Mindfulness for Children

You may have heard that mindfulness, or the practice of being aware of the present moment, is a helpful practice for adults looking to reduce stress in their everyday lives.

However, practicing mindfulness is also incredibly useful for children. It can help them navigate the many emotions they experience throughout the day and increase their self-awareness, capacity to pay attention, self-regulation abilities and social skills.

Mindfulness teaches children how to stay calm in the face of life’s stressful times and promotes happiness and self-compassion by lowering social anxiety and stress. It can also improve attentiveness, impulse control and executive functions in the brain, such as focus, working memory and cognitive flexibility.

Mindfulness can be especially helpful for kids during the ongoing pandemic, which has caused many stressful changes to routine and circumstances.

To help children and their caregivers learn more about mindfulness, Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital has partnered with the Shanthi Project to offer three consecutive Tuesday sessions for $25 per child. New sets of dates in Nov. and Dec. have just been added. (Register through link at end of article.)

On Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m., each 45-minute virtual class will include mindful activities, movements and games taught by a certified child mindfulness and yoga instructor. Children will learn simple and practical techniques to help them feel calm, focused and connected to themselves and those around them.

These sessions are appropriate for children in kindergarten through third grade. Children must be joined by a parent or guardian for each virtual class, and attendees must go to all three sessions.

Registration is limited to 12 children.