One of our in house yoga teachers has shared her guided meditation that she uses for her Meditation Around Kids class, and with her own daughters too. Have a read of the below from Lauren and then click the clink at the bottom to give this class a try with your kids too. Meditation, primarily done in silence, can still occur with noise and distractions around us, and Lauren is going to show you how. Yes, you can meditate with the kids around!
Meditation Around Kids
Meditation is a topic that I am sure we are all too familiar with. It seems to be a word that is thrown around quite regularly, and there is a pretty good reason for that. We live in an extremely busy world with many commitments pulling our attention in multiple directions.
Meditation is simply an opportunity to let go of the external world and tune back into your own internal existence. I wanted to use to blog as an invitation for you to start your own practice around your children. For me I find giving the girls an activity such as colouring, which is another form of meditation, as we focus on the lines and colours, or even inviting them to join in if they choose too.
So how do we meditate? Well its pretty simple you find a comfortable seat, connect to your breath and that’s it! Not so scary right?
Begin Meditation Here.
So we’ll begin by finding a comfortable seat. You may want to prop yourself up on some pillows to make yourself comfortable. Feel your spine elongate and take a few deep breaths in through the nose and out through the nose. What the girls are witnessing right now is hopefully someone that they look up too and it is imprinting in their mind that perhaps they need to sometimes stop drop and meditate too.
Feel your breath and honour your breath. Its really important as well to honour that the children are going to want to come in, to talk to me to be with me and that’s OK. Because what’s important is that when I am with them I am mindful and present. Tuning in to the sounds that they are making, their little foot prints, their voices, their cough, their breath. Its like that sixth sense where you can always sense where they are. We just allow and accept anything that comes up, to come up.
Our thoughts are similar to the waves of the ocean, in that they come, and they go. You are really just honouring that, sitting with you thoughts and watching them as they roll in… and out. Accepting all of the sounds around you, notice anything that triggers you, that moves in you internally, perhaps that bothers you. See if you can just let all of that go.
Allow your eyes to close down if that is available to you, some of you may have young children so you may need to keep an eye open to observe those little crawlers or toddlers. I have my eyes open in the back of my head when I meditate around my children.
Bringing your awareness to your third eye, our sixth chakra Ajna this sense of knowing is like having vision but more a sense of understanding without vision. Its kind of like that calling that inner wisdom or intuition when we know that we need to attend to our children. This is the third eye our home of wisdom and intuition. The colour we associate our third eye with is indigo. You may want to visualise that deep indigo around our third eye. They say this is the divine doorway or pathway to further connection inner wisdom.
Breath continues to gentle breath in through the nose and out through the nose, when distractions come in gently witness them and then let them go.
Perhaps repeating a few affirmations around the third eye may be helpful to keep you present in the moment. Below are some powerful affirmations to help ignite Ajna the home of our wisdom and intuition.
‘I trust my intuition’
‘I am guided by the divine’
‘I accept love with ease and grace’
‘I know I am on the right path’
‘I am divinely connected to source’
‘When the penny drops, when I get that epiphany, I listen’
‘I can call on my guides any time of day or night’
‘I trust my dreams will guide me’
‘I trust that all is perfect in my world’
Let’s think about some of those affirmations and apply it to our children
‘I trust that they are fitted with intuition’
‘I know they make the right choices for them’
‘I believe they are protected and nurtured’
‘I allow them to be empowered divine beings’
When you are ready you can gently blink open the eyes guide your hands to your heart space to honour the light within each and everyone of us and all of our beautiful children, Namaste.
End Meditation
Meditating around our children can of course stir up some emotions such as frustration, anger or even fear that they will get up to mischief whilst we close down our eyes. The message I hope that lands for you is that we must trust! Listen to our intuition and know that we are protected by the divine.
This gift of meditation not only effects us, it naturally spreads to our children. When they witness us soften, be present and simply just be, of course they too want to follow. We have the opportunity as parents to teach our children mindfulness and presence from a young age. They may not follow along straight away but eventually they will become curious and give it a try.
If you haven’t signed up to my online Yoga Studio A Live Yogi you can click here and have full access to hundreds of live classes. Including this meditation.
Namaste,
Lauren