Mindfulness helps children control their behaviors, mitigate effects of bullying, enhance social skills, augment their level of focus, decrease depressive or anxious feelings, and improve self-concept.
Benefits of Mindfulness for Kids
Cognitive Benefits: “Executive function is a set of mental skills that constitutes attention, switching focus, planning, organizing and remembering details. Research in education suggests that mindfulness practice can lead to improvements in executive function in children, as these studies show improvements in behavioral regulation, metacognition and focus.”
Social Benefits: “A social skill is any skill that we use to interact and communicate with others. Deficits and excesses in social behavior can affect learning, understanding, and classroom climate. Mindfulness leads to better participation in activities, as well as nurture a classroom culture of mutual respect and care”
Emotional Benefits: “Mindfulness practice leads to higher scores on self-report measures of optimism and positive emotions in elementary school students. Students report feeling calmer, with an enhanced experience of well-being and improved sleep”
“In today’s rush, we all think too much—seek too much—want too much—and forget about the joy of just being.”
— Eckhart Tolle
Mindfulness Statistics Among Children
90%
of children improved their ability to get along with other children
80%
were more optimistic and had enhanced their self-concept, self-regulation, and self-management
75%
improved their planning and organizational skills, and the same amount had better impulse control and less reactivity
Developing a Family Practice
"I would suggest that parents encourage their children to take a few minutes a day to practice and then practice right along with them," she says. "Setting routines in place for taking just a few moments a day to close your eyes and notice your breath, your thoughts, your emotions, and your body sensations, with kindness and curiosity, would make a great impact on the whole family.
Just like nutritious eating, exercise, reading, and any other habit we believe will help grow our children into happy, healthy adults, developing a skill that will help my kid connect with her own thoughts and feelings is worth the effort."
- Danielle Mahoney, mindfulness educator and literacy coach at P.S. 212Q in Jackson Heights, Queens