When we're talking about mindfulness practices for children,
I think the first place to begin is to consider our own state of being.
The way we are, because we're an environmental factor in their lives.
And so I think the first port of call for mindfulness with children
is to practice mindfulness ourselves.
Being mindful doesn't just mean being mindful for our own emotions and our own body,
but for whatever is going on.
So we need to be there with our children, and engage with them,
in a way where we're acknowledging them,
and where we're really listening to them.
And where really available for them.
But there is a real strong movement, now,
towards developing mindfulness practices specifically for children.
And so we're seeing the emergence of mindfulness in schools projects.
And this is an area, actually, that the Mental Health Foundation will be developing
over the next year or so.
If your children take an interest, maybe if you're doing meditation yourself
and your children take an interest in sitting down with you
and wanting to do a little bit of that as well,
then you just keep it short.
You know, very short sessions.
And the research is showing us that about a minute for every year of age of the child.
So if they're five years old, no more than five minutes.
That's long enough.
Some other things we do with our daughter,
when she's lying down, getting a little soft toy, like a little teddy bear,
and putting it on her belly,
and then just ask her to watch it,
watch the teddy rise and fall as she breathes in and out.
And so she's just watching her dolly, or her teddy bear on her tummy,
and that's putting her in touch with her breathing.
And that does really work, actually.
It works surprisingly well.
She gets into that, she enjoys it. And sometimes she asks for that.
You know, "Put the teddy on my belly!"
Another technique which I really like,
that some of the people who are working with children,
doing mindfulness practices with children, have developed
is what's called a mind jar.
And with a mind jar, which is basically a jar of liquid
with glitter and things in it,
the premise is that you shake the jar up and all the glitter swirls around,
and then you just sit down and watch it while the glitter settles.
And this is actually a very old metaphor for the mind,
and the way the mind settles.
And as the old metaphor goes, the mind is like a jar of silty water,
if you imagine a jar with just dirty water in it,
and when we're ruminating, when we're getting caught up
in all these stories of our minds, and we're losing touch with our bodies,
it's like the mind's... the jar's constantly being shaken up,
the mind's constantly being stirred up by conflicting emotions,
and incessant discursive thinking.
And you know, if you shake the jar up, you can't see through it.
There's just silt swirling everywhere.
But the moment you put the jar down and you leave it alone,
all of that silt starts to settle to the bottom,
and you can see clearly through the water.
And this is what happens with the mind, as well.
The other thing with children that I think is really good,
is just getting them outside into nature,
and just enjoy the experience.
Enjoy the experience of walking barefoot on the sand together,
or walking through the bush and engaging, together, with each other,
and engaging with the world around us.