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New Horizon - Meditation & Relaxing Music

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Kids Guided Meditation | The Wishing Well | Relaxation for Children

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Best Relax Music for Children ♫ Quiet Time | Peaceful Rest | Calming Deep Sleep | StressRelief Music

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The best relax music for children of all ages. Mixed with sounds of waves and wind. If you need peaceful and calming music to just have a time out during the day, if you want to relax and let go of stress, or if you need something to that will soothe you to deep sleep - this one is a winner.

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Relaxing Music for Children ♫ InnerBalance | Quiet Time | Nap Time ♫ Sleep Deep 💤 432Hz

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Relaxing Music for Children of all ages. Perfect for Quiet Time, Nap Time and Night time sleeping.Get your children to Unwind with this Calming & Relaxing Music.This song in tuned to 432Hz.This tuning is said to have a Healing effect on our body, mind and emotions.Listening to 432Hz music resonates inside our body, releases emotional blockages and expands our consciousness.

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Time Out (Peace Out: Guided Meditation for Kids) | Cosmic Kids

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Balloon (Peace Out: Guided Meditation for Kids) | Cosmic Kids

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New Horizon - Meditation & Sleep Stories

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Guided Meditation for Kids | The Friendly Whale | Relaxation for Children

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New Horizon - Meditation & Relaxing Music

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Guided Meditation for Kids | BASKET OF HAPPINESS | Relaxation for Children

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New Horizon - Meditation & Relaxing Music

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Meditation for Kids | Magic Carpet Ride | Guided Imagery Relaxation

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Download Meditation for Kids Mega Pack here: https://newhorizon.selz.com/item/59b288a9cca9180c30ef421f 30 of our best Kids Meditations at a reduced price! Download FREE Guided Meditation for Kids: https://newhorizon.selz.com/item/5989e711cca9180b0c0c21d4 Download New Guided Meditation for Kids Album: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/newhorizonholisticcentre42 Also available from iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/guided-meditations-for-kids/id1256088681 Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/music/album/New_Horizon_Holistic_Centre_Guided_Meditations_for?id=B7arooc7umjhffu2k2zytb3vwxe&hl=en Leave your worries and stress at home whilst you take the trip of a lifetime on your magic carpet to lands afar!

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New Horizon - Meditation & Sleep Stories

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Guided Meditation for Kids | Spaceship to the Moon | Relaxation for Children

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New Horizon - Meditation & Relaxing Music

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Guided Meditation for Children | RAINBOW WATERFALL | Kids Relaxation

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Download Meditation for Kids Mega Pack here: https://newhorizon.selz.com/item/59b288a9cca9180c30ef421f 30 of our best Kids Meditations at a reduced price! Download FREE Guided Meditation for Kids: https://newhorizon.selz.com/item/5989e711cca9180b0c0c21d4 Download New Guided Meditation for Kids Album: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/newhorizonholisticcentre42 Also available from iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/guided-meditations-for-kids/id1256088681 Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/music/album/New_Horizon_Holistic_Centre_Guided_Meditations_for?id=B7arooc7umjhffu2k2zytb3vwxe&hl=en In this Guided Meditation for children your child will partake in a wonderful journey to the Rainbow Waterfall with their trusty Animal Spirit Guide.

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New Horizon - Meditation & Relaxing Music

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Guided Meditation for Children | CAP OF CONFIDENCE | Kids Relaxation

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😊 🌺 Breath Meditation for Kids 😊 ❤️‍ Mindfulness for Kids

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New Horizon - Meditation & Relaxing Music

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Guided Meditation for Children | YOUR TIME MACHINE | Kids Relaxation

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Star Wars | A Cosmic Kids Yoga Adventure! 🪐 🎞 | Star Wars Videos for Kids

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Calypso the Flamingo | A Cosmic Kids Yoga Adventure!

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We're Going on a Bear Hunt | A Cosmic Kids Yoga Adventure!

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It's an important question, right? Who wouldn't want to be doing the best practice? From one perspective, we probably all believe we're doing the best practice for us, otherwise, we'd be doing another practice!

However, mindfulness practitioners often become concerned that there's some better practice out there, and they wonder if perhaps they're missing out. They wonder if they would be making more progress if they were practicing in a different way. This question causes concern for practitioners and it is worth taking a closer look at the issue.

Let's unpack the notion of the ' best practice.' Identifying the 'best' practice would require: (1) classifying and differentiating practices and (2) establishing comparative efficacy of practices.

Differentiating and Classifying Practices

The 'best practice' assumes that there are underlying differences between practices. Only practices that are substantively different from others could claim to be the 'best.' Of course, on the surface, attending to the breath is different than doing a body scan, which is different than using sound as the mindfulness anchor. But perhaps these are merely superficial differences.

