Meditation is the path to calm. Right? Definitely. If you are a bit hyper, it doesn’t seem to work. Are you ADHD?
Don’t like labels. Understood, but what would we do without the ability to file something away or know what we mean when we use certain words. That’s the gift of a label used properly.
Discovering, as I did, “I am hyper” make a big difference in my life. I understood myself better. That is what the experts call self-awareness and it is a key#EmotionalIntelligence skill.
Even this old lady found value in this little test; my results were a bit mixed. I am anxious in social situations like cocktail parties and become introverted; but if I feel I have something to give someone, I am extroverted. All tests apply only partly to all.
Meanwhile back to the subject which is helping kids get and stay calm.
Parenting ADVICE AND tip
I raised the idea of ADHD so if your kid tends toward being a Fidgety Phil, you have been warned. You will have to be more patient and have lower expectations when it comes to helping your child find calmness through meditation. Still it can be done.
Calming begins with controlled breathing, what I call Right Breath. Right Breath is a major self-soothing exercise. Adults and kids need to learn to watch their breathing and use it to stay calm.
This great You Tube animated explanation called “4-7-8 Breathing Exercise” works for both adults and children.
Thank you GoZen.com. You are a great resource for helping parents teach calm to their children. Although you target anxious kids, your exercises work for all kids and all adults.
Parenting Tip One: Right breathing can be taught to kids as soon as language is acquired, but you can start teaching it even earlier by lying down and holding a baby or toddler on your stomach while you breathe calmly. Quite often the child will start breathing in rhythm with you. Might not always happen, but is a start.
Parenting Tip Two: Once a child has mastered sipping on a straw and blowing bubbles, teaching right breath can be done by connecting breathing in to taking a big slow sip on a straw, and then slowly breathing out.
Parenting Tip Three: Sometimes when first learning Right Breath, you or a child can hyper ventilate and get a bit dizzy. That usually happens because the person is breathing too quickly. One way to avoid is to breathe normally in between your efforts to learn Right Breath.
Parenting is hard work and the results not always clear immediately, practicing patience is a must and that means patience with yourself as well as with your child, particularly when teaching a new behavior. Are you good at using meditation to help you stay calm? If not, is it because you are also hyper? If so try this:
Most EFTI posters posted on my blog can be obtained at the EFTI Store Many are free. Poster Coaches are printed up in color on letter size card stock and used to inspire, teach, remind you to practice #emotional_fitness exercises.
You might also be helped by the exercises found in my book Self-soothing, Create Calm in your Life. It costs less than a happy meal and has more benefits for you and your child.
Thank you for all you do, your support by liking, commenting, and sharing keeps me going.
While walking on the beach you stumble on a valuable object buried in the sand — say, a piece of jewelry or an envelope full of cash. What do you do with it? Under what circumstances would you keep it?
Assuming there is not owner ID on the item, the law says you must turn such items into the local police station and if no one claims it after a certain amount of time it belongs to you. Otherwise you are stealing.
Staying emotionally fit means behaving in accordance with your personal honor code, which is you are like most people probably wavers on this one, but in the long run does what is right. What’s that? Abiding by the law, particularly if it is reasonable as this one is.