One of my most helpful mindfulness strategies is to use mantras — phrases that I can repeat silently as I take a deep breath. Mantras are especially helpful for the times when we need to calm ourselves, in order to make space for a skillful response instead of an unthinking reaction.
{Want some mantras just for YOU? Check out my favorite mantras for mindful parenting, and my list of mantras for various situations, organized by category.}
These mindful mantras for kids, with the accompanying lessons and coloring sheets, provide short, calming phrases our children can use when they need to skillfully deal with their anger, nervousness, or frustration.
I am Thankful.
Click for printable PDF
An easy one to start with is practicing gratitude. As a family, we share one thing we are thankful for each night at dinner. You can download the printable sheet to the right, and have your children either write down or draw some of the things they are thankful for, with a picture of themselves in the center.
This download is a great visual reminder that they are surrounded by abundance — people who love them, people they love, and things that bring them joy. My daughter drew our family, our house, the food she likes, and even a special cloud just for her brother.
We realized her drawing was also a reminder of another great mantra, “I am safe.” She is supported by a web that sustains her basic needs, for love and for life.
Be the Pond.
This mantra comes from a story on the 100 Hours Foundation website {which has fantastic resources for teaching mindfulness to young people!} A preschool teacher tells her students the story of a pond, with lots of fish swimming in it. There’s an angry fish, a happy fish, a sad fish, an excited fish, and so on. She has the children close their eyes, as she describes the fish swimming past them. The children’s job is to be the pond. There’s no need to do anything with the fish beyond observing them as they swim by.
When I first read this story {which you can find on slides 13 and 14 of this PowerPoint from the 100 Hours Foundation — click on the PowerPoint icon on the site to download}, I was struck by what a perfect metaphor this is for teaching children to mindfully observe their thoughts and emotions without engaging or judging them! When they get angry or sad, which they will because they’re human, they can notice the emotion, and realize that it will eventually swim away and a different one will soon swim along. They can feel the emotion without letting it take them over.
The teacher who developed this story described it to her students this way: sometimes “we forget that we’re The Pond, and think that we are the ‘Angry Fish.’” It’s a way to teach children that they are not their emotions. They are not their anger. This non-identification with emotions is one of the most powerful ways mindfulness can change our lives.
Here’s how you can use this story and activity with your children:
- Have them close their eyes and tell them the story of being in the pond, with all the different fish swimming by. “Your job is to be the pond, and simply watch all the fish swim around you.”
Click for printable PDF
- Once they open their eyes, ask them what it was like to see all those fish go by. Was it hard to let some of them go?
- Use the coloring sheet I created and have them look at the fish and ask what they think each fish is feeling {some suggested emotions are at the top of the page, but there are no “right” answers.} Some questions to talk about while doing this:
- What makes you think the fish feels that way? {This can lead to a great conversation about how our feelings manifest themselves in our bodies and in our faces.}
- How do you feel when YOU are ____ (angry, sad, excited, energetic)?
- What color comes to mind when you think of that feeling? {This is a helpful way for younger kids to think about feelings.}
- Kids can color in the pond as they talk about the different emotions of the fish. When they’re done, you can come back to the story and talk about what it means to be the pond. If they’ve colored in the water, perhaps talk about the water as holding all these different fish, just as their minds hold all sorts of different emotions and thoughts throughout the day.
Let It Go.
You don’t need to sing the song, because I know we’ve already let that go, but my children LOVED this one! I think Let It Go is such a powerful mantra, because it is about recognizing the things we cannot control {such as the actions of others} and letting go of our frustration. It’s the Serenity Prayer. This is one I try to reinforce with my daughter, who seems to have inherited my quickness to feel irritated when things don’t go as planned! She lashes out when her brother’s behavior bothers her, or gets angry when plans are cancelled.
Click for printable PDF
Use the coloring sheet on the left for children to draw or write down the things they can let go of. As I explained this to my daughter, I realized some of the ways she misunderstands what I mean when I tell her {sometimes many times in a day!} to “let it go.” She thought I meant ignoring her feelings!
Mindfulness is not about suppressing any emotion — it’s about acknowledging, feeling, and holding an emotion in our awareness, without judging ourselves or letting it take control of us. It’s about putting our minds {especially the developing prefrontal cortex in our children} in control of the emotion centers in the brain.
Encourage your children to think of the things that sometimes frustrate them, but that they have no control over. {It’s not about letting their brother go, but letting his ability to drive them crazy go!} Draw the pictures in the balloons, and then envision sending them into the sky, and letting go. {And, just to warn you, my children did sing!}
Mindful Mantras, Mindful Conversations
These activities led to some great conversations with my children about their feelings, about their thoughts, about gratitude, and about themselves.
I hope you and your children enjoy them!
Teach your children mindful mantras!Tweet
- A Mindful Approach to New Year’s Resolutions - January 13, 2020
- Just This Next Step - December 16, 2019
- WAIT: A Mindfulness Practice for Waiting in Line - December 9, 2019