If we are to ever optimize mindfulness instructions, we must classify the different practices into underlying groups. We might do this by grouping practices according to the cognitive capacities they involve. Some practices may enhance certain cognitive functions more than other cognitive functions. Some practices might engage particular emotional capacities more than others. Researchers might look to classify and assess practices through the use of biomarkers. "Biomarkers" are objective, measurable qualities in the body that indicate health, disease, or the impact of a treatment. It is conceivable that different mindfulness practices might ultimately be grouped according to their neurobiological impacts. Some practices may preferentially recruit specific brain circuits or have specific neurobiological effects.

Richard Davidson - a pioneering scientist examining the effects of meditation on the brain -proposed a classification scheme for meditation practices. He and his colleagues published an influential paper in 2008 titled "Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation." In that paper, they define meditation "as a family of complex emotional and attentional regulatory strategies developed for various ends, including the cultivation of well-being and emotional balance."

While there are literally thousands of different meditation techniques, Davidson classified meditation practices into two main groups: focused attention and open monitoring. Both of these practices are familiar to Mindful Schools graduates.

Focused attention involves four keys characteristics:

1. Directing and sustaining attention on a selected object (e.g. the sensation of the breath)
2. Detecting mind wandering and distractions
3. Disengaging the attention from distractions and returning attention to the selected object
4. Cognitive reappraisal of the distraction

Open monitoring is characterized by three characteristics:

1. There is no explicit focus on particular objects
2. Nonreactive meta-cognitive monitoring
3. Nonreactive awareness of automatic cognitive and emotional interpretations of stimuli

This distinction between focused attention and open monitoring, however, is only one possible way of classifying meditation practices. In fact, Davidson and his colleagues have recently expanded on their 2008 paper with an augmented system of classification. More interdisciplinary collaboration between practitioners, scientists and scholars is yielding greater clarity about the underlying differences and similarities of diverse practices.

Comparative Effectiveness of Meditation Practices

Once meditation practices are adequately classified and differentiated, the next scientific task would be to test comparative efficacy between two or more practices. Evidence for one practice being better than another would typically come in the form of clinical trials where research participants are randomly assigned to one practice or another, tracked over a period of time, and assessed on key indictors of well-being. Virtually none of this type of research has been conducted yet.

Looking to the future of mindfulness research, we may be able to draw some interesting parallels with psychotherapy research. Back in 1967, Gordon Paul, a psychotherapy researcher, asked an important question regarding attempts to identify the optimal psychotherapy: ''What treatment, by whom, is most effective for this individual with that specific problem, and under which set of circumstances?''

Scientists will eventually ask similar questions of meditation practices. The question of a best practice becomes a lot more complicated: What meditation practice, taught by what kind of teacher, practiced for how long and how frequently, for what specific kind of distress?

If we had to make a prediction based on how psychotherapy research has unfolded, we probably won't identify a universal best way to practice. Instead, practice recommendations will depend on many factors including practice goals, temperament, and the phase of practice. Further, the similarities between different practices probably outweigh their differences.

In other words, if you're practicing one technique in a sincere way, you're probably not missing out!

In the meantime, while all this is being explored, we do our best with what we know. For now, as a practitioner it's important to be clear on at least one practice technique. Periodically, we can assess our practice. This doesn't mean we become obsessive evaluators of our mindfulness practice. But we can ask: are we becoming more patient, more kind, more equanimous, more joyous? Do we struggle less internally - and cause less struggle for others? We can ask these questions periodically - perhaps every few months - without getting obsessive and trying to measure our progress after each mindfulness practice period (or after every mindful breath).

We wish you much goodness in your practice.
References:
Dahl, C.J., Lutz, A., & Davidson, R.J. (2015). Reconstructing and deconstructing the self: cognitive mechanisms in meditation practice. Trends in cognitive sciences, 19, 515-523. [Summary]

Lutz, A., Slagter, H.A., Dunne, J.D., & Davidson, R.J. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in cognitive sciences, 12, 163-169. [Article]

Paul, G.L. (1967). Strategy of outcome research in psychotherapy. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 31, 109-118. [Summary]

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What's the Best Mindfulness Practice? - Mindful Schools

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It's an important question, right? Who wouldn't want to be doing the best practice? From one perspective, we probably all believe we're doing the best practice for us, otherwise, we'd be doing another practice! However, mindfulness practitioners often become concerned that there's some better practice out there, and they wonder if perhaps they're missing out.

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Mindfulness can boost the quality of our lives in numerous ways.

In today's rush, we all think too much-seek too much-want too much-and forget about the joy of just being.

- Eckhart Tolle

What does mindfulness do to spark "the joy of just being" that Tolle references? And, how can we teach kids to start benefiting from its practice?

This article delves into both of these questions and includes plenty of activities for you to start using today.

