Meditation for 3 year olds
I Tried Meditating with My 3-Year-Old. Here’s What Happened. – Primrose Schools
Can children learn meditation, or is it a lost cause to try to get three minutes of peace?
As a daily practitioner of guided meditation, I wanted to explore this possibility for my 3-year-old daughter. The benefits I have gained from my own experience with meditation – including increased concentration, lower stress levels and a greater sense of happiness – are absolutely traits I want my little one to have. And hopefully, with enough practice, she could eventually use meditation techniques during times of frustration to take a step back and breathe instead of reacting emotionally.
But can the same girl who asks more daily questions than The Riddler sit quietly and focus for multiple minutes at a time? Meditation for 3-year-olds seemed like a stretch.
When I started looking into meditation for children, I discovered there is an ongoing debate on a child’s ability to learn and practice these techniques. Most of the debate centers on the question of whether children can understand and practice concepts like visualization, self-awareness and extreme concentration. Despite these concerns, there are meditation classes exclusively for Pre-K students popping up all over the country.
After completing my research, I decided to try some kid-friendly meditation with my daughter for a month. I knew I had to pick an ideal time of day, and that the activity had to maintain a balance of structure and fun.
After a few terrible timing misses, like trying meditation when I got home from work and she just wanted to use me as a jungle gym, we found that the time that worked best was right before we read our nightly books. Once we went upstairs, we would turn the nightlight on, sit on the floor with our legs crossed and our hands on our laps, and calmly repeat animal sounds (I thought this was more relatable for a 3-year-old rather than “om” or other calming sounds used in meditation). At first, she found the animal sounds silly, but then seemed to look forward to it after day three and asked for more sounds.
I would set a timer on my phone for one minute, and most times we made it past the timer. Other nights, she just did not have the capacity to sit still.
Did it work? Yes and no. Ultimately, my little one could sit still for a minute or two, which was a huge accomplishment. However, I do not think it impacted her REM sleep or took her to a state of total enlightenment as I had hoped.
I believe that over time, and with some effort on both of our parts, our meditation time could gradually increase and happen outside of bedtime and maybe even provide a chance for us to enjoy some valuable one-on-one father-daughter time. The ideal next step is to help her begin to use this technique during times when she is frustrated or angry, pausing to take deep breaths and think before reacting. Which should make the teenage years a cakewalk, right?
Good luck, and namaste!
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Meditation for Kids - Headspace
Key takeaways:
Meditation can help kids improve their overall well-being … and do better in school
Parents can introduce kids to meditation early on
Try 11 meditations for kids and families
The benefits of meditation for children
Time and time again, meditation and mindfulness at work have been proven to help adults excel in their professional lives. And while younger kids may be decades away from a career, they may already be full-time students. In a school setting, meditation can have a measurable, positive impact.
One of the most important ways meditation is able to help kids excel in the classroom is by improving their working memory capacity, one of the brain’s key executive functions for cognitive development — and a particularly important one when it comes to developing core academic skills such as literacy and mathematics.
It has also been shown to help kids develop an awareness of their own learning or thinking processes, something that’s referred to as metacognition. This is a skill that can essentially help them become better students as they gain more awareness around what learning strategies work best for them.
Meditation has even been shown to improve focus. In one 2019 study, high school students who practiced meditation were found to have a better attention span than those who did not. That’s because, over time, meditation trains the mind to be less easily distracted.
But meditation isn’t only for academic growth — just as we know it’s not only a tool for professional improvement. It’s impactful on personal growth as well. One pivotal study found that mindfulness meditation can increase feelings of calmness, relaxation, and self-acceptance at a time in life that many adolescents may need those things the most.
Meditation has also been shown to help young minds to develop a keen sense of emotional intelligence, the ability to identify and manage one's own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.
And with sharpened emotional intelligence comes essential life skills such as resilience, empathy, active listening, and humility.
What age can kids start meditating?
It may seem feasible for teenagers or even pre-teens to grasp the fundamentals of meditation, but what about kids younger than that? We all know sitting quietly isn’t that easy. It isn’t easy for us as grown-ups, so think about how hard it is for kids. They’d much rather be out and about having fun and getting dirty than sitting still with their eyes closed. Just how early can we begin to introduce children to meditation?
