Wildflower Safari
29 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in All Relaxation Activities, Relaxing in Nature
Visit the local library or bookstore to find a book about the wildflowers native to your region. After looking it over with your child, go on a wildflower safari. Load up the digital camera and head out for the nearest meadow or forest to scout the beautiful flowers. Keep in mind the season and which flowers are best observed during the particular time of year. Take the camera to capture the beauty. Later at home, you can create an on-line album or print the pictures to make a scrapbook. Pay attention to the various parts of the flower, its color, scent and location. Talk to your child about why he/she thinks the flower grows in that spot and the flower’s experience living in that area. Notice what kinds of flowers grow together and the surrounding plants. Pay attention to the ecosystem and how all of the living things are interconnected in that space.
Here is a guided imagery exercise to practice on your safari or afterwards when you return home:
Feel the Beauty of the Flower Inside
- Take three deep breaths in. Feel your tummy expand like a balloon as your breathe in. Feel your tummy fall down flat as you breathe out.
- Concentrate on making your body relaxed, feel each part and see how relaxed it can be.
- Now imagine that you are a flower. Your roots grow down into the earth and your leaves reach out on each side of you. (pause) You are growing in the sunlight. Feel the warm sun on your leaves and the deep soft earth between your toes/your roots.
- See what color your petals are. Notice the shape of your petals. See if you want your petals to be soft, slick or sticky. Imagine that you are swaying a little in the breeze.
- You are a very beautiful flower. Every part of you is connected. You are getting food from the earth, light from the sun and rain from the clouds. You are completely taken care of right where you are. Everything you need is there for you. Breathe in the beauty. Imagine that this beauty is a blue light. Breathe this blue light down to your toes. Now breathe it up to your ears.
- You have breathed that beautiful blue light into every part of you now. You have the beauty of the flower inside you now. You are very beautiful. You have everything you need right now, in this moment.
- You can open your eyes when you are ready.
Magnified Hearing
29 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in All Relaxation Activities, Relaxing in Nature
This activity is great for increasing attention and listening ability. This activity supports children in heightening their awareness of their environment, paying attention to details and auditory discrimination (which is the ability to pay attention to one sound and to tune out all the rest). Furthermore, with this activity, you are teaching mindfulness which means you are pulling your attention into the moment to focus on the present. This is an essential ability that enhances one’s relaxation response.
Magnified hearing can be done in the backyard, while on a hike, or playing in the park. The central necessary ingredient is being in a space where there are abundant nature sounds.
Steps:
- Pretend that you are going to use your ears to listen like you would use a magnifying glass to see. You are going to pretend that your ears have giant listening ability.
- Use a stopwatch to collect your sound specimens. Explain that for twenty seconds you are going to pay attention to one sound that you hear. It can be a tree, wind, bird, grass, animal, water, etc. . . sound. See what you hear, but only collect one sound specimen at a time. Only listen for one sound.
- Collect the specimen for twenty seconds and then share with others what sound you collected. Pause after each specimen is shared to allow everyone in the group to focus on that sound.
- Repeat until many sounds are collected
Hug a Tree Relay
29 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in All Relaxation Activities, Relaxing in Nature
While you are generating an appreciation for the outdoor world, try establishing a circle of love within your awareness. See how nature is constantly giving and receiving.
When we stop to hug a tree, we can practice mindfulness. Some thoughts to consider and feelings to experience while hugging a tree:
- Think about the weather and seasons that the tree has experienced in that very spot
- Feel the strength within the tree trunk, its power and stability Can you connect with that same strength within yourself in this moment?
- Think about how the tree is deeply connected to the earth
- Think about all that a tree gives: shade, home to insects and other animals, oxygen to the air, beauty to the environment
Hug a Tree Relay
Find a spot where there are many trees. Use a timer to see how many trees you can really hug in 10 seconds, 20 seconds, and 1 minute. Discuss the outcome. After the relay, pause to really connect with your “favorite tree of the moment.” Consider the points listed above and then discuss your experience with others.
Variation: Musical Hug a Tree
Sing or whistle a tune. When you stop everyone must be hugging a tree. Anyone not hugging a tree is “it” and must whistle and sing the next tune.