Research confirms that for children, mindfulness can:

Mitigate the effects of bullying (Zhou, Liu, Niu, Sun, & Fan, 2016);

Enhance focus in children with ADHD (Zhang et al., 2016);

Reduce attention problems (Crescentini, Capurso, Furlan, & Fabbro, 2016);

Improve mental health and wellbeing;

Improve social skills when well taught and practiced with children and adolescents.

It's also important for caregivers and educators to provide age-appropriate mindfulness practices to children.

For example, fostering mindfulness in preschoolers with tools like pictures, objects, food, simple movements, and music, can help them develop an ability to better focus their attention and stay present.

In a study by Flook et al., (2015), kids were asked to engage in an activity called "Belly Buddies", in which they listened to music while also noticing the sensation of a small tone on their stomachs rising and falling with each breath.

The kids became more attune to their bodies, breath and to the music.

Ultimately, simple activities like these can have long-lasting developmental benefits when practiced regularly.

Want more? We have 25 mindfulness activities designed specifically for children. Plus, they are fun to do.

But, before you read on, we thought you might like to download our three Mindfulness Exercises for free. These science-based, comprehensive exercises will not only help you cultivate a sense of inner peace throughout your daily life but will also give you the tools to enhance the mindfulness of your children, students or young clients.

4 Fun Mindfulness Activities and Exercises for Children

Let's start with these simple ways to attune children with their bodies. At a young age, humans naturally curious about the strength and flexibility of their bodies. It's a great age to introduce body-mind awareness as a valuable way to take care of themselves.

Mindful Posing

One easy way for children to dip their toes into mindfulness is through body poses. To get your kids excited, tell them that doing fun poses can help them feel strong, brave, and happy.

Have the kids go somewhere quiet and familiar, a place they feel safe. Next, tell them to try one of the following poses:

1. The Superman: this pose is practiced by standing with the feet just wider than the hips, fists clenched, and arms reached out to the sky, stretching the body as tall as possible.

2. The Wonder Woman: this pose is struck by standing tall with legs wider than hip-width apart and hands or fists placed on the hips (Karen Young, 2017).

Ask the kids how they feel after a few rounds of trying either of these poses. You may be surprised.

Spidey-Senses

While on the subject of superheroes, this can be a related "next step" to teach kids how to stay present.

Instruct your kids to turn-on their "Spidey senses," or the super-focused senses of smell, sight, hearing, taste, and touch that Spiderman uses to keep tabs on the world around him. This will encourage them to pause and focus their attention on the present, opening their awareness to the information their senses bring in (Karen Young, 2017).

This is a classic mindfulness exercise and encourages observation and curiosity-great skills for any human to practice.

The Mindful Jar

This activity can teach children how strong emotions can take hold, and how to find peace when these strong emotions feel overwhelming.

First, get a clear jar (like a Mason jar) and fill it almost all the way with water. Next, add a big spoonful of glitter glue or glue and dry glitter to the jar. Put the lid back on the jar and shake it to make the glitter swirl.

Finally, use the following script or take inspiration from it to form your own mini-lesson:

"Imagine that the glitter is like your thoughts when you're stressed, mad or upset. See how they whirl around and make it really hard to see clearly? That's why it's so easy to make silly decisions when you're upset - because you're not thinking clearly. Don't worry this is normal and it happens in all of us (yep, grownups too).

[Now put the jar down in front of them.]

Now watch what happens when you're still for a couple of moments. Keep watching. See how the glitter starts to settle and the water clears? Your mind works the same way. When you're calm for a little while, your thoughts start to settle and you start to see things much clearer. Deep breaths during this calming process can help us settle when we feel a lot of emotions" (Karen Young, 2017).

This exercise not only helps children learn about how their emotions can cloud their thoughts, but it also facilitates the practice of mindfulness while focusing on the swirling glitter in the jar.

Try having the kids focus on one emotion at a time, such as anger, and discuss how the shaken verse settling glitter is like that emotion.

Safari

The Safari exercise is a great way to help kids learn mindfulness. This activity turns an average, everyday walk into an exciting new adventure.

Tell your kids that you will be going on a safari: their goal is to notice as many birds, bugs, creepy-crawlies, and any other animals as they can. Anything that walks, crawls, swims, or flies is of interest, and they'll need to focus all of their senses to find them, especially the little ones (Karen Young, 2017).

A similar exercise for adults is the mindfulness walk. This exercise provokes the same response in children that a mindful walk elicits in adults: a state of awareness and grounding in the present.

If you're interested in more information on how to encourage the practice of mindfulness in children and teens, you can check out the other exercises from this website. Otherwise, head on to the next section where we lay out key tips for teaching these concepts.

15 Tips for Teaching Mindfulness to Kids and Teenagers

When you are trying to teach your kids or young clients about mindfulness and its benefit, we recommend you begin with a few guidelines:

1. Make sure they are ready to give mindfulness a try; if they are full of energy and itching to run and play, it may not be the best time for practicing mindfulness for the first time.

2. Explain what mindfulness is and what it is not; give examples of what seems similar to mindfulness but is not (i.e., introspection or chasing thoughts down the "rabbit hole" versus listening to our bodies).

3. Say it in an age-appropriate way, with words they will understand.

4. Offer to practice mindfulness with them; sometimes having a model makes all the difference.

5. Assure them that it's okay to get off track, and how to gently guide themselves back to mindfulness when they realize they lost focus.

6. Finish the practice by doing something they enjoy with them to ensure they have a positive experience.

Megan Cowan, co-founder, and co-director at the Mindful Schools program in Oakland, also has some tips on how to teach mindfulness to kids (2010):

1. Keep the purpose of mindfulness practice in mind. Be sure to engage in mindful practice with children in positive situations, and never use it as a disciplinary tool.

2. Make sure you practice mindfulness yourself!

3. Set a daily routine for practicing mindfulness to make sure you incorporate it.

4. Prepare the environment for successful practice; move the furniture around or have everyone switch positions.

5. Involve students in the process; perhaps designate a different child each day to alert the class when it's time to practice mindfulness or help set up any tools or props.

6. Share your own experiences with the kids; this will help them understand how mindfulness is applied and practiced in everyday life. Feel free to share how you redirect yourself when you feel distracted during a mindfulness session.

7. Encourage the children to share their experiences as well, whether they were good experiences with mindfulness or experiences in which they got distracted. Maybe each session can end with a few students sharing how it went for them.

8. Practice every day. The more you embed mindfulness into the daily routine, the easier it is to engage.

Cowan (2010) also includes a short script if you'd like to use her mini-lesson.

Relay the following instructions to your kids:

"Please get into your mindful bodies-still and quiet, sitting upright, eyes closed."

"Now place all your attention on the sound you are about to hear. Listen until the sound is completely gone."

Ring a "mindfulness bell," or have a student ring the bell. Use a bell with a sustained sound or a rain stick to encourage mindful listening.

"Please raise your hand when you can no longer hear the sound."

When most or all have raised their hands, you can say, "Now slowly, mindfully, move your hand to your stomach or chest, and just feel your breathing."

You can help students stay focused during the breathing with reminders like, "Just breathing in ... just breathing out ..."

Ring the bell to end.

For more in-depth tips and ideas on teaching mindfulness to children, check out the book Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Community.

The website from editor and children's book author Annaka Harris also provides some great ideas for exercises that teach mindfulness to children.

8 Mindfulness Games, YouTube Videos, and Apps to Support Your Teachings

Technology offers learning and development for these practices. To ensure that you are using technology to your advantage when it comes to teaching children mindfulness, give some of these resources a try.

Smiling Minds App

Another application that is popular for children as young as seven is the Smiling Mind app. This app is available through the Apple app store as well as the Google Play store. It is free to download and use.

This app offers similar features to the Mindfulness for Children app, including a body scan activity. There are dozens of modules with hundreds of sessions available, each customized for wellbeing, education, and the workplace (for adults).

If you'd like to check out the reviews for this app or learn more about it, visit the website.

Still Quiet Place

If you'd like to use a video to help your kids learn how to practice mindfulness, the "Mindfulness Exercises for Kids: Still Quiet Place Video" is a great resource. This animated video can help students learn how to go to a "still quiet place."

Check out the video here, and scroll down to the link below the video to see more activities from GoZen.com.

Mindfulness Games for Kids

Several interactive games are available on the Kids Activities Blog. Here are just a few:

1. Blowing bubbles. Have your kids focus on taking in a deep, slow breath, and exhaling steadily to fill the bubble. Encourage them to pay close attention to the bubbles as they form, detach, and pop or float away.

2. Pinwheels. Use the same tactics from blowing bubbles to encourage mindful attention on the pinwheels.

3. Playing with balloons. Tell your kids that the aim of this game is to keep the balloon off the ground, but have them move slowly and gently. You can tell them to pretend the balloon is very fragile if that helps.

4. Texture bag. Place several small, interestingly shaped or textured objects in a bag. Have each child reach in and touch an object, one at a time, and describe what they are touching. Make sure they don't take the object out of the bag, forcing them to use only their sense of touch to explore the object.

5. Blindfolded taste tests. Use a blindfold for each child and have them experience eating a small food, like a raisin or a cranberry, as if it was their first time eating it.

If you want to know about more games you can play with children to teach them about mindfulness, check out the book Mindful Games: Sharing Mindfulness and Meditation with Children, Teens, and Families by Susan Kaiser Greenland.

2 Mindfulness Training Classes For Children with Anxiety

Mindfulness practice can be an especially important component of a child's life if they suffer from anxiety. Learning about mindfulness and how to engage in mindfulness can help a child realize that worrying is normal, and there are useful coping methods when we are worrying too much.

Aside from the Mindful Schools program mentioned earlier, there are classes and programs designed especially for children, and even a few that are structured for children with anxiety.