Evidence suggests that by age 4-5, children have a fully developed awareness and understanding of one's own thought process. It’s around this same age that children also begin to understand that other people’s behavior is guided by beliefs and desires, and that these may not necessarily be the same as their own. More than being just intellectually interesting, studies are increasingly showing that kids who are taught to improve their own learning or thinking process early on are more resilient and become better learners.
Considering this, age 4-5 might be a great time to begin. Or you might even try jumping into it a bit sooner if your toddler seems interested and engaged. There’s good evidence to suggest that, on average, by age 3 children will have acquired an awareness of themselves and others, and begin using verbs such as ‘think’ and ‘know.’
According to Headspace co-founder and former Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe, we might be surprised at how well they do, even at a young age. “It’s almost as though meditation was designed for kids,” he says “They just ‘get it’ – there is this elasticity and freedom in their minds which allows them to be present in the moment and free from any external thoughts or pressures. By introducing meditation and mindfulness at an early age, not only can we build on this and help nurture their mind development, but we are also making meditation simple and accessible.”
How parents can help kids learn to meditate
When we meditate as adults, we often try to find a quiet corner of the house all to ourselves to do our daily practice.
But research suggests that children’s behavior is often modeled after their parents, so why not allow our kids to watch and/or partake in meditation alongside us?
Rather than look for a hideaway, we might explain what it is we’re doing and why. Even if they struggle to sit still or they close their eyes and giggle, we’re still normalizing the practice and teaching them that meditation is a positive act that benefits our health and happiness. And that’s really the goal, isn’t it?
If the little ones don’t seem particularly interested in joining a guided meditation at first, there are plenty of other ways to ease kids into the practice. Throughout the day, parents or teachers might start to weave in short mindfulness activities for kids, such as creating a mindful bedtime ritual, eating mindfully, practicing deep breathing, or encouraging them to tune in to their senses during a family walk.
While these exercises may not all involve kids sitting still, closing their eyes, and emptying the mind, they will help them understand how to be more present.
Once they become familiar with how to do that, they may have an easier time stepping into guided meditation, even if it’s just a short 1- or 5-minute practice at first.
But it’s important not to feel as though we have to force any of these techniques upon them. Some kids will naturally respond to specific approaches better than others, so make sure to have fun exploring them together.
Try 11 meditations for kids and families
Looking for easy guided meditation for kids? We created Headspace for Kids in the Headspace app to help children be healthy and happy, not just for now, but for the rest of their lives. Subscribers can access several mindfulness activities made just for children, including:
Calm – ages 3-5, 6-8,and 9-12. Teach your child the fundamentals of meditation with this simple, fun breathing exercise.
Cool Off – ages 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Whether it’s anger or frustration, use this exercise to help melt away any uneasy feelings.
Good Morning – ages 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. This quick morning meditation for kids will help you and your child start the day off right.
Rest & Relax – ages 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. In this exercise, kids learn how to recognize calmness and be less reactive.
Kindness – ages 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. A visualization exercise that will teach your child about openness and generosity.
Appreciation – ages 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. A visualization to help kids get in touch with a feeling of gratitude for the world around them and the people in it.
Paying Attention – ages 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Kids will use their imagination to practice a relaxed, precise kind of focus.
Settling Down – ages 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Help your child focus on a light, playful attitude towards life.
Goodnight – ages 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.
Help your little one get a good night’s rest with this relaxing mindfulness activity.Sleep Tight – ages 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. When it’s time for bed, use this exercise to count down to sweet dreams.
Stay Positive – ages 6-8 and 9-12. Anxious or worried feelings arise from time to time. We’re going to take a few minutes to step out of those thoughts and focus on the body.
Between school, screen time, and navigating all the emotions that accompany growing up, being a kid isn’t always easy. Familiarizing them with meditation can be a kind and gentle way to help their minds stay as calm, healthy, and happy as possible — not only during adolescence, but throughout the rest of their life.
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Teaching children meditation techniques increases attentiveness, develops self-control and empathy.
Meditation helps with stress, hyperactivity and depression in schoolchildren and improves academic performance in the sciences.
