Mindfulness and Children

Why is paying attention so important?

Jon Kabat Zin in his book Mindfulness reminds us how habitual it is to eat without tasting food or not perceiving the smell of wet earth after rain. Have you noticed how normal it is to touch others without realizing the sensations that they transmit to us? We have specialized in remaining disconnected most of the time and the worst thing is that we ignore that we are disconnected.

Children are specialists in living in the present moment. It is clear that we can learn a lot from them about mindfulness but ... how do we make them aware of the benefits of this practice? We know that if you do not practice it with habit, over time, you will fall little by little into the adult adult to live in the worries of the past or the fears of the future.

One of the main benefits of the practice of mindfulnes with children is the improvement in the capacity of attention and concentration. Many parents warn that today's children have trouble concentrating. Some do not get to communicate with them or seek eye contact! There are many reasons that we could list as the cause of the problem: technologies, over-stimulation, lack of contact with nature ... but this does not help to solve the problem.

A very useful tool is mindfulness. Developing these techniques works! Some programs like Happy Classrooms Program in Aragon, Treva Program in Catalonia and Conscious Schools in the Valencian Community have shown encouraging results.

To carry out these techniques does not take much time. Suffice with a few minutes a day! An important aspect is to take care of the place where to realize the games or activities. It is necessary to have a calm and relaxed atmosphere. Preferably carry out the activities in the same place and at the same time. The easiest is to agree on a schedule between everyone and commit to fulfill it. To begin with, two or three days a week a duration of 10 minutes would be fantastic.

Later I will list 10 activities to carry out with children practicing mindfulness.