When I’m not here at S&S being my crafty self, I’m also a Reiki Master practitioner. It’s important we lead by example for our youth and make self-care a priority by consistently taking time for ourselves each day in effort to stay balanced. In this article, I’ve shared some simple tips on how to integrate mindfulness into your kids daily routine. There’s no need to be an enlightened energy healer or experienced yogi to effectively help your kids (or yourself) put a healthy self-care routine in place.
Benefits of Mindfulness Exercises
Kids have really high vibration energy that can be used as a powerful self-sustaining foundation, if we can provide them the tools to balance and heal themselves at a young age. When I say “energy”, I’m referring to our energetic body that consist of a complex web of paths (similar to veins) with seven main, wheel like, energy centers called Chakra’s.
Simplistically speaking, this energy system runs vertically from the crown of our heads to the base of our spines. Each main Chakra is associated with a unique color of the rainbow (which opens up our options for colorful teaching activity’s for kids) and has become a common iconic image in popular culture that many people will recognize.
In short, these colorful wheels regulate the flow energy from our invisible (spiritual) body to our physical body and are super important to keep clear and balanced for our general well-being. I believe this self awareness is important even from a secular perspective. Incorporating simple self-care activity’s (like deep breathing) into our daily routine to keep our energy field’s clear and balanced doesn’t have to be a spiritually based practice.
Kids can easily learn to clear their own energy fields at the end of the day which has tremendous benefits. I often think about how much less self-destructive and turbulent my youth would have been if I only knew about my energetic body at a young age. Awareness is a big advantage in this crazy world!
The word meditation alone can scare off most adults never mind fidgety children. When talking to my niece Audrey, (who like most 6-year old’s, has trouble sitting still for more than two minutes) I like to suggest taking a quick break to “give our imaginations a workout” or “practice visualization and deep, mindful breathing” instead of saying the scary “M” word.
5-Count Mindful Breathing & Wiggly Eye Exercise
It’s important we manage the perception of mindfulness as something that’s magical and fun, to spark kids natural interest and curiosity. I’ve integrated wiggly eyes into my daily practice for self-care for this exact reason. Sounds silly, but that’s the point really! Wiggly eyes are a great tool to add some fun into your daily wellness routine! This silly addition helps lighten the mood and shake things up a bit. It also keeps you in touch with your senses and allows for auditory and tactile benefits.
It’s perfect how the smooth back of a wiggly eye sticks to my forehead like a suction cup. If the natural oils of your skin don’t allow it to stick, you can use a drop of lavender essential oil. Relaxing music and an air diffuser can help create a calm vibe in any environment. However, having a quiet and calm space is not necessary, you can to try this activity just about anywhere.
Instructions:
1. First sit up straight, shoulders back and down.
2. Eyes closed, begin to focus on your breath and slow down for a moment. To help kids focus on their breath you can use a simple “5-Count Breath” where you inhale for five, and exhale for five. Use your fingers to count as you breathe. This stillness can be challenging for some kids, but it quickly gets easier with practice, your controlled breath will slow down your mind!
3. Relax the muscles in your face, especially the area between your eyebrows right where you have the wiggly eye.
4. Shake your head very slightly from side to side, gently yet quickly. You’ll start to hear the wiggly eye wiggle! I find hearing this noise and feeling the wiggly eye really helps keep your focus and intention on your center brow to help open and balance your third eye!
5. You can imagine a beautiful purple light shining through your third eye as you continue to breathe slow, deep breaths occasionally giving your third eye a wiggle!
This exercise helps pinpoint my intention to close my eyes and go within, taking a few minutes for myself to check in. This self-awareness helps me stay balanced throughout my day and adds that little bit of silliness that kids love and everyone needs!
Please share your feedback in the comments below and let us know if you’d like more content on mindfulness or any other topics.
For more fun wiggly eye activity ideas visit my blog 24 Ways to Get Creative with Wiggly Eyes – Ideas by Crafty Kate
About the Author:
Kate Algiere aka “Crafty Kate” is now our Product/Content Marketing Specialist here at S&S Worldwide. Kate has been with S&S for 13 years and started as an Inside Sales Representative. Since late 2012, she’s been a valuable member of our merchandising department.
In addition to being a Wiggly Eye enthusiast & Reiki Master, Kate is a VERY talented artist with great organizational skills. Did you know that Kate is the artist behind many popular velvet art posters and other S&S-exclusive crafts? She’s also very involved in testing new crafts to see if they meet our standards for fun and quality.
With Kate’s vast knowledge of our products and customers, we think she’s the perfect person to take over some blogging and social activities and we hope you all agree!!
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Hi and thanks for your reply.
I have no issue adapting as deemed appropriate. My concern is the message it may send out to others who are just starting with such activities in the classrooms. I’d hate to see educators get in a bind with the community or their schools’ admin based on not knowing about the potential view points. Maybe it would be helpful to add something on the web page about that- like a disclaimer or advise to consult with …before… I know the use of Namaste can be a big concern for the same reason as the hand/finger pose. Thank you for your time and for considering my input. I do love what I see on your site for use as a resource! Keep the good work going!
Yes, I can sympathise with you and all teachers who need to be extra careful as not to offend anyone (this is fairly difficult these days, I agree) and try to accommodate everyone in a public school setting. Incorporating simple self-care activities (like deep breathing) into our daily routine to keep our energy field’s clear and balanced doesn’t have to be a spiritually based practice, and I hope that I’ve made that clear. Here at S&S we aim to serve as a resource for all of our various customers and hope that each will adapt these free ideas to meet their individual program needs. I hope that your great feedback and valid comments posted here will bring awareness for any teachers who read this post. Thanks again, Sandy!
Love this idea!
May I suggest reconsideration the use of the pictures with the fingers being in a meditative traditional type pose? My reasoning is that the pose alludes to religious practices which is not what we’d wish to have in schools, especially in our current climate, especially the public school system. I know my thinking is also supported by others including those who are in the field of mindfulness practices in schools with which I support 150%. I’d just like to be sure we do not have problems pop up for our teachers/school staff who implement the practices to help kids learn effective coping skills and self- awareness & self regulation.
Thank you
Thanks
Hi Sandy, Thank you so much for the engaging feedback! I understand that activities often need to be modified so they are acceptable for public school, which is why I tried to make this post as generic as possible. Hopefully you can adapt to make this work for your school’s program needs. Thanks again! – Kate