Child Mind Institute focus on education, care and science, and offers various programs. Programs are customised to your needs, so contact them via their website to book for a workshop.

There is also a popular course called "MonkeyMind and Me: A Mindfulness Course for Children." Children learn how to meditate and practice mindfulness over eight one hour sessions held over eight weeks.

The lessons are delivered through stories about MonkeyMind, a friendly puppet who has trouble with self-regulation ("MonkeyMind and Me", 2017). The course includes lessons, opportunities to practice, design of a homemade project, and a graduation ceremony.

The structure of these lessons and exercises transforms teaching mindfulness into an experience everyone might enjoy-and benefit from.

The Basics: Teaching Essential Mindfulness Practices and Skills

Before you delve into the classroom, review these basic skills and you may have better success with students and clients learning mindfulness.

Mindful Breathing

Mindful breathing is a staple of practicing mindfulness. It is the foundation of many other exercises. To help kids learn how to engage in mindful breathing, you can use a video like the one below:

This video guides children through a breathing meditation by instructing them to imagine a sailboat that rises and falls as they breathe; with each inhale and exhale, the boat moves gently on top of the water.

They also get an opportunity to visualize their breath with a color and focus on the experience of their breath moving through their nostrils. Lastly, the video ends with the exercise of the children imagining (with their eyes closed) that they used to be a fish and paying attention to how it would feel to breathe through their lungs for the first time.

Body Scan

The body scan is a key practice in mindfulness, and an easy one to teach to children.

Have your kids lie down on their back on a comfortable surface and close their eyes;

Then tell them to squeeze every muscle in their body as tight as they can.

Tell them to squish their toes and feet, squeeze their hands into fists, and make their legs and arms as hard as stone;

After a few seconds, have them release all their muscles and relax for a few minutes;

Encourage them to think about how their body is feeling throughout the activity (Roman, 2015).

This simple exercise gets kids to be more aware of their bodies and helps them find a way to be present in the moment.

Heartbeat Exercise

Paying attention to one's heartbeat has a role in many mindfulness exercises and activities. To begin, tell your kids to jump up and down in place or do jumping jacks for one minute.

When they have finished, have them sit down and put a hand over their heart. Instruct them to close their eyes and pay attention only to their heartbeat and, perhaps, their breath as well (Roman, 2015).

This exercise teaches children to notice their heartbeat, and use it as a tool to help their focus. These skills will come in handy as they start engaging in more advanced mindfulness activities.

Mindfulness Meditation for Very Young Children

You might be thinking that these tips and exercises are great for elementary or middle school students, but less realistic for young children. This section focuses on children who are toddlers through kindergarten graduates.

One mother explained laid out her five strategies for teaching young children mindfulness-starting with her three-year-old child learning mindfulness.

Her strategies are:

Teach kids to recognize and identify their own emotions. Children need to associate the word or term for an emotion with the actual experience of feeling that emotion. Encourage them to think about how each emotion feels in their body. Does anger feel like they've got steam coming out of their ears? Does love make them feel like their heart is going to burst open?

Validate their emotions. Children often respond with frustration or sadness when told that their pain, however trivial it seems to us, is "not a big deal." When teaching mindfulness, let kids feel their feelings without fear of judgment. Focus instead on teaching them tools to listen to their emotions.

Teach kids mindful breathing strategies. As we noted above, mindful breathing is a building block in all mindfulness practices. Children benefit from focusing on their breathing when confronted with emotions that are hard to manage.

The author of the blog laid out three techniques she has put to use with her children:

1. Noticing the breath: this involves simply paying attention to what breathing actually feels like.
2. Five-finger starfish meditation: this breathing technique has kids holding up one hand in a starfish position (fingers spread wide) while they gently trace up and down each finger with the other hand, focusing on regular breathing at the same time.
3. Counting the breath: this technique is what it sounds like: have your children pause and count their breaths. One breath in is "1", the next breath out is "2," etc. You can have them count to 10 if they're very young, or slightly higher depending on their abilities.

Lead them in a guided meditation. Use a script or an exercise or app like the ones described above for this meditation.

Practice what you preach. As we mentioned earlier, it is so important to actually "do as you say." Kids are intuitive and human nature encourages mimicry, two advantages we can harness when trying to teach (Beach, "Baby Buddhas.")

Guide your kids every step of the way, but make sure you are taking those steps yourself as well. It will make everyone's practice richer.

The Benefits Of Mindfulness In Schools (K12) + Videos

Childhood and adolescence are important developmental stages that will construct the groundwork for mental health in the adult developmental stage.

In recent literature, mindfulness-based school programs have demonstrated a range of social, cognitive, and emotional benefits for elementary and middle-school students.

Cognitive Benefits

Executive function is a set of mental skills that constitutes attention, switching focus, planning, organizing, and remembering details.

