Why meditate with your child?
Meditating with your child connects with their world of experience
Meditation is not only a useful tool for adults; meditating with children also makes a difference for them from an early age. In fact, meditating with your child is often easier and more effective for them, because their world is filled with stories and messages that are passed on through storytelling. Books, magazines, teaching materials, series, films, and games still appeal to their imagination and often contain hidden messages that unconsciously influence your child's way of thinking and looking at the world and themselves. As a result, they pick up a lot without realizing it and sometimes adopt views and ways of thinking that are different from what is taught and passed on within the family. You suddenly notice this because your child behaves or speaks in a way that is different from what you would expect.
In many ways, this is a blessing. It gives your child the opportunity to adopt a different way of being than you, as a parent, know and are familiar with. This allows your child to break certain family patterns and create opportunities for themselves that were not previously possible within the family.
Rejecting the world
It may also be that all these influences cause the child to reject the world. The child does not feel at home in it because their way of being does not fit into the conventional picture. They may then withdraw or become extremely present.
It is also possible that they become so overwhelmed by this that they start to think that they and their desires do not matter. The child then makes itself small and invisible and does not take up the space it deserves and needs in order to develop fully. They may also start to underperform or no longer dare to dream.
How meditating with your child can make a difference
You can use children's meditations to help your child:
- to learn to listen to their inner selves,
- to learn to relax, wherever the child is,
- to see how special they really are,
- to learn what they can do themselves when they have anxious thoughts,
- rid themselves of stimuli,
- to create a positive world for themselves.
Whatever adjustments your child makes or whatever path they unconsciously choose, you can help them get more out of themselves with simple, effective tools. Meditations for children are an excellent tool to consciously use when your child needs it. You can then help them to think and feel differently, without them perhaps realizing it. And if you know how to change their emotions, their behavior and self-image will automatically change too.
Precisely because these meditations respond to children's world, they can often achieve what you, as a loving parent, cannot. This is because the message often does not come from a human being, but from an animal or fantasy figure. There is no ingrained image of how they see and experience you or other adults. The threshold is lower, making it easier to achieve change and results.
So take some time to explore meditation with your child. What would suit your child? And at what time of day can you both make time to sit down and do children's meditation?
Then look for meditations for children that suit your child and allow both of you to enjoy the process.
12 meditations for children
Book The Magic Bow
You may also want to consider the book"De Magische Boog" (The Magic Bow)by Eef Bonkoffsky. It not only contains 12 meditations to read aloud to your child, but also includes a QR code that allows you to listen to the children's meditations together. This way, you can experience the meditation yourself and not only help your child, but also yourself. You can grow together and discuss what each of you has experienced. This makes the help you offer your child by meditating with them a moment of enjoyment that you can both look forward to.
