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mindfulness:At Growing Spirit, we teach meditation, and learn how it can help us have happier, more creative relationships with children. Growing Spirit is for people who want to discover new ways to practice mindfulness with children. After 30 years of teaching kids and adults, I have seen the life-changing effect of cultivating a wise and balanced relationship to the present moment. Recent research in brain science and psychology has been confirming what we intuitively know about the value of mindfulness in parenting, in teaching, and being with children. At Growing Spirit we teach children age-appropriate meditative skills so they, too, can develop greater knowledge of their inner world. |
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below are some activities we've done with kids: (Susan Kaiser's creative work with children is expressed in many of these exercises -- thank you, Susan) |
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Our January meeting was attended by lots of crickets, brought by Susan in a cardboard box. She bought them at a pet store, where they are sold as food for turtles and other creatures. Inspired by the Tibetan tradition of releasing captive fish into the ocean, we held our own life release ceremony. We thanked the crickets and told them we wanted them to live in freedom again. Opening the box, we set them free, watching them crawl off through the grass, going their different ways. One father made authentic cricket sounds as they scampered away, and we offered our well-wishes to them and to all life.
One of the toys we often have at our meetings is a bunch of shiny pinwheels. When kids blow on the colorful pinwheels, they become aware of the movement of their own breath in new ways. What happens when you exhale softly? What happens if you breathe out a short, strong breath? A long one? The colorful wheel turns fast or slow depending on what kind of breath touches it. Children can also see the concrete result of their effort – if they put a lot of effort into blowing, their pinwheel whirls and turns into a mandala of color! If they make a little effort, there is a little bit of gentle turning. Each child has a different relationship with the breath, with the pinwheel, and can change and play with that.
At our June meeting we did a bug project. First kids found bugs living by the little creek in Temescal Canyon. Then they made big colorful bugs out of construction paper. For over an hour, Kerry, our helper Eric, and eight boys and girls stepped into the world of bees, wasps, spiders, flies, beetles, ants, ticks and butterflies. Insects often evoke strong reactions. They can mirror our likes and dislikes, and how little they have to do with the object itself. Some kids like beetles’ shiny wings and some hate them. The beetles just crawl around being beetles. As Shakespeare wrote, "There is nothing either good or bad, But thinking makes it so."
At the beginning of our meetings, kids and grown-ups all sit together in a circle. We meditate, sing songs, tell stories and talk and listen to each other. Once we had a jumbo box of Quaker Oats with a surprise inside. Kids from 2-13 tried to guess what – besides oatmeal – could be inside the big round box? Guesses ranged from "cereal" to "spider spleens" and everything in between! We wondered, what’s it like not to know? To WANT to know? How is it when we are really curious and open to discovery? Before revealing the contents of the cereal box, we sat with the mind that doesn’t know, our don’t-know mind. The atmosphere of don’t-know was energized and alive. Everyone’s eyes were wide open, interested, and shining! And when we took the polished jewel-like stones out of the box and unwrapped them, there was a new sense of reverence and stillness in the room. The children looked eagerly toward the front of the room to see what was being revealed ~~ OOHHHHHhhhhh... |
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mindfulness with families |
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In our circle, we go around naming some of our most and least favorite things, noticing the differences and similarities between us. We sit and meditate, sometimes with the sound of a drum, sometimes with the birds, sometimes with the sound of the chime, listening all the way until the sound finally fades away and vanishes. Where do you feel the sound in your body? Where does it go? (See "Bell-in-space" meditation below.) Some kids thought it went up into the sky, one felt it disappear into her heart, one into his ear, and some felt it wrap around our circle and then go. Most people agreed that when we listen to it all the way, and it goes away, it is actually mysterious! How can something be here and then gone? Paying attention to this carefully, being mindful in this way, we start to see how things do seem to come and go, and how they change. One of the benefits of mindfulness in family life is having the perspective, "this too shall pass." When things are hard, this can be a comfort. When we’re happy, it reminds us to appreciate what we have. Either way, we can be a little less worried, a bit more grateful.
Find a comfortable, relaxed sitting posture and close your eyes. Remember something you did that makes you feel glad inside. (Pause after each instruction – allow plenty of time, practicing as you give the instructions.) Cross your hands over your heart and send a smile into your whole body. Relax and see if you can feel all warm and happy inside. Let the feeling of happiness, peace, kindness and love spread from your heart through your whole body. Next, send some lovingkindness, warmth and happiness to someone in your family. Now send love to a pet, if you have one. Or to a friend. You can send lovingkindness to your class at school -- to your whole neighborhood -- to your country, and the world. Send lovingkindness to ALL creatures, two-legged, four-legged, and be sure to include the flying, swimming, slithering, crawling ones. We don’t want to leave anyone out! Small children will often call out, "even frogs?" "even spiders?" We concentrate our minds and hearts, radiating friendliness and compassion in all directions, spreading our lovingkindness over the whole world.
This exercise can be readily adapted to different age groups. Children sit quietly, kneeling or cross-legged on cushions on the floor. The leader does the exercise while teaching it, speaking from within the experience. The leader gives the following instructions: "Imagine yourself sitting inside an invisible egg. There is an invisible eggshell, a big circle all around you, front, back, up, down, and sideways. Close your eyes and stay very still. Relax into the quiet, not moving." Teenagers: "Just rest there in the peaceful stillness, imagining yourself completely at ease. Expand into this space, as far as your mind can go, including the whole universe." Younger children: "Imagine your arms and legs, your hands and feet, your whole body and your skin, too, all over. Now imagine the egg is filled with space that stretches way out in all directions, as far as you can see. Imagine you are blowing a bubble and you blow and blow and it gets bigger and bigger, until you become that bubble, stretching all the way out into outer space. Now take a few deep breaths, following the breath all the way in to yourself and then all the way back out into distant space. Let your whole mind feel bigger and bigger and just rest in that great big space." The leader then rings a bell. "Now, see if you can hear the sound of the bell all the way to the end." (Pause till the sound stops.) "Now, see if you can count the number of times you hear the bell." (Ring the bell at intervals of 30-60 seconds, over a period of three to seven minutes. The leader will have rung the bell between three to nine times per meditation session.) The bell-in-space meditation can last up to ten minutes. Afterwards, ask how many bells the children heard. All responses are considered correct because answers are simply the number of times the bell was heard. To heighten awareness, ask, "When the sound of the bell disappears, where does it go?" Children often offer thoughtful and profound answers to this question. |
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