Three ways to get your kids started with meditation | Parenting News,The  Indian Express

Why Teaching Children Meditation is Incredibly Important for the World

Three ways to get your kids started with meditation | Parenting News,The  Indian Express

Teaching your child to learn how to meditate not only teaches self-control but also has a huge range of health, psychological and spiritual benefits.

Teaching your children to learn meditation will dramatically improve their behaviour. Their mental stability. Their ability to handle their emotions, and it’ll have a huge impact on how they process the world around them.

How to Start Teaching Children Meditation

If you feel that meditation would seriously benefit your children; and help them to control their emotions in the future, and see life more positively, then you’re probably wondering how to start.

Here are several important steps to teaching children meditation:

  1.  Peaceful Teaching

Many parents try to safeguard their children by teaching them how to defend themselves. However, in reality they are just promoting the use of violence as a solution.

If every parent in the world taught their children the meaning of self-control, unconditional love and how to handle their emotions through meditation; not one parent would ever need to teach their children self-defence.

As there would be nothing they need to defend themselves from in the first place.

  1.  Not All Meditation’s Are Child-Friendly

Although teaching children meditation has huge positive benefits, most of the available techniques and methods on the internet are not suitable for someone who is still physically, mentally and spiritually developing.

So it is crucial that you choose your meditation for your wisely. I’ve seen countless amounts of people teaching their children chakra meditation and so on… thinking they’re doing something positive but in fact, the effects are quite the opposite.

  1.  Start Off Basic

Like anyone learning meditation, the best thing to do is start off by teaching your child how to do basic meditations. These will, for the end result, make their entire practice more effective and more meaningful.

To begin with I suggest a simple meditation technique called the “mindfulness meditation”.

This will help them calm and settle their emotions, resulting in a more peaceful person.

Not only will they have a deeper understanding of themselves but also for others around them. They will be able to handle everyday tasks more effectively. Learn things with a higher attention span, and be able to cope with the stress of changes that a child may go through every day.

  1.  Don’t Push them into it

Being a parent I understand that you want the absolute best for your child, this can sometimes blind us as parents to become pushier and forceful without even noticing it.

Know that you may have difficulty teaching your child to stay in one place for a duration that they may not be comfortable with. This is normal because as children, they are full of energy and are yet to know how to handle it.

Be patient, gentle, but also persistent.

  1.  Encourage Your Child

Now as all parents know, your child will see you do something and automatically wants to copy you, this is a great way of getting them to do things they normally wouldn’t if you asked them too.

I use this to teach my children how to clean and keep things tidy, I don’t ask them to do it. I just make it look like I’m having the time of my life and then they too begin to do what I’m doing.

Use this to your advantage, let them see you doing it first, and have space for them next to you, and see how long it takes until they want to explore what you’re doing.

It will work, eventually!

Some children may take longer than others. However, if they see you doing this every day as a routine, they will also end up doing it and accept it as an everyday task.

  1.  Choose Your Moments

The moment you choose to try and encourage your child into learning this, is by far the most important factor you need to think about. As every child is different, i can’t tell you when the best time to do it is but I can guide you into knowing when.

A child will go through fluctuations of energy and concentration bursts throughout the day, each child will be calm one minute and then explode with energy the next.

Take note of when your child does this. Take roughly 3-7 days of documenting when your child has these changes and see if you can find the pattern.

When you find it, work from that and decide yourself when you feel the best time to work with meditation is for both you and your child.

  1.  Mindfulness Meditation

To be able to get your child to do this correctly, you should explain what you are doing whilst doing it step by step. Your child will then be encouraged to do this with you and become familiar with it in the process.

  1. Close the eyes – Close your eyes and suggest that your child does the same.
  2. Inhale and exhale– inhaling and exhaling through the mouth, make an ocean sound using the back of your throat and ask your child if they can do it too.
  3. Guide the imagination – By talking gently and slowly, guide the mind of your child into a state of imagination, guide them into imagining they are at the sea. Explain in great detail what your mind’s eye see’s when imagining the sea, explain how warm it is, how sunny it is, explain the surroundings and explain how happy you are.

Do this until your child has entered a state of hyper-relaxation, your child should look as if they are sleeping whilst sitting up.

  1. Guide them back to their original state –Simple begin to gently guide your child out of the meditation by talking louder and louder. If done gently and slowly, you will find that gradually your child’s attention starts to alert and guides back to normal. Be gentle with this part as this is most important for teaching your child to gently come out of the trance-like meditation.  

Summary

Remember, be patient, gentle, don’t push them into but entice them. Choose your moments correctly and encourage them by letting them see you doing it.

Every parent should be teaching children meditation. It would dramatically change the way future generations see and approach the world.

Teaching your child to learn how to meditate not only teaches self-control but also has a huge range of health, psychological and spiritual benefits. Teaching your children to learn meditation will dramatically improve their behaviour. Their mental stability. Their ability to handle their emotions, and it’ll have a huge impact on how they process the world…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *