“A child’s mind is not a container to be filled, but rather fire to be kindled”
Dorothea Brande
The mind of a kid is very vulnerable and adaptive to the surrounding around it. The environment created around them plays a very important role while growing up. They observe, understand and tries to imitate the same. They learn very faster at such tender age. The advanced pace in the surrounding as led to usage of more electronics in the hand rather than enjoying the nature around. Therefore, it is very essential to create an aura around them the way we want them to be. For example, if you want your kids to read books, you yourself have to be habitual to reading a book.
Just imagine if we introduce our kids to the wonderful art of calmness and relaxation called meditation. Kids at their age are very molding to the environment created around them. With proper nurturing of healthy habits, they can be taught to live a healthy way of living from now. The meditation & pranayama has a certain process to follow to adapt the complete benefits of it. It starts with understanding the breathing pattern of oneself. It includes the breathing cycle, volume, length & speed of breath. It helps them to understand their breathing pattern, learns to focus & concentrate. When one starts to become aware of one self, it gets to know how it mind functions. Slowly, it starts to focus on their every thought and gets a glimpse of real self.
There are certain breathing practices & techniques through which we can teach our kids to not only control breathe consciously, but also improves your breathing capacity & lung strength. We as a parent can practice some basic breathing exercises at home as well. As kids they will observe you & will try to imitate the same. The basic exercises like closing your eyes & concentrating on your breathing or breathe in & out. This aspects helps your kids to perform well in their curricular activities. After understanding, the ability to concentrate improves which helps to perform well at their academics. Nowadays, the kids are quite vulnerable and it’s difficult for them to focus on one particular activity. So, meditation teaches them to focus & get involved in one activity completely. We can create an ambience around the corner of our house where one can meditate. We make it a family ritual as well. For example, the first 15 t0 20 minutes in the morning we can create a practice of meditating together. Then, we can conduct small exercises to improve their concentration skills like focusing on a black dot on white wall. Once the concentration improves, the ability to memorize also improves.
Once your kid is aware of oneself, there is a stability. It increases the efficiency of mind & helps to make better decisions. To understand the world around, it is very important to glance & to be aware of inner self first. When you understand yourself, you can survive the outer world. When the inner reactions are recognizable, the outer one does not affect you. When you know yourself, the decisions taken are sound.
Imagine a situation of an exam center, the chaos, nervousness, tension, crowd noise & so much more happens around. But, there is your kid standing quite, calm & relaxed. She/ He has prepared well and all the things are not affecting him/her. Now, imagine another situation of a running race track in school, the environment is as same as earlier. The race starts and all kids ran with great enthusiasm and great speed. Your kid is running at a stable speed. After a while, a speed decreases as they are tired. But, your kid still has same speed. The reason is he/she has awareness of its breathing pattern. Your child might not win the race, but definitely perform at its best.
This is how meditation enhances a life of kid. There is freedom of elasticity in the mind of kids which helps them to be in present moment, free from external thoughts or pressures. Introducing them to meditation from now will help them to use their mind more efficiently. We can help them to build and nurture their mind towards a productive development.
