Blissful Breathing For Children And Teens
For the past 13 years, I’ve had the privilege of raising four children with Josie, my wife. It’s a blessing to watch all of them grow up.
But, I’m not going to lie: it can be incredibly difficult at times too.
In the beginning, it was the relentlessness of night feeds and nappies. That has changed into living with teens and pre-teens who are becoming adults under our roof.
You don’t have to have children to know that life can be hectic and stressful.
Amongst it all though, there is one secret ingredient that can smooth out the tension, help everyone be more patient, kind and loving and that is:
Taking a few moments each day to breathe calmly.
I get emails from parents and teachers nearly every day asking how they could use breathing to reduce stress, tension, worry and fear for the children and teens in their lives. Especially now, with all the uncertainty we’re facing.
The good news is there are proven ways to do that. They are simple, quick, easy-to-follow and children and teens love them because they make them feel great again.
I have been working behind-the-scenes on the best way for you to be able to use them with the children and teens in your life. My children have been helping me with that. In the coming weeks, I will be sending you more details on how that will work.
But, in the meantime, here are some things I've learnt:
1) Children and teens get great benefit really quickly from breathing calmly - far quicker than adults. So, they don’t need to do it for very long. A few minutes will do.
2) Listening to audio recordings of guided breathing allows them to close their eyes, engaging their imagination and that draws them deeper into the experience. Rather than the distraction of watching a video.
3) If we do the breathing exercises with them, they enjoy them more, get more benefit from them and feel great. In essence, we humans mostly learn by mimicking, so breathing with them helps.
4) Even the most truculent teen (and I was one), settles down eventually before falling asleep. This is a fantastic time to listen to the guided breathing. I know that isn’t always possible (in school for example) so I have some equally effective options for that too.
There is more to come, but I just wanted to give you a sense of where we’re going with this.
The more people we get breathing calmly, the better for everyone!
P.S. As well as feeling calm again, we can breathe to improve our mood, sleep better, reduce anxiety and much more. My new book "The Blissful Breath" is all about that. You can pre-order it now.