Mindfulness doesn't always look the way you think it should.

What do you think of when someone says mindfulness? Me, I think of sitting somewhere in silence, having a quiet, peaceful moment to focus on my breath and the sounds around me. Is this what mindfulness looks like for kids? I can tell you it's not! Sometimes its loud, it's usually always wiggly and it can be totally fun, if you have the right attitude...

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first started teaching mindfulness to kids, I thought it would be a mini version of what adult meditation looks like. In my training at mindfulness schools I had learned the most important thing about teaching was to hold the space for your students. they call this the container.

Preparing for my first class I had us set up in a circle ( containing them would create a great container right) I asked the children to be quiet and listen for the sound of the bell. seated upright in our circle, I invited them to shut their eyes so they could hear better. Then I shut my eyes and started to instruct. Breathe in, breathe out, as I was breathing

using my perfectly audible yoga breath with my eyes shut. It was quiet, I had the thought, this is working well. I really wanted to keep my eyes shut as a good model for the children but I couldn't resist, I told my self their eyes are shut you can peek and they wont see, so I opened one eye briefly and what I saw was 6 sets of eyeballs looking at me like I was some kind of alien, 3 sets of eyeballs preparing for monkey business and one set of eyeballs rolling up in his yoga mat for nap time. I couldn't help it, I started laughing. How could you not, it was like watching a bunch of playful puppies about to create mischief in a very innocent way. What happened next was a surprise. My laughter had gained all 10 students attention. Maybe I was scaring them, maybe they were confused? I really didn't know, but I liked that their attention was together, everyone was in that moment and I realized we were practicing mindfulness.

Yep that is exactly what we were doing and it didn't look anything like what I thought it should and that was ok. After this experience, I started to adjust the way I practice mindfulness with kids. Sometimes we play games, sometimes we laugh, sometimes we talk, we always breathe, we always play and we always have fun. They are my teachers I am not theirs. I just hold the space and they do the teaching. I am so blessed to be able to work with children in this way and I look forward to every day I get to learn from them.

One our favorite games is the breath game. We lie on the floor bellies up, I ring the bell to signal silence, we take a big breath together and I place a BellieBuddie to each of their bellies. I tell a story of how their belly is a wave in the ocean and the animal on their belly wants to play in the waves. We move our bellies in a playful way faster and faster trying to knock the BellieBuddie off. Then we slow it down, we find our natural rhythm. Sometimes its quiet, sometimes there is laughter or

curious questions but always its fun!