Child Meditation

TAPPING FOR CHILDREN

Childhood forms the foundation of your mental health and wellbeing, this is why it's so important (as parents and caregivers) to empower children with tools that help them process their emotions. It's really normal for children to have worries but it's often hard for them to identify or even verbalise what’s really going on for them. Tapping is a great way to help children gently process their worries so that things never build and become overwhelming.

As long as your child can speak - they can follow along with the tapping above. If they can't yet speak you can always play a game of 'simon says' and get them to copy what you do as you tap on your body.

If it's your own child and (and they would like you to) you can also try tapping on them. I sometimes tap on my daughter just before she goes to sleep to help her feel calm and relaxed.

You can follow the video above or try these:

  1. You can simply tap and breathe (remember children need our nervous systems to help them regulate theirs, this is called co-regulation) so when you take a deep breath, this has a calming effect on them. Either tapping on them or tapping on yourself and they copy you.

  2. Tap on them and repeat affirmations like - I love you just the way you are, you are amazing, you are clever, you are kind, you are funny, you are incredible, you are special, you are loved...

  3. Get them to tap on themselves while they repeat affirmations like - I am good enough just the way I am, I am special, I am loved, I can be whoever I want to be, I am amazing, I love myself...

For more support helping your child please get in touch kim@happyheads.me xx

HOW WE CAN HELP OUR KIDS POST PANDEMIC

I wrote an article for the brillaint Parentfolk about how we can support children and teens mental health and wellbeing post pandemic. You can check out the full article HERE on page 48-49.

TEACHING CHILDREN MEDITATION

There is nothing normal about the world we live in right now so it’s no surprise that lots of children and parents are feeling anxious, stressed and overwhelmed. Happy Heads teaches people how to stop, pause and breathe - empowering you with simple tools and techniques that reduce anxiety, build confidence and help to release worries.

The 30 minute workshop below includes breathing techniques, guided meditation and Emotional Freedom Technique (also know as Tapping). EFT is a powerful way to help release tension held in both body and mind and overcome any negative thoughts that children or parents may be having right now…

TEACH CHILDREN COMPASSION

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If we want to create real change in the world, it is the duty of all parents to teach children compassion towards their fellow humans who have a different colour skin to theirs (especially if you are a white parent). Children are so quick to learn, they are born with an abundance of love and acceptance and they are always curious. It’s important to feed this curiosity so that they learn about other cultures and most importantly how all humans are equal. 

A really lovely meditation to do with children to boost their compassion towards others is called 'Beam of Love’. They can sit or lie down then gently ask them to close their eyes (don’t worry if they don’t children are amazing at using their imagination even with eyes open). Then get them to place both hands on their chest and gently guide them to take a few deep breathes (in through nose out through mouth) imagining that their out breath is like the wind blowing through the leaves.

Guide them to imagine their is a golden ball of light under their hands and this ball of light is filled with love. Ask them to think of someone they think might need some love right now. Ask them to think about why this person might need some love and then slowly guide them to imagine the ball of light is beaming from their heart centre and travelling over to the person they’re thinking of. Get them to imagine the light completely surrounding that person making them feel loved, special and reminding them how amazing they are.

Finish by saying that when we share our love for others, it also makes us feel good so get them to imagine the loving beam of light is now making them feel happy and calm. This is a really lovely meditation for any child to do and afterwards you can talk about who they were thinking about. 

Here are some great resources for books that help teach your child about diversity:

7 Books to Help Talk to Your Kids About Racism, as Recommended by Black Authors

Follow https://www.instagram.com/marklemonofficial/

Follow https://www.instagram.com/multiculturalkidsbooks/

https://www.citykidsmagazine.co.uk/2020/06/03/anti-racist-books-for-kids/

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