For this week’s blog I wanted to give you a meditation from my book, Empowering our Future!
I have posted audio versions of a couple of meditations on my YouTube channel and my website. You’ll find both adult and kid’s meditations! The meditation below is for children and youth. I find it very helpful to read the meditation to your child before bedtime. It helps them to let go of the day’s worries and transition into a peaceful night’s sleep. This meditation has previously only been available in my book.
Let your child get comfortable in their bed, have them lie on their backs, and close their eyes. If you’d like, you can put some calming background music on. Next, simply read the meditation in a calm, slow, soothing voice. Afterward you can discuss what the children felt, heard, or saw during the meditation. This helps to open the door for discussion about their feelings and emotions, providing them a safe place to share what may be going on in their precious lives. It’s also an excellent way to connect with your child.
Although all of the meditations that I write are designed for a specific purpose, meditation in general has so many health benefits. I have been teaching it to children for over 15 years and have found it’s the number 1 tool for self-regulation. Simply being still can help calm the nervous system, promoting physical healing. It also helps children to understand their thoughts and feelings, and more importantly, how to communicate them in a healthy way.
The Floating Bubble meditation is designed to increase self-awareness and reduce negative self-talk. It’s a great tool that has children “pop” negative self-talk bubbles while floating through the air, and it teaches them how to control their thoughts. This helps with the fear, worry, and anxiety that our thoughts can provide. When children are aware of a good-feeling thought vs. a bad-feeling thought, they’re more prepared to change them.
Floating Bubble Meditation
Sit or lie comfortably. You can put your hands over your eyes if you want to. Become aware of your breath. Let each breath relax your mind and body more and more. Take a deep breath in 1,2,3…hold for 1… and out 2,3, again deep breath in 1,2,3…hold for 1…and out 2,3. Let’s repeat this one more time, breathe in for the count of 3…hold for 1…and out 2,3. Good! Now we’re going to breathe in deeply; relax your face, jaw, neck and shoulders as you breathe back out. Take in another deep breath and relax your back, chest and stomach as you breathe back out. With one more deep breath, relax your arms and legs as you breathe back out. Your mind is beginning to settle, your body is feeling calm. Not let your breath be slow and natural.
Imagine you are sitting in your yard or another place outside where you feel safe. You hear the birds chirping and all the sounds around you. You can smell all the different scents associated with this special safe place. As you look up you notice a big, beautiful magical bubble floating towards you. This bubble can be any color you choose. It may even be clear and sparkly like the bubbles you blow with a rainbow going through.
As the bubble gets closer to you, you notice the calming, peaceful energy it has. It’s a happy bubble! You feel as if it’s smiling at you. It touches down beside you and asks you to jump in. You step into the bubble and it floats up towards the sky. You feel very safe and comfortable. You are safe. As the bubble floats through the air, you notice it heading towards a cloud shaped like a big archway. You are now going through the archway. You pass through the archway and on the other side there are hundreds of different bubbles, all different sizes and colours.
These are magical thought bubbles! Each bubble represents the thoughts you tell yourself. Imagine that each negative thought you have can be popped at any time. The choice is always yours as to which bubble you choose to listen to. If you notice any bubble with negative thoughts, I want you to float over to it and pop it with your finger…POP…it’s gone! I’ll give you a few moments now to pop all the bubbles with negative thoughts. Do that now…(Pause) Now imagine the only bubbles left are those with positive thoughts. Float among the bubbles; whenever one bumps into you it’s a reminder that you are enough, you’re perfect just the way you are. They remind you that there’s nobody in the whole world like you – that’s your superpower. Remember that you are very, very loved!
It’s now time to leave this magical bubble world. Remember, you can return here anytime, whenever you need to pop the negative thoughts. The choice is always yours as to which thought you choose. Float back towards the archway; notice how happy and content your mind and body feel. Go through the archway and start your descent back to the ground. Keeping this peaceful feeling with you throughout the day and night.
You’ve now landed back on the ground.
When you’re ready you can open your eyes, remembering that you are always enough!
If you are interested in more meditations, activities, worksheets and ideas that help empower, build resiliency, and enhance mental and emotional well-being, Empowering our Future is a great resource! Click on the link below to purchase!
Until next time…meditation for health!