Meditation is a way of keeping our inner balance when the outer balance has been lost. Teaching these practices can be the greatest gift you may give a child. While it strengthens emotional intelligence and intuition, it also reaches into the higher layers of mind (subconscious, unconscious, etc.) of mind. **
For the 3-10 year old child to engage in meditation, the practice needs to be age appropriate and child friendly. Adult meditation techniques may only be applicable to teenagers and then they also need some creativity to be motivated in many cases. The meditation preparation activities may be stories and other creative adventures of:
- Why meditate,
- The importance of working to stay connected to the heart,
- What happens when we lose connection with the heart/mind,
- How we can make better choices,
- Why we may want our Inner Voice of Love to speak more loudly.
Meditation Preparation
These transitional activities are essential for preparing young children for meditation. They engage the external senses, encourage deep breathing, and center the heart. The emotions and mind are recalibrated towards a positive goal. These are key to soothing the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. (Yes, meditation preparation activities may take longer in the early years than the actual meditation itself. We are offering them a ‘meditation experience’.)
Singing
Sweet singing dissolves resistance and negativity. Singing guides the mind-heart towards positivity and a higher mental-emotional vibration. It immediately uplifts the heart. A simple song of love, unity, neohumanism, nature, and connection to the Divine can do the trick. Sing a song at least 3 times to give it time to be absorbed into the heart-mind. Rhymes are also very captivating. When we sing or chant together, there is a wave of synchronicity that develops on many levels with the sound vibration, breath patterning, and so forth. Singing invites that feeling of oneness and belonging.
Kiirtan
Singing naturally transitions into kiirtan. For young children these activities are most effective if sensory based in some way and age appropriate. For kids 2-5 years of age, using simple tunes they are already familiar with like nursery rhymes or other preschool songs can bring great joy to this practice. Elementary aged students can do the same or eventually even compose a tune. Percussion instruments and hand clapping excite the interest of preschoolers. Older kids may bring in other more sophisticated instruments. Medical studies have shown how kiirtan singing can change the chemistry of the brain. There are many therapeutic uses of kiirtan. **
Dancing
The group may sing a mantra like Baba Nam Kevalam (Love is everywhere), or if singing Sanskrit is not culturally appropriate everyone can sing ‘Love is all there is’ or a translation of this into a local language. Some have even used affirmations such as ‘I am a helper’, ‘I am a Super Friend’, or ‘I am Love’. Elementary students may enjoy the call response technique.
There are at least four dancing movement variations. Dancing:
- In a specific place and not moving around
- In a circular formation
- In a parade line, weaving around the room and/or out the door and back
- In a circle around a seated child, animal, play animal, plant, plant, garden, etc.
Meditation
Once there was a wise child who loved sitting quietly under the apple tree. The child would fold their hands in their lap and close their eyes. Soon the child was so still that a little bird in the tree thought: “Oh this is part of the tree”. While the bird was sitting in the child’s hands, it thought: “This is the perfect place to build my nest”. She started bringing little sticks into the child’s hands. Flying back and forth gathering sticks. In the blink of an eye, the nest was ready. The little bird sang the sweetest song.
Let’s sit like this. Make your hands into a nest an close your eyes. Let’s be still and listen. (Whispering.) Perhaps the little bird will come to you.
The teacher may softly sing the mantra throughout meditation (since internal thinking and chanting is very difficult for the young child) while the children sit in silence. The length of meditation (starting with one minute).
Meditation practice is frequently accompanied by honoring the Earth, nature, and sending neohumanist messages of love and wellbeing to individuals, family, animals, and others. Kiirtan and meditation empower young children to feel oneness with The Great and connection with all beings.
** For additional information on meditation as well as hand mudras or hand positions for kids, visualizations, openings and closings, meditating with nature objects, and other techniques of sensory focus, please see: https://newyoga.org/.
(NEW stands for Neohumanist Education Way . This is AMAYE’s children’s spiritual teaching materials and information location.)