Exercising the senses often times in yoga and mindfulness, even therapy is referred to as GROUNDING. Of course barefoot walks, meditation, journaling, deep belly breathing all can help ground us as adults, but we sometimes need to be a little more playful when it comes to teaching grounding skills and mindfulness activities for kids.
Grounding skills help us become not only aware of our surroundings but also present, a key component in stress resilience and countering difficult and large emotions. Note: This means countering emotions, not stopping emotions.
Grounding through the senses presses pause on the stimulus response that a child might be experiencing. We are interrupting patterns by bringing their awareness back into the present moment. It is the mind’s way of telling the body to “look over here instead. Don’t fuss with that. Let’s see, feel, hear, and smell all of these things together.” Meanwhile, the hormones that surged to illicit some sort of anxious response or energy has run its course and the body can begin to find its counter response of peace and calm.
An excellent tool for you child’s toolbox is this one-minute grounding technique, a great way to incorporate a simple mindfulness activity for kids.
