Breathe!

Breathing techniques are a great introduction to the calming art of meditation.

Start by introducing the breathing technique when the child is relatively calm, and only for a few minutes. You may like to sit or lay down and just gently guide your child to notice what their body does while breathing, here’s an example of how I might guide a child:

“You might like to put your hands on your tummy, and feel what your tummy does when you breathe in…can you feel your tummy go up?

See if you can make your tummy big like Pooh Bear (or a balloon) and then when you breathe out, you can blow out the air like a big huff.” (do this with the child for a few breaths)

(Return to your normal breathing) Can you feel the air coming in your nose/mouth and how cool it feels? Can you feel the air gently leaving your nose/mouth and how much warmer it feels? Isn’t that amazing! Your body uses the cool air and then sends out old warm air!

You might like to imagine that you are breathing in magical, happy air and breathing out tired grumpy air… anything that makes you feel yucky, you could just breathe it out!”

You could then have a discussion around this and see how they went!

Enjoy!