little more centered and relaxed.
Just like for adults, meditation is not perfect and does not have to be. It is a daily practice.
Working to be a better example for your little one?