Research in education suggests that mindfulness practice can lead to improvements in executive function in children.

For instance, in the study of Flook et al., (2010) conducted on 3 rd graders, students who went through an 8-week mindfulness program showed improvements in behavioral regulation, metacognition, and focus compared to the control group who did not have the mindfulness program.

In another study, students who had a 24-week mindfulness training scored higher in attentional measures in their elementary school (Napoli et al., 2004). Additionally, a study on preschoolers emphasized that children who went through a mindfulness curriculum for 12 weeks earned higher marks on academic performance measures. They also showed greater improvements in areas that predict future success (Flook et al., 2015).

Social Benefits

A social skill is any skill that we use to interact and communicate with others.

Deficits and excesses in social behavior can affect learning, understanding, and classroom climate. Recent research on lower-income and ethnic minority elementary school children highlighted how a 5-week mindfulness curriculum can lead to better participation in activities, as well as nurture a classroom culture of mutual respect and care in 9th-grade students (Black et al., 2013).

Emotional Benefits

Emotional health, which is a positive sense of wellbeing, is an important component of child and adolescent development. Emotional problems such as anxiety, stress, and depression can affect self-esteem, performance, and social interactions.

Mindfulness practice may facilitate the ability to manage stress, and also lead to deeper wellbeing in students.

According to one study by Schonert-Reichl and his colleagues (2010), mindfulness practice leads to higher scores on self-report measures of optimism and positive emotions in elementary school students.

Moreover, in a study conducted by Wall (2005), self-reported findings showed preteens feeling calmer, with an enhanced experience of well-being-and improved sleep-after a 5-week modified mindfulness-based stress reduction program.

Videos on Mindfulness in Schools

These four videos can help students open their minds to the benefits of mindfulness. We recommend pairing any of these segments with a discussion.

Questions for after the selected clip can include, "Has anyone practiced mindfulness, and how has it gone for you?" or "What do you think is the reason most people do not practice mindfulness, and how can we start changing this?"

A Take-Home Message

Research confirms that mindfulness can improve mental health by aiding wellbeing, attention, self-regulation, and social competency. It just needs to be practiced-and encouraged.

Mindfulness-based programs in schools can have a life-long impact on the psychological, social, and cognitive wellbeing of children and teens. Even at home or with clients, how can you incorporate mindfulness into your teachings and own schedule?

Do you have kids or work with kids on a regular basis? Try these tips and activities out, and let us know how they worked in the comments section below.

Good luck, and remember this old saying:

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don't forget to download our three Mindfulness Exercises for free.

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25 Fun Mindfulness Activities for Children & Teens (+Tips!)

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Here's a list of fun mindfulness activities and exercises for kids that will teach them about mindfulness in a playful way. Enjoy!

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Article 21 Ways to Integrate Mindfulness

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Article 21 Ways to Integrate Mindfulness

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While the impact of the new federal education law ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) has yet to be realized, there's one change that is welcome to educators. It is the shift in emphasis from the prescriptive testing and accountability requirements of No Child Left Behind to a broader definition of success, including recognition of the value of non-academic concepts and "whole child" issues.

ESSA recognizes social-emotional education as an important factor in helping students develop crucial life skills that go beyond academics. For an awesome infographic on the core competencies of social-emotional learning, click here.

Here are 21 simple ways you can support social-emotional learning for your students every day.

1. Start the day with a check-in.

Make it a goal to start each day with a personal connection. It doesn't need to be a time-consuming or elaborate procedure. It could be as simple as giving a warm greeting to welcome each person as they arrive in the morning.

2. Use story time for teachable moments.

Read-alouds are the perfect tool for exploring social-emotional themes with your class. They're not just for little kids either-there are tons of gorgeous picture books with complex themes and vocabulary that older kids will love too. Here's a list to help start your social-emotional book library.

3. Work in partnerships.

Give kids lots of opportunities to work with partners. Working with a partner helps kids learn to cooperate and builds community in your classroom. Alternate between strategically assigning partnerships and allowing kids to make their own choices.

4. Teach them how to work in a group.

Being able to work in a group setting is an important life skill. Students will learn how to negotiate with others, develop leadership skills and figure out their own strengths so they can best contribute to the group. Click here for tips to make group work more productive.

5. Nurture a culture of kindness.

At the beginning of the year, read Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, a story about the power of kind words. Then create your own bucket for the classroom. Get a small tin bucket from a craft store and cut 3-by-3-inch pieces out of card stock. Kids can write messages of kindness, appreciation and love on the cards throughout the week to fill up the bucket. At the end of each week, spend a few minutes sharing these notes of encouragement to end the week on a positive note.

6. Give them new words to say.

Here's a free poster, " 8 Phrases That Nurture Growth Mindset," that gives students positive phrases they can use to foster their resilience and overcome failure. Hang a large copy on the wall, or give them their own smaller version for their journals or planners.

