Mindfulness for Children – with Susan Kaiser Greenland

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Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to teach your kids how to hone their focus? To pay better attention?

Or how about to be aware of their own feelings and to calm themselves down?

Wouldn’t it be great to teach them to find the balance in their lives that so many of us wish we had figured out at an early age?

This is all possible–and it’s through practices that have become ever more popular in recent years, yet have been around for millennia: meditation and mindfulness.

Science is increasingly showing us that meditation and mindfulness practices can help kids–and adults–develop these skills. We’ve known for years that meditation can lower cortisol levels in the body, thereby reducing feelings of stress, improving immune function, combating anxiety and depression, enhancing memory recall…the list goes on.

But there are now even studies that show that those who practice meditation and mindfulness exercises can create permanent changes in the parts of the brain that are in charge of attention, focus, self-regulation, and compassion.

Imagine your child growing up knowing how to tap into these benefits whenever life gets stressful or difficult.

And imagine that you can give your child these benefits through games and activities as simple as breathing.

Susan Kaiser Greenland is one of the pioneers who has paved the way for kids to learn mindfulness. She is the founder of the InnerKids Program in Los Angeles, and author of The Mindful Child: How to Help Your Kid Manage Stress and Become Happier, Kinder, and More Compassionate. She has also collaborated on some of the research on the benefits of mindfulness education in schools, and she is one of the leading figures in teaching mindfulness to children, parents, and professionals.

I truly enjoyed sitting down and talking with Susan because, as you’ll see, she is incredibly wise and insightful. Not only does she explain the nuances of how mindfulness benefits children, she also gives some concrete tips and exercises that you can use with your kids today.

So prepare yourself for some amazing tools and the compassionate wisdom of Susan Kaiser Greenland here in Episode 06!

Listen by clicking here for iTunes or play it below.

Some Questions That I Ask:

• Why is it important to teach mindfulness to children?
• How do you go about doing so?
• How does the approach change for children of different ages?
• How do you get a child with poor focus to actually sit down and do any of these exercises?
• What sort of results have schools seen when mindfulness education is taught to students?

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• What the difference is between meditation, mindfulness, and the popularized version of “mindfulness”
• How something as simple as a snowglobe can teach kids (and adults!) about managing thoughts, feelings, and stress
• Games and activities to use with children as young as 4 to improve focus and attention
• Activities to develop gratitude and a connected worldview
• Exercises to help kids see that there can be good even at times that things seem bad
• To speak and act by first thinking: “Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?”
• And much, much more!

Important Resources

• Susan Kaiser Greenland’s book: The Mindful Child: How to Help Your Kid Manage Stress and Become Happier, Kinder, and More Compassionate
• Susan’s website: www.susankaisergreenland.com
• Susan’s Twitter: @susankaisergreenland

Music

• Akashic Records – Motivation
• SANDR – Retrofunkfish

This post first appeared on The Child Repair Guide at DrSteveSilvestro.com

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