Meditation with kids is a really interesting experience, one that can calm down both parents and Children. Unfortunately, few parents realize the fact that Mindfulness practices and meditation can be really useful.

We live in a world that is not as it should be. Children are often seen as being immune to what happens around them and what they see in the media because of their innocence. This is not the case.

Every single time we listen to news, watch TV or surf some social media content with children around, they do absorb what they see and what they hear. This happens even if they do not really understand what they see/hear.

The Choice

Parents have a choice. They can:

• Shield children from what is happening around the world.
• Help children build resilience so they can cope with all those bad things that happen.

What should you choose? That one is pretty obvious.

The Misconception

There are many things that people do not know about meditation. One of the really common misconceptions is that mindfulness helps you to never again feel pain, fear, anger and sadness. This is incorrect.

Meditation teaches you to manage, cope and process the difficult thoughts and feelings. This practically builds resilience towards adversity. Mindfulness will help you to get motivated to change and will make it easier for you to create solution to problems that create adversity.

Because of all this, teaching kids how to be more mindful is a very good idea. The world is hostile. As the children gains mindfulness as a skill, they are more capable of dealing with everything that happens.

How will mindfulness increase a child’s resilience? It all happens by covering the following factors.

Relationships

Studies highlighted that a major factor in resilience is being involved in supportive and caring relationships in and out of a family. Relationships create trust and love, give you role models, reassurance and encouragement.

Mindfulness actually teaches you how to properly connect with your children and it teaches them how to connect with other people. Do not assume that all parents feel truly connected with children. Many adults did not have the support they needed to actually develop such a type of connection.

As kids learn meditation, they learn how to develop compassion and self-love. This helps in all future relationships.

Planning

In order for the brain to work properly, it needs both parts to connect and work together. When the left side (logical side) does not properly communicate with your right side (the emotional side), stress appears because of the created imbalance. That stress will affect the education and learning of the child.

When the brain’s pre-frontal cortex is not developed, it becomes difficult to plan. When children cannot access this part of the brain, usually underdeveloped because of various factors like stress, they cannot properly integrate into a modern society. They cannot pay taxes, become home owners and study.

When children meditate, the engagement level of the pre-frontal cortex increases. This helps the child to develop planning skills that will be vital in the future.

Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is the reason why we manage to get back up when affected by adversity. The kids will be faced with challenges. Many youngsters start taking drugs or abuse alcohol because of a lack of self-esteem.

Meditation teaches you to accept yourself. This includes the parts that are not liked. When you learn mindfulness your life choices are influenced. You start to treat your body and your mind differently. Kids that learn meditation get the help they need to accept themselves as a whole as opposed to a perfectionist, idealistic view that the world forces. A more positive body image is also created.

Communication

The ability to solve problems comes from being connected to cognitive functions. After we have solutions, we have a desire to share and we need space and ability to actually use the solution. Mindfulness in listening and speech stands out as a powerful thing that can be practiced with children.

Adults project thoughts onto teens and kids. This automatically shuts down communication. When you practice mindfulness with your kids, the child ends up feeling heard. This can help present effective and simple solutions. Communication is increased in the family and beyond it.

Self-Regulation

This can be defined as being one’s capacity to manage strong impulses and feelings.

Emotional intelligence is something that is taken for granted. Children need to develop this at an early age. Meditation practice when you are an adult allows you to be able to offer the help the child needs to manage impulses and feelings.

Final Thoughts

Mindfulness is something that is often not seen as something a child can do but this is simply because the child’s ability to understand what happens is underestimated. You want to help the child develop. Meditation and mindfulness do help. They can both make you stronger as a family, develop better bonds and, most importantly, make the child grow and reach his/her potential.

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