RAISIN G
M I NDFUL
K IDS
by Yuleisy Cardoso
A
s a parent, I believe one of our biggest goals related to
our children is to raise happy and healthy kids. What
most parents don’t know is that traits such as compassion,
kindness, and empathy are skills that can be trained in our children
so that they become happier, more thoughtful little human beings.
How do we train such skills you might ask yourself? Using
mindfulness techniques.
Mindfulness is nothing more than bringing our attention to
the present moment, living in the here and now. When we help
our children exercise their awareness or attention muscle using
mindfulness techniques we are teaching them how to navigate
unpleasant emotions, how to identify emotions in themselves
and others, and how to self-soothe. The ability to self-soothe at
an early age has wonderful benefits that affect children well
into their adolescent years and adulthood. Children need help
understanding and recognizing that emotions feel differently in
the body. They need to be taught that all emotions are okay to
feel and that it’s what we do with an emotion that can help us
or hurt us. As a therapist and a mother, I can tell you that it is
never too early to start helping our little ones understand those
big emotions.
My son was 2.5 years old when I first helped him identify that
what he was feeling in that moment was sadness. Once we labeled
it as “sad,” he was able to calm down. When we help children give
a feeling its name, it can be very therapeutic. We are learning that
children who can regulate their emotions grow up to be much
more successful adults than those who never learned how to
regulate their emotions in a healthy way. As you can see, a mindful
child reaps the benefits of mindfulness exercises for the rest of their
lives. I have shared one of my favorite mindfulness exercises to
teach kids how to regulate strong emotions, as well as a short list
of resources that teaches children about kindness, compassion
and emotions.
8 | S T. JOHNS
parent
MAGAZINE
TAKE 5:
BREAT HIN G TO
C A LM D OWN
The purpose of this exercise is
to help your child regulate their
heart rate by slowing and
deepening their breath, this also
helps bring the body and mind
back to balance. The action of
tracing the fingers requires focus
which brings our attention to the
here and now, ultimately exercising
that attention muscle.