It is generally accepted that meditation requires special adult self-discipline and concentration. In fact, this technique can be used at any age. The main thing is to choose the right exercises. Three ways to get started with kids.
1. Balloon
This is a simple deep breathing exercise with a strong visual component. Performed sitting or standing.
Exercise
- Relax and inhale and exhale deeply through your nose.
- Take a slow, deep breath and try to fill your belly with air, as if you were trying to inflate a big balloon. Try to inflate your belly as much as you can.
- Slowly release the air from the balloon, exhaling through the nose.
Remind the child to relax the whole body with each exhalation, each time the air slowly leaves the balloon. At the same time, try to make a quiet “shhhh” so that the exhalation is slow.
Continue for a few minutes.
For restless preschoolers, a more dynamic option with your participation is suitable.
Exercise
- Close your eyes and imagine your favorite color and then a huge ball of that color in your mind.
- Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, blowing up a large ball of your favorite color with your belly. Spread your arms out to the sides and above your head, imagining how this ball grows inside the abdomen.
- When the balloon is full of air, hold your breath.
- Now I will burst your balloon (press your finger to the child's stomach), and you exhale sharply and fall to the floor.
2. "Follow the Leader"
More suitable for children over five years old. Ask your child to introduce a friend, sibling, or someone they enjoy spending time with. Then ask which of them is the leader and comes up with games. If your child sees himself as a leader, ask him to imagine that he is "breath".
If he prefers to follow the leader, he is a "thought". For example, he chose his older brother as his best friend, and then the older brother is the leader.
Exercise
- Sit back and close your eyes.
- Concentrate on your breathing and try to breathe more slowly, taking deep breaths and slow exhalations.
- Let your thoughts follow your breath. Imagine that you are a thought, and your breath is your big brother.
- Count how many seconds your exhalation lasts. Don't let your thoughts run ahead. She will try to do this, but try to make her follow the breath.
- Before exhaling, slowly count to ten.
3. Universal relaxation technique
This practice is suitable for both children and adults. She solves problems with sleep, a long period of stress or illness, liberates before public speaking. It is based on a progressive muscle relaxation technique developed by psychotherapist Edmund Jacobson in the 1920s for anxious patients.
Exercise
- Get into a comfortable sitting or lying position and close your eyes. You can lie down on a pillow and cover yourself with a blanket.
- Take a few deep breaths in and out.
- Direct your attention to the right foot. Squeeze it very, very hard, tucking all five fingers inward. Hold it in this position for two deep breaths.
- Sharply relax your foot and feel how the tension dissolves. You may feel a slight tingling in your muscles.
- Shift your attention to the left foot (the “tension-relaxation” cycle is repeated).
- Move slowly along the whole body, continuing to squeeze and unclench the muscles (if this is difficult, you can squeeze or massage them with your hand) and breathe deeply. Here is an approximate sequence: right foot - left foot; right shin - left shin; right knee - left knee; right thigh - left thigh; feet and legs along the entire length; hips; buttocks; stomach; the whole body below the belt; rib cage; right hand - left hand; right palm - left palm; shoulders; neck; face.
Text: Xenia Diakova-Tinoku Photo source: Getty Images
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14 meditations for young children
14 playful meditations to help young children calm down and come to balance.
It is not natural for children to meditate. They passionately explore and experience the world around them in every possible way.
Calmness, it may seem, is completely alien to them.
But children also have stress in their lives (most often because we, role models, have stress, so adults really need to meditate more), and meditation can teach them not to forget to enjoy small joys and feel a moment of happiness as it is.
Meditation is not an achievement
Our society is always setting goals, but let's try to think of meditation not as a way to achieve inner peace, but rather as an opportunity to enjoy the journey and open our eyes to the beautiful world around us - and within. Just to let yourself be.
Here are 14 meditations for young children to try.
1. Third eye
Lay the child on the floor and put a small stone, glass or crystal on his forehead. Ask to think about it, imagine its color or multicolor, feel the warmth or coolness, its weight and other qualities.
The magic stone will help you to be more calm and relaxed.
.. Breathe and let its magic slowly penetrate your body and fill you up to your fingertips.
If you are tired of lying down, try to assume different postures without dropping the stone and without ceasing to be aware of it. You can try to stand in a half-bridge, make a "birch" or throw your legs over your head.
