Tuesday, 14 April our MAD Children got together at Ted Horwood Reserve for an interactive talk about Mindfulness and Emotions. This topic was selected as Mindfulness has been a bit of a buzz word around adults, for good reason and there is a growing interest and research regarding the effects on children. Lachlan and I were particularly excited to share our experiences as we have many techniques we use at home (and in my practice with families) that have proven to be very beneficial for children and their parents.
We began our session talking about emotions, labeling them and understanding why we have them. Lachlan told a great little scenario about how even uncomfortable emotions, such as fear are really important. If we were to see a tiger sitting on the other side of the oval for example, our feeling of fear (no matter how horrible it feels) would help to try to keep us safe. In other words, our fight or flight response would kick in, necessary for survival. It is important for children to see how really important these feelings are, even if they make us feel icky at times.
Equally as important, we discussed how emotions work. Surprisingly, many adults do not really understand what physiologically happens. I demonstrated with a balloon blowing up visual, in which one of our MAD children drew a picture of her 'angry' face on it. The balloon represented the anger emotion and how we often feel like we too are filling up with so much emotion (air) that we feel like we could explode( we popped the balloon) and then we feel better. In actuality, emotions never come down that quickly. It is more like riding a bike up a hill, getting to a peak and then slowly coasting down. The visual we used was a snow globe. We shook it up to show how our emotions often make us feel all stormy inside like the globe, but after awhile the snow, like our emotions will slowly start to settle back down. I explained that it is the same for everyone--no matter how BIG or scary our emotions get, one thing is for certain, they will ALWAYS come back down. This is a powerful realisation for a child (and an adult too!) The look of relief and wonderment on a few of the children's faces said it all. I could tell that knowledge was a relief for quite a few of them.
All the children then made a Feelings Box; a place to write or draw out their present feelings, when confronted with them where they can tuck them away. You can make this at home out of anything, a box, a jar, basket, a drawer--anything. Some children even like to just throw their unwanted feeling out the front door and that is fine. The helpful bit with all of this is the tangibility. The process of thinking about and representing the feeling on paper and having the action of tucking it away or throwing it out is tangible to them and it makes them feel like they have more control when they can actively process it. Some children may even like to shred their feeling but often there is comfort in them knowing that if they want the feeling back they can get it from the box or walk outside and get it. It represents they have some control over how they interact with these feelings.
We then moved on to our Mindfulness Techniques, where things got really fun. I asked the children to do a little weather forecast of their emotions before we began. They wrote or drew it on a paper and stuck it in their box. We then did our first breathing and visualization activity with everyone lying on the ground in the oval. They visualised they were on their very own safe cloud which could be any size, shape, colour they wanted. The cloud could take them anywhere. They rested their hands on their tummies to feel their breath going in and out. This exercise was just a few minutes. Remember that Mindfulness for young children needs to be short. 3-5 minutes is probably the most to expect out of them unless they are keenly interested.
We also did a Mindful Eating exercise with a dried cranberry. I really enjoyed watching how focused the children of all ages were with this! They had to use all their senses to observe the cranberry. First resting it just in the palm, then using the fingers to feel it, followed by placing it on just the tongue before chewing. While chewing they needed to listen and feel and taste. They were really intense with focus and I was really proud of their patience.
Lastly we did a great Fox Walk. We tapped back to our ancestral roots, when we were hunters and gatherers. I challenged them all to tune into their instincts, ones that have not been used for this purpose for a long time. Mum and child, took off their shoes and socks to connect with the Earth and they learned how to walk like a hunter: heel first, then side of foot (as to be as quiet as possible) and so forth. They had to focus on their surrounds: the taste of the air, the feelings on their skin, the smells, what they could see and hear around them. Quietly they walked across the grass, paying attention to each soft and slow step, cool grass beneath their feet. We finished this off by doing the same thing with their eyes closed, trying to make their way to me calling them from somewhere on the oval. We had a lot of peekers but it will be a good one for them to replicate at home with a blindfold.
When I asked the children to report their updated emotions weather forecast to me most of them said that they felt different. Those that shared said they now felt more relaxed or calm. It was lovely that they had the chance to see that they can learn to do a few things to take control of what they want to focus their thoughts on; something I hope they will be able to continue to practice at home with guidance from mom or dad.
I will expand upon how we can support our children further with this in another post. Just wanted to give a quick little run down for those that missed out today.
Until next time!
Megan xx
