Mindfulness as a Pathway to Resilience
Kelly Hubbard, Kinship Family Program Coordinator
As kinship foster families, you understand the unique challenges and rewards of providing a loving and stable home for children who need it most. Alongside meeting their daily needs, fostering mindfulness can be a powerful tool in helping these children navigate their emotions and build resilience. Mindfulness is not just a buzzword; it’s a practice that can empower children to manage stress, enhance focus, and foster emotional well-being.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the practice of being present in the moment, without judgment. It involves paying attention to thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and the surrounding environment.
For children who have experienced trauma or instability, mindfulness can provide a sense of grounding and safety.
Getting Started with Mindfulness
Introducing mindfulness to children doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as reading a book together! Here are some kids books to help you get started:
Mindfulness Moments for Kids 4 Book Set – This beautiful set of board books for toddlers and young children introduces mindfulness activities like deep breathing through the use of cute characters.
For slightly older children, the same authors put together two more books and a set of cards for practicing shorter “Mindful Moments” anywhere! Breathe like a Bear Book, Breathe like a Bear Cards and Peaceful Like a Panda.
My Magic Breath: Finding Calm Through Mindful Breathing is a great choice for elementary aged children to learn about mindful breathing.
Some Days I Flip My Lid and Some Nights I Flip My Lid are great books for teaching older elementary children how their brains work and how to calm down their nervous systems. They also include bonus material for caregivers, including step-by-step instructions for teaching mindful grounding techniques.
Wooden Pinwheels can also be a great tool for practicing deep breathing.
Resources for Identifying Emotions
Learning to name emotions is not just about vocabulary; it’s about developing a fundamental skill that supports emotional health and social well-being throughout life. By nurturing this ability in children, we empower them to navigate their inner world with confidence and resilience. Here are some books and resources to help your kids develop this skill!
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings is a great introduction to naming feelings. It talks about feelings by describing how they feel in your body.
A Feelings and Choices Chart or Flip Book not only provides a visual representation of emotions to help young children identify how they are feeling, but also gives suggestions for what to do for each feeling.
For older children and teens, a Feelings Wheel can help identify more specific emotions. You start in the center of the wheel with the basic emotion and can work your way out to the edges. For example the feeling “angry” may actually be stemming from a feeling of “betrayal”. This can be very helpful for older kids and teenagers who have trouble identifying why they are feeling the way they are. It can also help them better communicate how they are feeling with their support system in order to better advocate for their needs.
Sensory Bottles are a great way to help kids communicate their emotions without words. Each bottle is associated with a feeling and the materials inside mimic the feeling of that emotion. Kids could grab a bottle off of the shelf that matches how they feel if they are too upset to talk about it. Or you can use the different bottles to teach how emotions feel in your body.
These cute Plushies can be used lots of different ways for different ages. For younger kids, you can use them to teach opposite emotions or practice matching the faces on the octopus to name feelings. You could even use them for teens as a way to nonverbally communicate if they aren’t feeling up to talking. Teens could set the angry octopus outside their door if they are in their room to communicate that they need space. Or place an octopus on the table in front of them while they are studying to communicate if they are up to chatting or not.
Additional Resources to Support Mindfulness
For more inspiration and specific activities, you can explore this Pinterest board on Mindfulness for Kids.We’ll keep adding to it as we discover more resources!
Additional Resources to Support Mindfulness
Introducing mindfulness into your kinship foster family’s life can have profound benefits for both children and caregivers. By nurturing mindfulness, you’re not only helping children cope with challenges but also fostering their emotional resilience and well-being. Remember, practicing mindfulness is a journey, and it’s okay to start small and gradually incorporate it into your daily routines.
Together, let’s create a nurturing environment where mindfulness becomes a natural part of how we support each other’s growth and healing.