2. Stop and listen
For this game, you will need a Tibetan singing bowl or a bell that lasts long enough. Let the children move freely around the room, but as soon as the bowl or bell sounds, they should stop, freeze and close their eyes. Let them listen to the sound very carefully, and only when it finally dries up, they begin to move again.
3. Silent bell
Sit in a tight circle with the children and blow a bell (or several) around. Let each child ring the bell if they want and listen to the sound. Then try to pass the bell so that it doesn't ring. Show the children how to do this very gently and quietly.
This magically calms the children and prepares them for relaxation. You can do it together, passing each other.
Children are children, so you may have to repeat the game several times before they realize that it is not necessary to call. If the game becomes too easy, pass the bell to someone who is sitting further from you - for this you will need to get up and approach, still not breaking the silence.
4. Pass the fire
The same exercise can be done with a candle and move smoothly and slowly. So that the flame does not go out.
5. Bell circle
Sit in a circle and close your eyes. Have one child hold the bell and walk slowly around the outside of the circle without ringing. Then, going up to someone he chooses, he softly rings over his ear, gives the bell and sits down in his place.
The game continues like this for several minutes, until you allow the children to open their eyes and see that everyone has changed places, but the circle remains intact.
And silently walking around, and sitting quietly in a circle, waiting for the bell over the ear, is very concentrating and calms the children.
6. Zoo-paradise
A good children's game to try and memorize the poses of all kinds of animals. It brings calmness, love of silence and self-control. For her, you will also need a Tibetan bowl or a long-sounding bell.
Designate a yogic animal, or have the children take turns choosing one, and have them move around the room imitating the movements and sounds of that animal. When children hear a sound, they should freeze in this animal pose and remain motionless until the bowl stops singing.
7. How quiet
In this game, children need to stay motionless for an unusually long time. Which is very good for the ability to listen and concentrate. You will need a Tibetan singing bowl and blindfolds.
Have the children lie on the floor with their arms extended at their sides, and cover their eyes with blindfolds (or turn off the lights).
Tell them that the bowl will sing and they should listen very carefully. When the bowl stops, they will need to carefully place their hands on their stomachs. When they have all done this, the bowl will begin to sing again, and after stopping they will again need to stretch out their arms. What a peaceful and quiet class of children you have! Until they run away, of course.
8. Sleeping elves and fairies
Put on relaxing music and arm yourself with fairy dust. Let all children rest in Child's Pose (knees under, relaxed arms extended along the body to the feet). Each of them is a fairy or an elf. Walk around and lightly touch their backs with your fingertips, covering them with magical fairy dust. She will give them the magical power to stay as still as possible. Who will last longer?
9. Calm water
Everyone lies on the floor motionless. If someone moves, he will have to step aside.
In this game, we are not just saying “do not move”, but rather we are inviting you to get involved in motionless lying - this will be more spiritual.
10. I see beauty
Walk around the classroom, around the room, down the street, or in the park. Let the children stop when they themselves feel right and look around for beauty:
Look for beauty in front of you and say softly, "I see beauty in front of me."
Look back, find something beautiful, and quietly say, "I see beauty behind you."
Continue like this - right, left, up and down.
11. Walking across the sky
This meditation game is safer to do in pairs outside. Let one of the children hold a small mirror under his eyes, turned up to the sky, and the second one leads him. When you walk with a mirror to your eyes, it really looks like you are walking on clouds: you have a completely different perspective and your eyes open to a whole new world.
12. Breath of the ocean
Sit up straight or lie down. Close your ears so that nothing can be heard outside. Now breathe deeply and listen carefully. You will hear the sound of the ocean in your breath.
Listen to the waves come and go and let yourself relax completely.
13. Find a center
Can be done sitting or lying down. Lean a little to the right, a little to the left, back and forth until you find your center, a position where you feel balanced. Now close your eyes and imagine this center extending from the soles of your feet up your spine to the top of your head. Breathe into this center and see what happens.
14. Buddha board
This is a special board on which you can draw or write with water. The water evaporates from the surface in about a minute, the words or picture disappear. They are sold ready-made, but in principle you can do it on dry pavement with a wet brush, on a blackboard, on a table.
