Day 4: Meditation and Sit Spot
Meditation
Meditation isn’t only for adults, kids receive enormous benefits from practicing meditation. Here are just a few…
Enhanced focus
Fostering compassion and self-esteem
Boosting confidence
Building empathy and kindness
Try your own meditations at home! You can start by taking deep breaths with your hands over your heart, think or say out to yourself, “I love me!” while taking deep breaths.
Tip: for little ones, practice “bunny breaths”…take three quick inhale breaths and exhale one slow breath for bunny breaths. Now some snake breaths..take one deep inhale breath, and exhale with your teeth together to make a snake hiss for snake breaths. Now some lion breaths…one deep inhale breath, exhale with your tongue out for lion breathing!
Here’s another way to practice mindfulness. Name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. Being mindful is a great way to slow down and relax your mind and body!
Sit Spotting: Nature Meditation
We’ve all heard of meditation but have you heard of sit spotting? The idea of sit spotting is simple: find a special place in nature and then become comfortable with just being there, still and quiet. In this place, nature will surround you, soothe you, entertain you and seep into you.
We encourage you and your child to find a special sit spot in nature be it your backyard or facing an open window. Take a seat and sit silently. Ask your child to use their “owl eyes” to observe what’s happening around them. Build your children’s capacity for sit spots by starting with a minute or two and eventually progressing to longer sits like 5 minutes and more. You can also ask your child to close their eyes while they pay attention to their breath as it enters and leaves their body.
Sit spotting can increase self-awareness, helps one feel more grounded and calm, can improve one’s quality of sleep, and increase general happiness.
Discussion Questions / Reflection:
What did you notice? What are you wondering?
What did you see, hear, smell,and feel?
What has changed since the last time you visited your special sit spot?
What is the same?
For more information: Please see the Children & Nature Networks article “A Nature Meditation: A Guided Practice of being Mindful in Nature by Mark Coleman and Sara Overton.
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