Studio's Window
The heart of creativity and curiosity in early childhood
Monday, February 13, 2023
Breathe With Me
As a Studio community, we are steeped in a practice of creative joy ensuring that each day holds special times for taking deep, slow breaths. This allows us to find calm and peace within the center of ourselves and to launch into our discovery and play ready to notice and to learn.
For our health and well-being, we need time to devote towards simply being still, where we can hear ourselves from the inside, nurture our inherent intelligence, and increase our capacity for interconnectivity and the strengthening of our relationships in life. To practice this with our children is to give them a fundamental holistic resource and an extraordinary connection to us. It is such a positive source of attention -- what we all most yearn for. It also allows our children to see us benefitting from a practice in which they
too can participate.
Here is a mindful breathing exercise you can practice with your child.
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Start by finding stillness on the rug, on the sofa, on the steps of your home, or another familiar place of comfort. It's fine to bring a stuffed animal or comfort object into this practice with your child if it helps to ground them more.
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Relax and bring full presence to this moment. Take off your shoes and turn off your phone, placing it out of sight, Remember the genuine connection this short activity will bring. Prepare for it by being fully attentive to yourself and your child.
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Hold your child's hand and help them sit next to you. They can also sit in your lap.
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Ask them to take "deep breaths" with you so that together you can fill your day with calm and happiness.
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Lead them to place their hands on their tummy and to feel their tummy rise up and down with each breath. You can try too.
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Now, have them gently blow out, as if blowing out candles. Do this several times.
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Have them also cup their hands in front of their face as if they are smelling a flower. Have them breathe in pretending to smell the flower or a bundle of their favorite color/s.
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Guide them to gently cup their hands together, rest their palms on their knees, or hold their palms together in the center of the chest with their fingertips pointing upward.
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Ask your child to imagine something that makes them feel happy.
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What does it look like, sound like? Ask them to close their eyes and see what makes them happy.
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As your child is imagining, slowly and quietly count down from three...two...one. Then have your child take a deep breath in (like smelling that flower or breathing in their favorite color) and a full breath out, exhaling their favorite color all over the sky.
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You can do this exercise as many times as your child feels motivated and inspired.
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You can expand this practice to center the breaths even more with a moment of silence before and after the routine. You can continue to build the length of silent time on each end of the breath as days and weeks of practice move on.
Compassionate Awareness Through Stillness
As a parent, remember this time is to teach your child an important tool about nurturing peace and calm within oneself, a tool that leads to greater strength, energy, and positivity throughout the day. This bonding time is also created for you -- one that guarantees a special moment that benefits you, your child, and your entire family through the gift of slowing down enough to connect, to notice, and create greater compassionate awareness through stillness.
Give this time a special and fun name in which to celebrate and look forward to such as, "Our Big Breaths Time" or "Peace on the Stoop" or "Blowing Big Colors" or "You and Me and Happy."
Remain patient if it all doesn't come together immediately. Be realistic and as consistent as possible about when these breaths together can happen. Perhaps it is best right before bedtime when you are snuggling and reading a book. You may want to begin and end this practice by ringing a bell, singing a soft lullaby, or with a hug and an “I love you!"
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