How To Teach Meditation For Kids? How Does It Regulate Emotions?

Are your kids having problems managing their big feelings in those little bodies? This is normal and very common for all kids, and it is the parent's job to help them navigate and learn to express those emotions healthily. By teaching kids meditation, you can give them the tools to slow down their thoughts and process their feelings while communicating, avoid meltdowns, prevent being overwhelmed, and promote ongoing mental health.

Meditation is, in part, focusing on one thing at a time and slowing the unrelated thoughts. It involves acknowledging but moving past all other thoughts of other things, other tasks, and things in your surroundings. By meditating regularly, people will develop the ability to feel what is going on in their body and emotions easily and quickly, and they will then be able to communicate those; they can interrupt the process of growing upset, angry, or frustrated.

Children are very quickly taught many things and learn fast at young ages. It is possible to begin teaching toddlers meditation and engaging in meditative activities. Starting at a young age will make it an easy addition throughout the day and help them build this healthy habit for the rest of their life. Toddlers can begin to learn meditation techniques, including breathing, looking for specific items in pictures, feeling different textures and consistencies, and listening to various sounds. Driving in the car can be an opportunity to keep them busy and calm while teaching them meditation activities. Other activities and methods can be easily added to the day at home.

Start with teaching them how to take deep breaths and blow them out. To make it easier for them to learn, use terms like dragon breath for a big exhale and blow out the candle breathing to teach them to take big breaths and blow them out through their mouth like a birthday candle. Help them learn how to feel the breath enter and leave their body, how their lungs expand, and how their shoulders move. Please help them to move through the day with intention, taste their food, feel the consistency and texture, feel their clothing, and find those that feel better than others.

To learn sound meditations, have them sit and focus on what they can hear; an app with sound options is excellent as you can add a few sounds and help pick them out. This also works for older children up to the higher elementary ages. Easily add these activities in a car, at a zoo or museum, or in any other areas you visit to keep them engaged with their surroundings. Use puzzles and picture finds to show they can focus their eyes and what they are thinking about; each will help improve focus and use their senses. Each of these activities will help control thoughts and help them learn when they are starting to feel any big emotion, then learn how to interrupt that before it becomes a meltdown or overwhelming for them as they move to the next stage of growth.

When teaching children emotional regulation, you will want to help them learn how it feels when they have feelings and how to interrupt them before they get overwhelmed. This requires great attention on the part of the parent for the beginning stages, so you can draw their attention to how they feel, name it, and then help them to address it. Signs to look for include changes in breathing speed, a look of frustration in their eyes, a shift in attitude and how they approach toys or tasks, and things that you know are frustrating or difficult for them. If you notice that they are showing some of these signs or others you have identified, stop their activity and help them find words for how they feel, do some deep breathing, and interrupt the cycle to help them find calm. Then address the thing that was causing frustration, find a quiet place to read or rest if they are overstimulated, and help them to sleep or nap if they are rubbing their eyes, tugging their ears, sucking their thumb, or other signs of becoming tired. This will help them to connect how they feel to how they can address it, and they will be able to regulate how they respond to and show their emotions and feelings.

Meditation can be beneficial at any age, and like other habits, it is best learned young for consistency and to set them up with healthy habits for life. Beginning as early as toddler years, teach kids meditation through sights, sounds, feelings, and breathing. Along with a deep breath and strong exhalation, like blowing out a birthday candle, listening for new sounds, and finding words for their feelings, helping kids learn to put names to their feelings can help them learn to regulate them. Each time a feeling starts to become too big for a child to manage, they will learn to stop what they are doing, find a central focus, and begin again. Consistency is the key to success in this, and making it a habit to do something meditative each day at a set time when they feel overwhelmed, overstimulated, or upset and when they are excited and need to be able to communicate that.