Why Meditating With Your Child Holds You Accountable

As a parent, you can be your children's guide to meditation. You can impress upon them the benefits of the same. However, if you are a teacher, a babysitter, or a grandparent, do not shy away from meditating with the children under your care. It is the best gift they can receive from you, excluding, of course, a baby activity mat. 

Are you worried about how your kid will grow up? Are you concerned about their temperament and behavior? There is a single resolution to all this—meditation! There are several benefits of meditation, all of which will help them grow into calm, responsible, and smart individuals.   

Let us look at the different ways you can meditate with your kids.

Introduce Quietness 

Children, by nature, are fidgety and restless. There are very few kids who are willing to sit quietly in one place for more than a minute or two. Meditation of any sort requires patience on their part. Children's meditation benefits are immense, but only if they willingly give into it. 

You can instill in them the habit of keeping quiet by using reward methods, but make sure you participate as well. You can ask them to maintain pin-drop silence for 10 minutes, with the knowledge that they can go out to play or maybe get ice cream once they are done. 

Any form of meditation requires the kids to completely channel their efforts into achieving some sort of quiet and focus. We are not going to lie, it is going to be difficult. They may deliberately irritate you or even refuse any reward, but with time, you will notice a natural calmness. They also might begin to enjoy the stillness around them. Just do not give up so soon. 

Painting 

Research states that colors can have a significant impact on the minds of kids. It can gauge their personality, engage their interest, and also help them mediate. Utilizing color during meditation can be especially effective when addressing anxiety or anger. Anger issues are common among kids, and painting as a way of meditation can help them calm down immensely. It helps them vent their pent up energy into something productive and often becomes their go-to creative method. 

Let them create whatever they want. Do not force them to draw any conventional pictures but treat it as a therapy and let them scribble or paint away. Enforce order slowly and naturally. Soon they will want to give shapes to their thoughts, and that is exactly how anger management works. 

Children with anxiety also find painting to be a very helpful method in organizing themselves and fighting stress. 

Yoga

Children's meditation and yoga can be really helpful, but it might be easier with older kids as they have greater communication capabilities. If you would like, you can enroll your children into a kid-friendly yoga class as these classes usually incorporate meditation into their flows.  

Also, it really helps kids to be among other kids. That way, when they see all of the other kids following the regime, they instinctively do the same. However, this does not mean you should stop meditating with your child. Make them follow a routine at home as well, even if it is for 20 minutes. Yoga can help them with mental as well as physical gratification. A habit of yoga developed from childhood will benefit them in the long run, including helping them avoid dangerous health conditions like heart disease or obesity.

Music    

Music therapy is an immensely popular method of instilling in people, especially children, a sense of calmness. It also develops their cognitive and creative skills. Mediate with your kids while listening to children's meditation music. It is very easy to find such music. You can even try downloading a children's meditation app. 

Allow yourself to surrender to the music as well. If need be, read a few books on music and great musicians because if you are not into it, you cannot expect your child to benefit from it either. If possible, do not hesitate buying an instrument for your child. Once music seeps into your child's veins, there is no looking back. Music, as a method of meditation, will always be with them. 

Water

Water meditation can also be extremely beneficial. Make sure your child knows how to swim before trying this method out. You will need a pool and some safety precautions. Take them down to the pool and just float on the water. Ask your child to think about something. You can also provide them with a topic to think about before going down the pool. Make sure they are fun thoughts and not rocket science. Slowly introduce more thought-provoking statements. Maybe begin with, "Why do you think the pool gets heated up during the day?" and proceed with more reflective questions like, "How do you define yourself outside the reflection you see in the mirror?" 

Such questions will compel them to ponder things that generally we take for granted.

Puzzles and Chess

Puzzles and chess can be great for children's bedtime meditation. Encourage them to play, and this will also ensure they sleep well as it will tire out their brain. 

These games also help in mental development and increase their assessment faculties. Try to have some reward for good performance to motivate them. Children tend to lose interest if they fail at something. Do your best not to let them have the feeling of failure or dejection. Use these games for your children's meditation for sleep.  

Reading

Reading is an effective children's meditation for confidence. Reading makes children more communicative and confident. It can have a great effect on your child's overall personality development. Give them interesting books to read. You can start with books that have colorful pictures and entice them to form a bond with books. As this bond develops, slowly move on to storybooks and quizzes. 

Reading will guide your child's thoughts towards productive and contemplative activities, which in itself is a form of meditation. Children who read have a different way of looking at things altogether. They are more composed, more intelligent, and more emphatic in nature. Not only will reading enhance their academic performance, but reading will also ensure that your little one grows up to be a good human being. Thus, prepare your kid's reading list very carefully. 

Benefits Of Meditating With Your Child       

Now that we have outlined a few options for your children's mindfulness meditations, let us now move into exploring the benefits. Busy parents may wonder, "Why should I make time for activities that my child can very well do after they grow up?" The next part of the article is dedicated to the reasons why children's meditation is beneficial and why your participation as a parent or guardian is required. Read on!

1. A children's quiet meditation in any form will help them steer their energy onto the right track. Energetic children are often confused as to how to channel their energy, and that is why they may get into trouble or mischief. After meditation, they are less likely to waste their energy and will feel rejuvenated afterward. It is very unjust to expect a child to develop the habit of meditation all by themselves, and thus you must be there as a guide.  
2. Meditation helps them in contemplating their actions and makes them more able to adjust to their surroundings, especially outside the home. The great psychoanalyst Lacan, in his Mirror Theory, states that once your child reaches the age of 18 years, the unconscious state of the child begins to develop, and their surroundings have a significant impact on it. Meditation helps children to think uniquely, and since this stage is crucial for self-development, it will determine your child's future thought processes and discourses. You need to be available to guide your little ones towards the right path.    
3. Invest in your child's meditation, even if you only have time or the patience for a quick children's meditation. Meditation helps with depression, anxiety, and panic attacks in kids. Why drag them to doctors and make them a pill swallowing machine if it can be avoided? Meditation is an age-old yet effective technique used to deal with mental traumas and scars for generations. 
4. Meditating with your kid will develop and strengthen your bond with them. Trust us when we say it is going to be equally beneficial to you as a parent. There are times when we as parents feel claustrophobic with all the responsibilities and loss of control over our own lives. Meditation and mindfulness renew our spirits and helps us see the blessings that we have instead. 

We understand it can be as difficult for you as it is for your child, but do your best to try, and you will not regret it. Meditation at any age is crucial, and adult life often does not permit us to dedicate ourselves to stillness. Instill the habit of the best children's meditation in your child as soon as possible, and they will have you to thank for it. Write to us about your experiences in the comment section. We would love to hear from you. 

Author's Bio

Amalia Liberman is a wife and a mother of two, as well as a novelist and writer. Liberman has been featured in Women's Health magazine and has also written different articles for several lifestyle magazines. Her passions lead her to search out knowledge with all her heart and mind, and she doesn't mind sharing her findings.