Progressive Relaxation Resources
29 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
Websites:
http://www.yourfamilyclinic.com/adhd/relax.htm
http://www.hypnos.co.uk/hypnomag/jacobson.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_muscle_relaxation
http://www.mgh.harvard.edu/bhi/ (background information)
http://www.yourfamilyclinic.com/pro/trelax.htm (specifically for the classroom)
Books:
Ready, Set, R.E.L.A.X.
A Research Based Program of Relaxation, Learning and Self Esteem for Children
by Jeffrey S. Allen, M.ED. and Roger J. Klein, Psy.D
The Ready, Set, Relax program is designed to help reduce children’s stress and anxiety by means of progressive muscle relaxation, active imagination (guided visualization) techniques, and positive self-talk. An adult reads the motivating visualization scripts aloud, (scripts include such topics as “Toy Store Trip” and “Time Travel”), while the children relax and listen, meanwhile learning self-calming techniques that they can use anytime.
This stress-intervention program can be used at home, in school, counseling groups, and hospital or clinical settings. Recommended for use with children aged six through twelve. Paperback. 190 pages.
Cool Cats, Calm Kids
Relaxation and Stress Management for Young People. Written by Mary L. Williams, Illustrated by Dianne O’Quinn Burke
This clever book tells us that cats have nine secrets for keeping cool and calm, and then reveals them to us one by one, showing us how to relax like cats. A fun introduction to stress management. Expressive black and white drawings. 27 pages. Paperback.
Progressive Relaxation: The Butterfly On My Nose
29 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in All Relaxation Activities, Progressive Relaxation
This poem was written as a progressive relaxation for relaxing the face. Preschoolers and toddlers can listen to an adult read it and perform the actions included as it is read. Tell children to pretend like there is a butterfly on their nose and to listen carefully.
The Butterfly on My Nose
There’s a butterfly on my nose, oh no!
It tickles and flutters, makes me wrinkle it so!
I wiggle and wiggle and wiggle my nose
And up, up and away it goes!
Whew, I relax my face
And watch the butterfly dance, swirl around the place
I breathe real deep and watch it go,
I breathe real deep and relax just so.
Uh oh, there’s a butterfly on my nose once again.
I squint with my eyes and scrunch my forehead
Ah, there it flies away again.
I relax my eyes and my forehead.
Whew, I relax my face
And watch the butterfly dance, swirl around the place
I breathe real deep and watch it go,
I breathe real deep and relax just so.
Oh no, there’s a butterfly on my nose!!!!!
How did it get there and rest so close?
I smile real big, make my cheeks spread out
Away it dances and floats about.
Whew, I relax my face
And watch the butterfly dance, swirl around the place
I breathe real deep and watch it go,
I breathe real deep and relax just so.
My face feels relaxed, the wrinkles are smoothed out.
As I watch the pretty butterfly, I calm me down.
I rest my eyes, my forehead and cheeks,
My mouth, my nose, and even my teeth!
My face is smooth, the wrinkles are gone.
I’m ready to listen and learn, my ears are turned on.
Drum Your Story
29 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in All Relaxation Activities, Relaxing with Music
The power of drumming has been known for centuries as a method for expression as well as release. So, get your drums out and open to the freedom of expression!
When I work with students in the schools, we sit in a circle and share one drum. You can share, have your own drums, and explore using other types of percussion instruments. The idea is to create a safe place for expression and sharing. Simply allow yourself to open and express, making whatever comes forth okay!
Steps:
1. Take some deep breaths to get centered
2. Play around with the drum a bit. Try out different rhythms. Play echo–where each person has to echo a rhythm that the other created.
3. Practice drumming out the expression of emotions. Try drumming sad, happy, joyful, peaceful, thankful, etc. . . .
4. Then, tell your child that you are going to drum the story of your morning, or your day, or a specific experience that you would like to work with. Drum out a rhythm that expresses how your day went. Then ask your child to do the same. Allow him/her to select the story that he/she would like to drum.
Variation: Getting a Common Rhythm and Setting Intention
- Explain to your child what an intention is. Tell him/her that an intention is what you expect to happen and you use it to guide your planned actions. Give an example: it might be our intention in this moment to generate feelings of peace within ourselves.
