#6: How to introduce meditation and mindfulness to kids with Rain Elizabeth Stickney
On this week’s episode we welcome Rain Elizabeth Stickney.
Rain Elizabeth is a spiritual counselor and meditation teacher in private practice who has been offering her services of presence and healing for over 15 years. Beginning in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, she now lives on the east coast moving from pandemic online offerings back into in person sessions and groups. Rain's life work is the continual integration of the four pillars of human experience: body, mind, heart, and spirit.
Resting in presence, she loves hiking through her 52 acres of wild land, adventuring with her son, and cuddling up with her life partner as they all learn and grow together over time. Her unique offering is based in compassion for all that is.
Listen in as Rain shares tips on how to introduce meditation to kids and how to encourage mindfulness at home. She also reveals the tools and practices she uses with her 9-year old son.
Connect with Rain here:
Website - https://rainelizabeth.org/
Instagram - @Picturesofpresence
Podcast - Every Moment is Sacred
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Takeaways:
- Meditating is a very regulating experience, all the way through physiology. When children get stressed or anxious, or upset about something, ask them to take a few deep breaths. Better yet, breathe together.
- Introduce meditation with a guided practice created specifically for children. It’s best to do it together as a family as a way to settle down at the end of the day.
- Nature is the best teacher of spirituality because kids can witness how time passes, yet life continues. They can notice a flower that sprouts from the ground and grows and blooms and sheds its petals, and then lays back down into the earth. And yet the flower is going to bloom again next year, it's not the end. It's a continuation.
- Even if you live in an urban area there are some ways to connect daily with the natural world. Growing plants on your balcony is a great example.
- Listening is a form of meditation. The practice of meditation is listening to oneself. A great tool for honing your kid’s listening skills is the talking stick. When you pass the talking stick around you know that the person who is holding the stick is the one who is speaking, and the other people are listening.
- An amazing tool for parents - find a listening partner - someone, who cares for you and you care for them. But not your spouse or life partner.,somebody else. exchange with that person listening time, share all the celebrations, all the hardships, just as they are, without judgment or hesitation. Tears are welcome, anger, all the bad language are also welcome, just get it all out in the presence of someone who sees the best in you, no matter what. What this will teach you is to learn to release and you will also gain the skill to hold that space for someone else.
- The next time your kids are shedding their tears or yelling, recognize that they're just having their emotional experience. and you’ll know that whatever the child says, it's not personal. They're just unloading feelings and emotions and some thoughts. And when the child is done with that expression they're going to be able to think more clearly. And your presence matters because it's the connection that gives the safety of the child, knowing that their whole self is valued.
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