Meditation For Kids And Teenagers: Reasons To Teach, Benefits, And Easy Techniques To Try

You have probably learned how to meditate in your 20’s, 30’s, or even later in life. There’s nothing wrong about it. You live and you learn and better late than never, especially when it’s about something as valuable as the ability and skill to meditate. 

Imagine how great it would be if you were taught to meditate as a kid or in your teens. How much stress it would have helped you to avoid and how well you would know yourself before you grew into adulthood. 

We know kids to be noisy and playful and teenagers to be stressed and hard to deal with. Why not teach them the lifelong skill of meditation? 

You may be skeptical about kids and teenagers meditating. But believe us when we tell you it is completely possible to teach your children how to meditate. All you need is a proper approach. 

Reasons to teach your child how to meditate
Teaching kids and teenagers how to meditate may not be the easiest task. But here are three valid reasons to undertake that mission. 

1. They will get better and better at it with age. Meditation is a mental process rather than a physical one. And anything mental is generally more difficult to learn than anything physical. Teaching children such a powerful skill early in their lives will set the foundation for something great they can achieve later on. The more they grow, the better they will get the hang of meditation and will benefit more and more from it. A person who meditates since their childhood is more likely to always have it in their routine. 

2. They will learn to regulate their emotions. Even with us adults, meditation helps immensely to control our emotions and decrease stress and anxiety levels. Children suffer from stress more than adults. As they grow, they encounter a lot of challenges in their daily lives even though we often fail to notice it. Meditation teaches kids and teenagers core emotional regulation techniques. This helps them be less stressed and anxious. Unfortunately, we can’t always be by their side physically. Children who know how to meditate can calm themselves and suffer fewer negative emotions. 

Additionally, children are not always able to express their thoughts and emotions. Teaching them how to monitor and observe their emotions helps avoid stress build-up. 

3 They will unplug from technology. Whether you want it or not, kids and teenagers nowadays spend more time on devices than we would want them to. Even a short meditative practice will help calm their mind and eyes. They will become more mindful of their surroundings and themselves and will take a step back from the virtual world. 

The benefits of meditation for children
Achieving peace and serenity around the house is one weighty reason to teach children how to meditate. But this comes as a bonus for adults as meditation for kids has quite a few amazing benefits for the little ones themselves. 

Don’t expect a meditating kid to be in zen mode all the time. That is, obviously, unrealistic. Instead, expect the following benefits for kids and teenagers who meditate. 

• Fewer mood swings
• Better sleep
• Improved focus and attention
• Creativity
• Improved memory 
• Improved emotional stability

What is the earliest age to teach children how to meditate?
One needs maturity to understand the real point of meditating. With this said, you can start teaching your child easy meditation techniques as soon as they are 4 years of age. 

But not every kid can and should meditate. If you are trying to get your kid to meditate and have no luck, don’t stress about it too much. Take a break and give it another go when you feel like he or she is ready. You may need to wait for a few years before your child is even interested in such practices. Additionally, you may need to put in a lot of effort until you find a practice that they feel like trying. 

For younger children, make the practices seem like a game and don’t call it meditation if the word itself makes them reluctant. 

5 Easy and Efficient Meditations for Kids and Teenagers
Before we tell you about some amazing meditation practices to try out with your kids, here’s the best advice we can give you. Meditate with your children. Children always learn better when they have an example to follow. 

No matter what meditation technique you choose to teach your children, we recommend that you always start with some theory. Tell them about the connection between their mind and body and why it is important to meditate. Be patient and make your explanations child-friendly. 

Here are some easy meditation practices to teach your younger companions. 

Breathing meditation
Breathing exercises are a good point to start teaching kids and teenagers how to meditate. Aside from spending a few minutes a day meditating through breathwork, children can also learn to use breathing techniques to calm themselves whenever they feel stressed at school, in the park, at a friend's place, etc. 
For breathing meditation, tell the children to sit comfortably, relax, and close their eyes. They should then breathe so deeply as to hear their breath and feel how their body moves. Concentrating on their breath alone and feeling it will help them unwind. 

Mindfulness meditation
Meditation is a great tool to develop mindfulness in children. One easy way to practice mindfulness with kids and teenagers is to guide them to notice things – textures, smells, colors, thoughts that come and go, feelings, etc. 

Counting meditation
During this meditation, the child should lie or sit comfortably and close their eyes. Tell them to count from 100 to 1 or whatever number they can count up. When counting, the child should stay focused on the numbers and not think about other things. If they do, they should start again. The point is to reach 1 without getting distracted. 

Silent meditation
With kids, every adult dreams of silence. Performing various activities in silence is a type of meditation you can do with children. You can practice silent walking, eating, arranging their desk or playroom in silence, or just sitting still and remaining silent. 

Thought bubbles meditation
Similar to adults, children have a lot of thoughts running in their heads constantly. Teach them to notice these thoughts and differentiate them – ideas, memories, questions, new pieces of information, etc. 

Tell the child to imagine each thought as a bubble and how they pop them to make them disappear. The thought that can’t be ‘popped’ is the exact thought that causes the child to worry a lot and get anxious. Teach the child to notice those bubbles and just blow them away if they can’t ‘pop them. The fewer thoughts remain in their head the better.

During this practice, you can listen to calming music and do some breathwork. Whenever a new thought bubble comes to their head, they should blow it away with the help of a few deep breaths.