- Get quiet for a moment and turn your attention inside to determine what your intention is for this drumming experience.
- Share the intentions you are each setting for the experience.
- Take some deep breaths and allow yourself to start drumming a rhythm. Allow your body to feel. Tell the body that it is its turn to express. Ask your mind to be quiet for a moment in order that you might hear what the body wants to say. Keep going even if your mind is telling you that the sound isn’t “right,okay, or musical.” If you keep with it, soon your bodies will begin to take over and your mind will get more quiet.
- Stay with the rhythm until you begin to feel peace inside, or if that doesn’t happen, just stay with it until you feel different than before, realizing that whatever happens is just what needs to happen in this moment.
- Discuss after your experience if you felt different before and after the drumming experience. Also take note how you feel now about your intention, if you feel that you experienced it or not.
- Finally, check in with your heart to see what is there. What sort of feelings or ideas are arriving in this moment?
Laughing Meditation: Speak Gibberish
29 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
Did you ever speak an invented foreign language as a kid, pretending you were from the planet Myville and only you could decipher the intense special language you were speaking? I know that I would speak in a made-up tongue, delighting in the fact that I was the only one who truly understood what I was saying, (also watching the exasperation of the adults around me as they tried to figure out what in the world I was doing).
Speaking gibberish can be hilarious when you are doing it with passion and acting as if you are in competition for the next academy award.
Steps:
Explain to your children that gibberish is “made up language”. You can speak all kinds of nonsense syllables and act as if you are truly communicating to the other person. Use hand gestures in addition to your speech in order to convey your message. It helps to think in your head of what it is that you are trying to say as you create nonsense sounds to express yourself. Here are some ideas to speak gibberish about:
*Act as if they just ran over your favorite toy with the car
*Tell them about a horrible haircut you just received
*Ask them to clean up after a pet accident in the house
*Sing them a lullaby and put them to sleep
*Explain that you love their new wardrobe
*Relate your disgust at a new food for dinner
*Tell them the story about your cat being stuck in a tree and rescued by the fire department
*Show them how to clean the birdcage or fish tank
Laughing Meditation: Many Ways To Laugh
29 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
This activity is perfect for stimulating laughter in kids. As we know, laughter is contagious and produces many feelings of well-being, including relaxation. You only have to observe the merriment of others in order to begin to feel it yourself. Experiment with these different kinds of laughs to get the giggles rolling.
1. Laugh like a hyenna.
2. Laugh like Santa Clause.
3. Laugh your squeakiest laugh.
4. Laugh your snort laugh.
5. Laugh like you’re stuck in a hole in the ground.
6. Laugh your best echo laugh.
7. Laugh your silliest laugh.
8. Laugh like your nose is plugged.
9. Laugh like you are tied to a tree and someone is tickling your toes with a feather.
10. Laugh like you’re the jolly green giant.
Laughter Milkshake
29 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
Watch the giggles explode as you drink many laughter milkshakes. Explain to kids that you are going to mix your own laughter milkshake. Hold your pretend glass in your hand. Imagine that you are going to pour in as many funny thoughts as you can. Think of times when you were really laughing hysterically, the funniest times you have had. Put those thoughts into your milkshake. Shake it all around. Now drink it up and feel your body start to laugh. Allow the laugh to take over your body. Laugh and laugh some more. Drink three laughter milkshakes and watch everybody else as they drink theirs and begin to laugh too. Mix one up whenever you feel the need for some laugh relief.
Kids’ Laughter Club
29 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
There are currently over 5000 laugher clubs around the world. Laughter clubs began as a result of laughter yoga, which was founded in 1995 by Dr. Madan Kataria, (http://www.laughteryoga.org/), a physician in India.
Start a laughter club. Start it in your home for the neighborhood kids. Get together once a week, (more if you’d like), and play laughing games. Stimulate the physiological response of happiness in yourself and others.
Some ideas for club activities include:
- Read a funny book, a joke book, a cartoon strip, or other funny printed material.
- Drink a laughter milkshake.
- Speak gibberish.
- Experiment with different kinds of laughs
- Have a funny faces contest
Recent Comments