Category Archives: amygdala

Meditations and mindful tips for you and the family – COVID-19

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Welcome and hope you find this blog useful in this strange and challenging time.

I don’t know about you, but life feels like we’ve been put on a roller coaster (without our permission) and we are on for a ride of ups and downs.

I’ve been practising meditation for over 30 years and even I feel tested to my limit by world events.  However I have strong resillience, mentally and emotionally, because of my meditation practice.  But I realise that many people (and children) are reeling from everything and don’t have lifeskills to help them through.

So our team of Connected Kids Tutors, Trainers and Students have decided to offer some meditation practices and mindful tips on this blogpost – to be used by you, your family or both.

These are free for you to use and share.  

We know how much having this skill helps us (it’s why we teach people worldwide!) and we just want to share and help everyone have a little bit more peace of mind (and resillience) through this challenging journey.

We hope it helps and please let us know via our Facebook group, or Twitter or Facebook page (or ask us a question).  We’ll be adding more on as they come through so remember to visit this page or join our social media to be kept informed.

Namaste

 

 

 

Lorraine E Murray – Founder and the Connected Kids Team

Listen to the meditation recordings (more to come).  Watch the recordings and decide (or let your family choose) what feels best for you and your kids.

(Please note the quality of sound will vary as each person used whatever device they had to record from home!)

 

Tree of Protection Meditation for kids – by Connected Kids founder Lorraine Murray

 

Golden Spacesuit meditation for kids on the Autism spectrum – by Connected Kids founder Lorraine Murray

 

Mindful tip to engage kids in meditation – Lorraine Murray

 

Pranyama Breathing for Anxiety – by Judy Lam

 

Mindful rainbows, drawing/colouring tips by – Jackie McBeath

 

Mindful Colouring tips – by Lorraine Forsyth

 

Mindful Tips for parents – by Pippa Elwood

 

Coping mindfully with anxiety – by Tara Russo

 

Straw breath-painting – breath work (create a rainbow) – by Sue Hurst

 

Mindful Breath ideas for young kids (under 10) to reduce anxiety – by Lorraine Murray

 

Sound Meditation to help boost immune system – by Gary Posner

A note from Gary... “Before you listen to the Immune Enhancing Tuning Fork Meditation. Close your eyes and start breathing. Feel each breath you take moving through your whole body. Feel your breath waking up in every cell in your body. ”

We would also suggest asking your kids to notice where they feel the sound in their body as they listen and breathe.

 

3 Breaths Meditation to calm – by Alice Chinn

 

The Lighthouse meditation – by Sara Graham

 

The magical forest meditation for 7 to 11 year old kids  – by Tara Russo

 

 

Rainbow breathing for kids  – by Chris Maxwell

Helping kids manage their behaviour with mindful meditation

ADHD, amygdala, anger, behaviour kids, grounding, mental health, mindfulness, mindfulness in schools, schools, self regulation, , , ,

 

I know this is an issue that many adults struggle with – both in the classroom and at home.

So my next online talk will be about this – giving you tips and mindful ideas that help you and your kids to self-regulate their behaviour… more peacefully.

If you wish to join the online talk (live and recorded) – please register here.

Please note places are limited so pre-booking is required.

 

Meditation and mindfulness for autism and ADHD

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I initially had the idea back in 2003 that we should be teaching our kids meditation and mindfulness.teaching kids meditation

Back then… there was very little in the way of resources that people could find to help them teach kids and teens mindful meditation practices.

How the landscape has changed (thank goodness!)

Today we see meditation and mindfulness being incorporated into many areas of a child’s life.  These essential life skills will help them process increasing amounts of stress that we place on their small shoulders (diet, technology, lifestyle).  I’m glad that people are waking up to the idea of teaching their kids meditation – in my view it is as important as teaching them to brush their teeth!

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How to be more creative teaching meditation

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Why is creativity important to teaching meditation?girl playing mindfully

Since 2003, we’ve been teaching adults how to help kids and teens practise meditation.

What’s interesting is the way that we adults (initially) approach the idea of teaching kids meditation.

  • Some of us look for a ‘mindfulness wand’ that we can use (metaphorically speaking) to calm our children.
  • Some of us want to analyse and dissect meditation; how it works, the benefits, why bother teaching it.
  • Some of us  think that it’s good for kids to learn it because we practise and thus try to teach our kids meditation in the same style/manner of our meditation practice.

The fact that you are even interested in teaching a young person these life skills (in our opinion) is amazing!  The intention to offer this to young people is a gift and at Connected Kids, it’s our passion to leave this legacy for future generations.

But often we may attempt to teach children and find that either:

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Dr Dan Siegel – ‘the whole-brain child’

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Interview with Author, Parenting Expert and Neuroscientist – Dr Dan Siegel

Dr Dan Siegel kindly gave Connected Kids an online dr dan siegel whole brain childinterview in where we discussed  some aspects of his book ‘the Whole-Brain Child’.

Dr Siegel is a graduate of Harvard Medical School.  He is currently a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine.  He has a range of books dedicated to helping parents and non-parents to support children through their developing years.

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