Mindfulness For Kids – 5 Fun & Easy Exercises | Dad University

0:00 mindfulness is paying attention to your thoughts and feelings without judgment it's being aware of your surroundings in our state of being it can be just as simple as being in the present moment you're not dwelling on what's happened in the past and you're certainly not worrying about what's going to happen in the future you are focused on the now for my own children practicing mindfulness I believe has helped them be more relaxed and calm with any practice

0:32 of mindfulness for kids it's got to be simple and it's got to be fun it can't be forced so if your child is resistant to any of the exercises that's okay just move on to something else so in this video we're giving you five simple mindfulness exercises for kids they're really easy to do and fun [Music] hey guys I'm Jason Kreitman and welcome to another episode of dad university be

1:03 sure to give this video a thumbs up subscribe to the channel and click on that notification bell so you know when our videos are uploaded also it really helps us spread our message when you share these videos so maybe you know a couple people that might enjoy it please share with them if you practice mindfulness then you probably already know and feel the benefits and that's why you're here but if mindfulness is new to you or your

1:30 kids well that's awesome thank you for exploring this let's get into the exercises number one coloring yeah good old-fashioned coloring however mindful coloring removes any sort of judgment so specific color usage or whether the picture is good or bad even staying in the lines or not none of that matters they're really just coloring for enjoyment you know coloring removes external stimulation and distractions it allows

2:02 the child to slow down and just enjoy the present moment and that's what mindfulness is about what's great about coloring for mindfulness is that kids don't even know that they're actually practicing something they're really just coloring for fun we have to remember there's no judgement so it doesn't matter what colors they're using or how the picture looks or any of that they really are just coloring for the enjoyment that's the practice of mindful coloring most kids seem to enjoy

2:33 coloring up to a certain age you know more recently there has been adult coloring books which have become popular and so if you do have a teen or an older child there are more mature coloring books that are used for that purpose people feel more relaxed and more present when their coloring so it's really good for anyone at any age but especially for children as it allows them to relax and be in the present moment number two I see I hear this is

3:03 actually a technique that I still personally use myself when my mind starts to wander I want to come back to the present moment so here's how it works you ask your child to tell you three things that they see so they might say well I see a chair I see carpet and I see the dog great and then now you say tell me three things that you hear and maybe they hear a car outside they hear the dog breathing or

3:33 maybe a fan above them if the child is really young then you can help them along and ask them some questions to get them the three things that they see and the three things that they hear the reason I see I hear works is that it forces you to be in the present moment it switches your brain to not worry about what happened in the past or what's gonna happen in the future because in order to play you have to be

4:00 in the present moment you have to be aware of your current surroundings and as I said this technique has worked really well for myself it also can work for you and your kids number three smell the flower blow out the candle this is a practice in mindful breathing teaching kids to control their breathing is a really easy way to teach mindfulness for kids now there's numerous techniques for mindful breathing some combine the breathing with hand movements others will involve

4:32 counting in between exhales and inhales but the smell the flower blow out the candle technique is actually one of my favorites it worked really well with my kids especially when they were young so we would explain it as you'd inhale with your nose and you're smelling a flower and then you are exhaling and blowing out the candle with your mouth you might even go get a really nice flower and a candle so that you can demonstrate this

5:01 but we would also tell our children that the candle is really large and the flower smells really good so they want to give that a little bit of extra time on each of those so we're gonna smell the flower with our nose and then we're gonna blow out the candle with our mouth and so when you repeat that exercise over and over the child begins to realize that they can use that to relax and this technique was useful because we

5:29 were able to use it in practical situations one example was our children would get hurt and we wanted them to calm down and slow down their breathing so we would say hey smell the flower blow out the candle and as a result their breathing would become slower and they would calm down number four guided meditation if you don't already meditate yourself then doing it with your child is a great reason to start however your child can certainly do it on their own

5:59 there are a lot of guided meditations for kids you can use an app or even just a simple youtube search will result in a lot of different guided meditations guided meditation is a really easy and fun way for kids to practice they just put on their headphones and listen to someone guide them through the process it's very easy to do they also may listen to stories or the person will bring them through like breathing

6:29 techniques it's all very similar to a lot of the techniques that we do it's just very easy because somebody is guiding them through that process both of my kids really enjoy nighttime guided meditation if they can't sleep or feel Restless then they'll put on a guided meditation as they fall asleep now it doesn't have to be used just for sleep anytime that you want a calming or relaxing session the sessions usually lasts anywhere from you know a quick

6:59 5-minute calm down to the sleeping meditations which may be an hour because they want to make sure that the child is asleep but you get to choose I'd be curious to get your feedback after you try it number five practice gratitude if your child is old enough to write have them write down three things that they are grateful for if they can't write then just have them verbalize it and talk out loud to you so you have them

7:25 write down three things that they're grateful for and you might need to help them along you can say you know what about you know having food in our house or you know what about your bed and being able to sleep on your bed I think sometimes too it is important to give them a frame of reference that not everybody can walk downstairs and has a cabinet full of food or that not every child has a nice comfortable bed to

7:52 sleep on sometimes it's important to remind the children that not everybody has this and as a result we need to be very grateful that we have these things in addition to writing down what they were grateful for have them write down why they are grateful for those things you know if they wrote down food then ask them why are they grateful for the food well maybe it's because if you get hungry then you can go and grab

8:20 something to eat the why here is really important I think it helps them solidify the gratitude a bit more you know instead of just writing down three things that you're grateful for it makes them go a little bit deeper to try to understand what it is that they're grateful for and why why should they be grateful for that you know I think teaching our kids gratitude helps fight some of that entitlement and those kids being spoiled or selfish and that sounds

8:52 good to me I know that for myself practicing mindfulness has absolutely helped reduce my stress and anxiety and just made me feel more calm and I think it's done the same thing for my kids there has been numerous situations in which the practices that we've done have really helped us out whether that was the breathing exercises or the meditation those situations probably would have been a lot worse or a lot more stressful had we not had those

9:24 techniques in our tool belt I hope these exercises are helpful for you and your child I'd love to hear from you do you practice any mindfulness exercises with your kids leave your feedback in the comment section below if you found this video helpful you don't want to miss what we have for you in our other videos be sure to give this video a thumbs up subscribe to the channel and click on that notification bell also if you know

9:49 anybody that might enjoy this video please share it with them we'll see you next time [Music]