Be Mindful

 May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so when it came time for my turn to come up with an activity for Senior Primary (ages 8-11) in our congregation, I decided to teach them mindfulness activities.

I thought it would be one of the hardest activities to do, because teaching someone to still the mind or to tune into their bodies is rather a tough concept. And I wanted to do it in a way that made it seem normal--so no crystals, no burning incense or candles, no divining rods. What I ended up doing is coming up with several different mindfulness activities, and assigning each to a random object I placed in a bag so that the children could select an object to determine what mindfulness thing we practiced. 

We did

• Guided imagery--I had them close their eyes while I told them to imagine walking on a beach, feeling the sand beneath their feet, hearing the crash of waves, coming up to a fire where Jesus had fish and bread for them, and imagining what their conversation would be.
• Body scan--I talked through my own body scan [how I could feel the pull of my ponytail on my scalp, the slight pressure of glasses on my nose, the chia seeds stuck in my teeth, the dampness of my armpits because it WAS SO HOT] and then had them each do one. It was amazing how many also had food stuck in their teeth that they talked about.
• Breathing--we watched two different breathing videos, one where they would inhale through the nose when a flower was picture and exhale through the mouth when a candle was pictured, and another that was a ball going up a ski lift on a mountain [inhale], then rolling down the mountain [exhale]. We also practiced inhaling and exhaling as we traced our hand with a finger, inhaling on the upslope and exhaling on the downslope, and talking about how this can help you calm down and focus.
• Progressive muscle relaxation--I asked them to scrunch up their nose really tight, then relax it; to tighten their cheeks up to their eyes, and then loosen them; to shrug their shoulders close up to their eyes, and then drop them, etc. They took issue with my suggestion to tighten their butt muscles so that they raised off from the floor a bit [we were sitting on the floor].
• Study the Penny game--I brought a bunch of pennies, which I had carefully selected so that there were duplicate years represented on the coins, and had them select one and study it for a minute or two. Then I asked them to put it back in the pile, which I then shook up, and told them to find their penny again. The point was to pay attention to details on the coins--smudges, coloring, the dates, etc.
• Back drawing--have you ever had a friend draw or write on your back and you guess what they drew? That's what we did, to try to teach them awareness of sensations, paying attention to the drawing finger in relation to what it had just outlined. Some of the kids had never played the game before. I guess I'm old.
• Balancing--I think this was their favorite. It was certainly the most active. I brought a bosu ball, and told them Level 1 balancing was being able to stand upright on the flat part with the round part in contact with the floor. Level 2 was balancing a book on their head while also balancing on the platform. They wanted to know what Level 3 was, so I suggested standing on one leg while balancing on the ball with a book on their head. One kid said she came up with a Level 10 challenge, but that it was dangerous, so I suggested we not do that.

I only had 4 kids attend, which made it easier to have each one try each activity. They were much more engaged than I had anticipated, which I hope means they remember some mindfulness principles in their daily lives.