Susan Kaiser Greenland offers three mindful parenting tips to help children stop and reflect so they can identify and change their habits.
We all have habits. Some of these habits are beneficial or neutral, while others cause constant problems in our lives. Children find it easier to change their habits than adults. One way to start recognizing your automatic behavior patterns is to create external signals that appear automatically throughout the day. These three thoughtful parenting tips can be distractions that give you an opportunity to stop and think.
1. Create a mindfulness reminder
I’ve seen children tying string on one of their fingers, making mindfulness bracelets with ribbons and beads, and putting colorful stickers on their phones. Every time you see them, just stop and observe what is happening to your mind and body.
2. Implement breathing prompts
Suggest that your child practice breathing awareness every time they brush their teeth or put on their socks. Breathing prompts help children recognize how much of their behavior is on autopilot. By interrupting automatic behaviors, children have time and mental space to make connections between what they’re doing, what they’re thinking, and what they’re feeling.
3. Recognize strange emotions
Children talk about how, in the split second before they did something, they had a funny feeling that they later wished they hadn’t done, maybe a tightness in their chest or a feeling in their stomach. That interesting feeling occurs in the “upcoming” moment.
By becoming aware of their strange emotions, children stop before acting and ask:
Why did I choose to do this? How does it make me feel? Are my motives friendly or unfriendly?
If you think about it and feel that the action is not right, you can choose another action.
Photo ©flickr.com/Josh Kenzer
