Description
A smiling mind meditation for your family to enjoy! Enjoy smiling with your loved ones in this mindful meditation.
We’ve all heard the saying,
When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you!
Well, it’s true! Smiling is contagious, but in addition to a big grin setting off a Mexican wave of big grins, smiling has a few other superpowers that are amazing and beneficial to our brains. According to Psychology Today Australia smiling:
- changes your mood for the better and creates an overall sense of well-being!
- induces more pleasure in the brain than eating 2,000 chocolate bars – wait what????
- helps create a positive impression on people, a smiling person comes across as more competent, likable, and polite
- lifts the mood of those around you!
As Buddhist author, Thich Nhat Hanh has said in his many teachings,
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy
If these reasons sound pretty good and you would like to bring positivity into your family, then get them all together to do this smiling mind meditation. The benefits of families meditating together are numerous and will equip all those involved with the life skills needed to manage their feelings and responses to the stressors and busyness of everyday life. Young children that participate in family meditation are more likely to continue the practice into adulthood, yet another positive reason why families should meditate together!
This smiling mind meditation is both a mindful and joyful experience for kids and grown-ups to share together. It was created for children 5yrs+ but it is appropriate to do with younger children also. It is sure to put a smile on your face, seeing your little ones share in the happiness.
Alison –
I think the reason why your meditations work so well with my kids(and myself)is that you allow them to be real. To think notice things like the taste in their mouths. You acknowledge they don’t easily relax into it and you allow for that. It’s a freedom of sorts. It’s ok to feel a bit wriggly, to notice a sound , a smell, a sensation. It lets them settle into it without feeling they have to conform to what we stereotypically picture meditation. Alison