With the excitement of Christmas coming to an end, and the new school year fast approaching, it’s normal to feel overwhelmed and a little anxious about what’s to come.
That’s where this mindfulness bingo card comes in!
Practicing mindfulness with little ones will help to calm their anxious thoughts and bring their attention back to the present. The best bit? By showing them how to calm their negative thoughts, you’re giving them the tools they need to calm themselves when you aren’t around.
We’ve got some simple yet very effective methods below. You’ll see that some are quite straightforward, because making the effort to do a little something for yourself is better than nothing at all! And some of these methods are adult mindfulness exercises that have been adapted for kids. Let's take a closer look at these exercises.
List Three Things You can See, Hear & Smell
This grounding exercise helps bring you back to the present and practices being mindful of how you feel, what’s happening around you, and take you out of your anxious brain and back into your body.
Do a Puzzle
Deep Belly Breaths
Typically, when we’re feeling anxious or stressed, our breathing patterns change and become shorter, more shallow breaths. Try this exercise to counter that and find a sense of calm in deeper, belly breaths. The introduction of a favourite soft toy will bring some comfort for the child, while helping keep their attention on their body and breaths. Lie down and place the toy on their tummy, and get them to practice taking slow, deep breaths, watching the toy rise and fall.
Rainbow Walk
Spending time outside is found to help ease anxious and depressive thoughts, and this exercise just makes it a little more of an adventure! By helping bring the little one’s attention back to what is physically around them, helps to distract from buzzing negative thoughts. So, go on a rainbow walk and along the way, try to find something of every colour of the rainbow.
Say 'Thank You'
This is a simple yet effective gratitude exercise for children, rather than listing what we’re grateful for (which is another fantastic mindfulness exercise), it’s an almost effortless action which will bring the mind’s attention to finding what we’re grateful for. While it might seem like we’re just asking children to use their manners, studies actually show that being grateful leads to increased wellbeing!
Drink a Glass of Water
Drinking a glass of water is another very accessible, no fuss, mindfulness practice that can help children focus on physical feelings rather than negative thoughts. Ask them to bring their attention to the feeling of the water in their mouth, as it goes down their throat, and finally once it’s reached their tummy.
Get Creative!
Colouring is proven to decrease stress and anxious feelings and promote mindfulness. And if the little one in your life isn’t keen on colouring, don’t fret! Drawing or doing crafts will have similar effects on calming them and bringing them back to the present.
Read a Book
If you’ve been following us for a while, you know reading has an incredible amount of benefits for young minds! But in case you've forgotten, let’s go through some now. Reading promotes language and literacy development, empathy and social understanding, enhanced memory, critical thinking, problem solving, and listening skills, just to name a few!
Stretch and Move Your Body
Stress can cause muscles to tighten and tense up, so a little stretch or dance session with your little one will help reduce stress and tension in the body. Stretching is also shown to increase serotonin in the body, which will help reduce stress in your child.
Even if you don’t do all of these exercises, we hope you’ve found some ideas of ways to help the young ones in your life process and calm negative thoughts. If you want to play mindfulness bingo, download the above printout, and throughout the day or the week, cross off each activity you’ve completed. That way when you get a full row, you’ll feel super accomplished! Or if you want to get competitive, see who can cross off a row first.
