Parent Magazine St. Johns March 2019 | Page 10

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.