Create a special place in your classroom for kids to take a break when they are upset or angry or need to calm themselves. This space should have a peaceful atmosphere and might include comfy pillows to sit on, noise-canceling headphones, a fish tank, journaling materials, calming images and/or books about peace.

8. Teach your kids how to manage conflict with peer mediation.

Peer mediation is a problem-solving process that helps students involved in a dispute meet in a private, safe and confidential setting to work out problems with the help of a student mediator. There are lots of programs out there-here's one sample curriculum.

9. Use anchor charts to teach social-emotional skills.

You can create anchor charts with your class about many different topics, from "Owning Your Learning" to "What Does Respect Look Like?" and "Be a Problem-Solver." Check out the WeAreTeachers Classroom Management Anchor Charts Pinterest board for many more ideas.

10. Practice lots of role-play.

Sometimes you have to put yourself in someone else's shoes to truly understand a situation. Taking time to role-play tricky or troubling situations that show up in your classroom helps kids develop empathy and understand other people's feelings. For example, it's a great strategy to use when discussing bullying. Read The 10 Key Benefits of Role-Play for Children.

11. Allow for talk time.

Give kids a lot of opportunities-both structured and unstructured-to talk to one another during the course of the day. Bouncing ideas off of one another or figuring out problems with a little give-and-take will help your students build understanding and confidence. Here are 10 great techniques to try with your students. When your class is cracking up and getting wiggly, taking a five-minute chat break is a great way to hit the reset button.

12. Play games to build community.

Cooperative-learning games can promote social and relationship skills. There are tons of resources out there for activities to play in your classroom. Here's one we love: 10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking.

13. Buddy up with an older or younger class.

Having a special connection with another class is a great way to build positive ongoing relationships in your school community. Kids are always amazed at how easy it is to find common ground with younger or older students. The big kids feel important and the little kids feel special. For how-tos, check out The Power of Buddy Classrooms: 19 Ideas.

14. Build community with teams.

Consider an alternative seating arrangement that allows kids to sit in teams. Let each team create an original name, motto and flag. This is a great way for students to feel a sense of belonging, and it encourages collaboration and cooperation. Change up teams every 6 to 12 weeks.

15. Teach them to monitor their own progress.

Make personal goal-setting (academic, emotional, social, etc.) a regular activity with your students. It will strengthen their intrapersonal skills and give them ownership of their own learning. Help them develop the habit of revisiting and adjusting their goals often to monitor progress. Am I meeting my goals? What do I need to work on next? How do I want to grow? For more on goal setting, click here.

16. Hold class meetings.

Check in frequently to celebrate what is working and address things that need tweaking within your classroom community. Empower all of your students with a voice and a vote to give them ownership of their environment.

17. Make space for reflective writing.

Give your student time to journal and free-write. Put on quiet music. Dim the lights. Make writing time a quiet, soothing break from busyness that your students will look forward to. For stubborn starters, you can provide a menu of optional prompts. For more information, read 6 Benefits of Journal Writing.

18. Encourage expression through art.

Sometimes students think and feel things that they can't quite put into words. Art is a great tool to allow them to explore topics from a different perspective. Sketch your thoughts and feelings out as a prewriting activity. Create a painting as an interpretation of a piece of music or poetry.

19. Assign interview projects.

Have your students interview each other throughout the year about topics such as cultural background, family traditions or opinions about a current event. Conducting a formal interview is different than a casual conversation and teaches skills such as focused listening and conversational skills. In addition, learning about their classmates will broaden their perspective as they consider that everyone's background and experience is not necessarily the same as their own.

20. Put 'em to work.

Classroom jobs teach responsibility and give kids ownership of their classroom. Pride in a job well done is a great confidence-builder. Here are 25 fun, easy job charts you can create for your classroom.

21. End each day with a checkout.

Circle up for just a few minutes at the end of each day to reflect on your day together. Check in with how your students are feeling, talk about what went well, read some notes from the kindness bucket and set some goals for tomorrow.
What steps do you take to reinforce social-emotional skills throughout the day? Want more on Social-Emotional Learning? Check out the free webinars offered by Apperson.

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21 Ways Teachers Can Integrate Social-Emotional Learning

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While the impact of the new federal education law ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) has yet to be realized, there's one change that is welcome to educators. It is the shift in emphasis from the prescriptive testing and accountability requirements of No Child Left Behind to a broader definition of success, including recognition of the value of non-academic concepts and "whole child" issues.

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By now there's a good chance you've heard the term "mindfulness." It seems to be everywhere-touted as the new yoga, the answer to stress, the alternative to Xanax. But beyond the buzz, what is it? Jon Kabat-Zinn, the scientist and widely recognized father of contemporary, medically based mindfulness-over 30 years ago he developed a therapeutic meditation practice known as Mindful Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)-defines mindfulness simply as "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally."

