Mindfulness can add to the quality of our lives in numerous ways, from nurturing a sense of inner peace, enhancing self-confidence and facilitating deeper and more meaningful relationships with others.

Mindfulness — a simple technique that emphasizes paying attention to the present moment in an accepting, non-judegmental manner.

To unravel this trending idea, the two of us held a coffee talk over the September holidays for parents to uncover how they can add a touch of mindfulness from breathing to eating, from thinking to moving, and enjoy each moment to its fullest with their children.

Children specifically are uniquely suited to benefit from mindfulness practice. Habits formed early in life will inform behaviours in adulthood, and with mindfulness, we have the opportunity to give our children the habit of being peaceful, kind and accepting.

Mindfulness is less about technique and more about your willingness to be aware. That’s something every parent should aspire to make time for.

Both of us went on to share various modes of mindful activities parents could engage in with their children, one of the many being breathing techniques which are instrumental in balancing our nervous system that controls our stress levels.

If we are aware of how our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems work, we will be less stressed and more cautious about our thoughts, actions and the way we breathe.

To ensure that our parents remain engaged in this vital practice, we have made handy pinwheels for all our parents who attended the talk. They were asked to blow onto the wheels with various air pressure — identifying the shortness of breath as the ‘stress’ marker when the pinwheel did not spin well and long deep breaths as composure when the wheel managed to spin smoothly.

This activity enabled our parents to see and feel how breathing mindfully on a daily basis makes a huge difference in the way we communicate and react to situations. It also made them feel better when they took long deep breaths in a challenging condition.

All in all, parents had a delightful time understanding the basis and basics of mindfulness practices and how they could easily incorporate it into their lives.

Making a PINWHEEL – the mindful activity

This article was published in FACETS Vol 3 2018

To read this article in PDF click here

An article by Harsheeni Hanna Rajoo and Winnie Wee
DAS Senior Educational Therapists