Kids 10 Minute Belly Breathing Meditation

Belly Breathing for just ten minutes a day will add one more tool to your child's emotional toolbox and help them increase their attention span. Your kids will feel happier and more relaxed in 10 minutes or less, and this skill will serve them their whole life. This is an especially useful tool for parents of children who struggle with expressing appropriate levels of anger and are still learning effective methods of self expression.

For children with a longer concentration span, aim to build up to 10 minutes for this exercise.
For younger children and toddlers, even 3 to 5 breaths is magnificent. Make it fun!

Kids 10 Minute Belly Breathing Meditation

1. You may sit or stand for this - it really makes no difference. 
2. Simply make sure you have straight backs, relaxed shoulders, and your chins tucked in a little, to relax your neck.
3. If you are working with little ones, it will be more fun for them when they can see their belly moving. Place your hands on your belly - just above your belly button, and have them do a little monkey see, monkey do. You want the tips of your middle fingers to be touching lightly, as you exhale and your belly is pushed towards your back.
4. As you breathe in, allow your belly to expand your fingertips will move apart.
5. When you breathe out again, your belly will go back towards your spine and your fingertips will go back together. 
6. A variation for bringing kids awareness of their breath is to lay on your backs and place a toy on each tummy so they can watch the rise and fall of the toy.
7. Another variation to the belly breath is the Balloon Breath.  Have your child imagine that their belly is a balloon.  Ask them the color of the balloon.  Have them experience the balloon growing larger, then smaller, with each breath in, then out.
8. Continue breathing together, for as long as they can hold their attention.

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90 to Joyful: How to Transform an Amygdalla Hijack into The Joy Response

As we all know, what we think about influences our emotional state. Holding positive thoughts can become a real challenge when our amygdalla (the part of our brain responsible for cueing us to danger) gets hijacked by someone, or something, pressing one of our hot buttons. These hijacks last 90 seconds - during which time, our ability to shut them down is severely impaired, or is it? What can be done?

It's not like we can break in the middle of a board meeting for a 20 minute meditation to bring us back to our joy. Even a two minute break may not always be possible in the moment. When internal worry or external circumstances cause us to experience excessive stress, the amygdalla releases a flood of chemicals into our bloodstream that activate the fight or flight response system responsible for protecting us from harm. When these chemicals start to flow, there is actually a physical sensation that can be observed at the base of the skull. The pulse quickens, the mind races, the breath catches and causes us to breathe shallow in the upper part of our lungs. Awareness of this breath is the key to freedom!
 
There's a reason that so many spiritual traditions direct our focus to our breath. Breath is the regulator of emotion. If you pay close attention, every emotion has its own breathing pattern.

We can learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of an amygdala hijack and use it as a mental cue to check our breath. Practice learning to identify the Amygdala Hijack breathing pattern. I promise, it's pretty easy once you call your attention to it. Once you have learned to identify it, you can make good use of its signals. Once identified, you can use this physical cue to circumvent the hijack and gain a new level of mastery over your emotions. Access to this mastery is found in your breath.

As soon as you notice you are being hijacked, breathe deep into your belly and on the exhale say to yourself: "This hijack is not needed. I choose joy. I choose peace. I am not at the effect of my emotions. I am love."

Babies breathe from their bellies naturally. 

The first few breaths will remain shallow, quick, and uneven. Don't let this worry you. Simply keep Belly Breathing. In the space of a few breaths you will become aware that your breath is calming you. Continue the belly breath until you notice that your anger/despair/fear/distress has passed and you are back in your joy.

If when upset, you tend to be a barker (Say rash things) you're going to need to make and keep an agreement with yourself to "Pause for the Cause". In other words, wait to say anything until you are back in your joy. This may be quite challenging to begin with and you may find yourself needing to stop in mid-sentence. This is OK. It's better to stop here than not stop at all. Go easy on yourself. This takes practice. Stay dedicated to your goal.

As your mastery increases a new sense of confidence in your ability to keep yourself safe will emerge. This in turn will feed your ability to continue your practice. Then one day, you will notice that your response to most stressful situations is no longer panic, and instead, it has been replaced by a joy response.


(The Joy Response™ is a trademark of Xstatic Now. All Rights Reserved. © Xstatic Now 2012)