That's the short version. To expand on that just a little, mindfulness is a meditation practice that begins with paying attention to breathing in order to focus on the here and now-not what might have been or what you're worried could be. The ultimate goal is to give you enough distance from disturbing thoughts and emotions to be able to observe them without immediately reacting to them.

In the last few years mindfulness has emerged as a way of treating children and adolescents with conditions ranging from ADHD to anxiety, autism spectrum disorders, depression and stress. And the benefits are proving to be tremendous.

But how do you explain mindfulness to a five year-old? When she's teaching mindfulness to children, Amy Saltzman, MD, a holistic physician and mindfulness coach in Menlo Park, California, prefers not to define the word but rather to invite the child to feel the experience first-to find their "still, quiet place."

"We begin by paying attention to breath," she says. "The feeling of the expansion of the in-breath, the stillness between the in-breath and the out-breath. I invite them to rest in the space between the breaths. Then I explain that this still quiet place is always with us-when we're sad, when we're angry, excited, happy, frustrated. They can feel it in their bodies. And it becomes a felt experience of awareness. They can learn to observe their thoughts and feelings, and the biggest thing for me is they can begin to choose their behaviors."

In her private practice, Saltzman, and her Still Quiet Place CDs for Young Children and Teens, teaches mindfulness to children and adolescents with a variety of challenges. "I work with kids individually with ADHD, with anxiety, depression, autism, anger management issues. The lovely thing about working one-on-one is you get to tailor what you offer to them."

Saltzman also conducted a study in conjunction with researchers at Stanford University showing that after 8 weeks of mindfulness training, the fourth through sixth graders in the study had documented decreases in anxiety, and improvements in attention. They were less emotionally reactive and more able to handle daily challenges and choose their behavior.

As a teacher at The Nantucket New School where every student gets instruction in mindfulness, Allison Johnson has learned first hand what a difference it can make for kids. So she tried it at home. "I have a six-year-old son with ADHD," she says. "I brought a chime home. We use it most nights before bed. 'Cause he doesn't love going to sleep. We sit on the floor facing each other, we close our eyes and we ring the chime. Sometimes we incorporate a visualization-like he's floating on a cloud. We go on this little journey. And we ring the chime again and we say 'when you can no longer hear the chime it's time to open your eyes and come back to focus.' And now if he gets in trouble and gets sent to his room, I can hear him upstairs doing it himself. Or when he's getting unusually rowdy he'll say 'okay lets do our mindful breathing now.'" Johnson says since Curren started practicing mindfulness she's seen subtle but noticeable differences in his behavior. "He's more able to bring his focus and attention back to where they were-remembering to raise his hand and not move around so much."

While the research on children and adolescents is really just beginning to gain real traction, there are several small studies showing that for kids who suffer from anxiety and ADHD, mindfulness can be especially helpful. Diana Winston, author of Wide Awake and the Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center, started taking teens with ADHD on retreats for what she calls "mindfulness intensive camp" back in 1993. Twenty years later the program is still going strong.

" Teens benefit tremendously," she says. "Kids talk about their lives being transformed. I remember one girl with ADD who'd been very depressed and I didn't think we were reaching her. On the last day of class she came in and said, 'everything is different. I was really depressed. My boyfriend broke up with me and it's been so hard but I'm finally understanding that I'm not my thoughts.' That concept is huge-the non-identifying with the negative thoughts and having a little more space and freedom in the midst of it."

Stress reduction and self-acceptance are two of the major perks of mindfulness, benefits Winston says are particularly important during the drama and turmoil-filled teen years. "Emotional regulation, learning how to quiet one's mind-those are invaluable skills."

Randye Semple, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, has spent her career developing programs to teach anxious kids how to quiet their minds. "When I look at childhood anxiety I see an enormous problem and a precursor to other problems in adolescents and adults," she says. "So I figured if we could manage the anxiety we could head off a lot of the other problems." Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Anxious Children, the book she co-authored, is based on the program she developed. A study she and her co-author, clinical psychologist Jennifer Lee, conducted from 2000-2003 showed significant reductions in both anxiety and behavior problems in 8- to 12-year-olds in Harlem and Spanish Harlem who participated in the program.

Teaching mindfulness to children and adolescents is a growing trend-in private practices as part of therapy and increasingly as part of the curriculum in both Special Ed and General Ed classes throughout the country. "We're at the beginning of a movement," says Megan Cowan, co-founder and executive director of programs at Mindful Schools in Oakland, California. "Jon Kabat-Zinn's work really set the stage for mindfulness to be visible on a mainstream landscape. I think we all have the sense that society's a little out of control. Education is a little out of control. We're all looking for a way to change that. This is meaningful to almost everybody."

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The Power of Mindfulness - Child Mind Institute

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Learn how mindfulness techniques can help combat stress and alleviate mental health and learning disorders. Child Mind Institute explains the benefits of mindfulness for children.