Three Benefits of Mindfulness for Kids

Updated: September 23, 2022

By Patricia Chilangwa, contributing writer

If you are reading this, you are probably entertaining the idea of bringing mindfulness into your child’s life.

And if that’s the case, you are on the right track!

Increasing research suggests that mindfulness for kids helps with attention, emotion regulation, and cognitive focus – all of which account for better performance in academics, sports, and extracurricular activities.

Are you sold yet? If not, keep reading.

Mindfulness for kids helps them develop awareness of their inner and outer experiences so they can better calm themselves, focus, manage difficult emotions, be kind and compassionate. I honestly think that mindfulness practices are becoming less of an option and more of a necessity.  

Kids are living increasingly fast-paced lives. They are constantly exposed to the negative aspects of media and screens, and they have less and less time to just be. Yet, mindfulness practices are simple, take very little time, don’t cost anything, and help kids lead healthier happier lives. Practicing mindfulness is a no brainer!  

The best way to introduce mindfulness to children is through short, kid-friendly, and consistent bite-sized nuggets. Read on to learn more about the three main benefits of mindfulness for kids – and how you can start teaching these techniques right now!   

1. Mindfulness improves focus and attention

Children’s mindfulness training starts with learning the basic skills of focusing.  

When kids learn to focus on just one thing, like sound or their own breath, their minds calm down and they perform better. Refined concentration skills are linked to better participation in class, as well as improved performance in school, sports, and other activities. Do I even need to ask if this is something you want for your kids?

Here are a couple of mindful exercises you can try.

mindful bell

An easy way for children to practice mindfulness is to focus on paying attention to what they can hear.

So, tell your child that you will make a special sound with a special bell (you can recruit your smartphone’s help for that special sound).

Ask your child or children to listen carefully until they can no longer hear anything. They may even want to count the number of breaths they takes before the sound is completely gone. This exercise has a very calming effect on kids, and it’s a fun way to teach them to pay attention to their surroundings.

You can make it more exciting by hiding an object that makes a sound (like a ticking clock), and asking your child to sit for 10-20 seconds with eyes closed to guess where the sound comes from before starting the search. Explain to them that it’s very important to learn to sit quietly every now and then, even in real life. This way we can tune in and listen to what is happening inside ourselves and around us.

Breathing buddy

For young children, an instruction to simply “pay attention to the breath” can be hard to follow, so you can do a “breathing buddy” exercise instead.

Tell your kids to grab a favorite stuffed animal and lie on their backs with their buddies on their bellies. Play some relaxing tunes, and tell them a little story about their breathing buddies wanting to be rocked. Then ask your kids to focus their attention on the rise and fall of the stuffed animal as they breathe in and out.

With older kids, don’t be shy to use more age-appropriate explanations of how our breathing can help settle our minds and bodies.  

nature walks and yoga

Nature walks and kids yoga are incredible tools to incorporate awareness and focus into your children’s daily routines.

2. mindfulness improves self-regulation

Mindfulness increases children’s ability to self-regulate through breathing and other grounding techniques, especially when they experience difficult emotions like fear and anger.

When children and teens practice focusing skills and mindfulness activities, they become more aware of what their minds are up to, and they learn that it’s ok to have different emotions and sensations throughout the day. With consistent mindfulness practice, kids are less likely to be overwhelmed by the more challenging feelings.

Ultimately, mindfulness helps children recognize when they need to steady themselves so they can replace impulsive reactions with thoughtful responses. Mindfulness is also invaluable in teaching kids to be ok with the occasional discomfort that we all experience every now and then.  

At this point, you might be wondering how on earth you can deliver all this wisdom in a kid-friendly way. One trick is to adapt existing games to include mindfulness principles. Take a look at these popular games, with a mindful twist!

Mindful Candyland

Play Candyland with a mindful twist by adding a corresponding emotion to each card color. When a child draws a red card, she can describe a time she felt angry, how long it lasted, how she handled it, and so on. Similarly, blue cards represent sadness, yellow cards relate to happiness, orange cards denote fear, and green cards symbolize hope.

You can change up the emotions, but the idea is that you start a conversation about the different feelings you experience. Explain that all emotions are ok, even the ones that feel uncomfortable. Remind kids that emotions come and go, and that they can always use their breathing or take a quiet break to settle down when difficult emotions.

Mindful Charades

Use some index cards to write different emotions that kids can act out in a charades game. To make it more challenging, ask two kids to act out two different emotions at the same time. Talk about how they can handle those situations in real life.

3. mindfulness helps build positive relationships

Mindfulness is an incredible tool to teach kids socio-emotional skills like compassion, empathy, respect, and peer acceptance. Empathy, or the ability to understand what another person is thinking or feeling, improves children’s awareness of others. This in turn helps them build positive relationships through kindness, generosity and compassion.

Needless to say, these behaviors are essential for life. As they learn to be kind and compassionate to others, they remember to extend the same positive attitudes to themselves and their bodies.

Here are some tools for teaching mindfulness to build positive relationships:  

kids yoga

I cannot emphasize enough how helpful it is to teach your kids yoga and the basic yogic philosophy of non-judgmental awareness of the body and the mind.

Make it Fun!

To make yoga for kids fun, try to incorporate animal poses, and use your imagination to keep them interested. If you need fresh ideas, head over to Pretzel Kids yoga for a great certification course. You can then teach yoga games, kids yoga poses and breathing techniques. You can also start earning money teaching Pretzel Kids yoga classes in your own community!

Good Thoughts Delivery

As you practice some breathing breaks, ask the kids to think of someone they love (it can even be a pet). Invite them to really picture the person or animal, and then ask them to think of something kind they can say to that person.

After a minute or so, ask the kids to think of someone who is having a hard time, and invite them to think of something kind to say to that person. Over time, this exercise will build the muscles of kindness and compassion.

Gratitude Jar

Start by having the kids decorate jars with stickers and/or paint. Explain that you will start a gratitude jar routine, and help them write short notes about things that make them happy. It can even be a joke!

Fold the notes and them in the jar. Continue to do this as often as possible. On days when your child is feeling blue, remind them to go fish a note from the gratitude jar so that they can be reminded to smile. As always, try to lead by example and voice your own reasons why you’re grateful.  

For a great gratitude jar activity pack, check out the Pretzel Kids 3-Jar printable on Etsy!

are you ready to teach mindfulness for kids?

As your kids grow up, they need to do more than just cope with the challenges of the world. The hope is that they grow up to make positive changes too.

The best thing you can do to help children become more mindful is to commit to some regular mindfulness practice yourself!

The more present and mindful you are with your children, the more happy, mindful and resilient they will be.

Are you ready to start teaching mindfulness to kids? We thought so!

Editor’s Note: The Pretzel Kids Yoga Certification course is a great way to start teaching yoga and mindfulness immediately! If you want to learn more about the Pretzel Kids yoga opportunity, download our e-book right here!