December 05, 2020

Quote of the Week

"The present moment, is the only moment available to us, and it is the door to all moments." - Thich Nhat Hanh

Mindfulness For Kids : What Does Being Present Mean?

"We live in an age of distraction and spend the better part of our lives planning over the future or ruminating over the past. Inadvertently, we pass on these skills to our children as well.

Yet, one of life's sharpest paradoxes is that our "future" hinges on our ability to live in this very moment.  "We're living in a world that contributes in a major way to mental fragmentation, disintegration, distraction, decoherence," says Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace.  Life unfolds in the present and yet we let the present slip away like quick sand: unseized, unrelished and totally squandered in our worries about the future or in our quest to understand the past.

John Kabat Zinn says, "Ordinary thoughts course through our minds like a deafening waterfall". And deafened we are: to the sound of the bird, to the falling rain, to the laughter of our child, to the thunder of the cloud, to the hello of a friend.

This MOMENT just needs to be still and you can feel the silence within. All you need to do is "breath". [watch video]

Reading Corner

Title: Sticky Brains
By: Dr. Nicole Libin
Ages: 5-12

Read the book online here.

"Aria is having a tough week. All she remembers is the bad stuff that happens. Then she discovers something amazing: her brain gets good at what it practices. She learns to make good thoughts stick too, just by paying attention in a new way.

This simple and beautifully illustrated bedtime story empowers kids to change their negative or hurtful thoughts into good, useful, and positive thoughts. It helps the kids see that they are not alone with these experiences. The story encourages kids to be mindful by noticing their thoughts and feelings. It also provides practical tools in a fun way to change their thoughts."

Be the Change

Feel free to practice some suggested activities from the book with your children as we focus on the theme of mindfulness this week. Also, here's a neat article on some more Mindfulness activities that you can do with your children. Or try out these different breathing excercises that you can do with your kids to encourage more pauses as they continue to tread their active lives.