Calm Kids

Calm Kids: Help Children Relax with Mindful Activities

“At school, we believe education should touch the whole child. This includes the physical, emotional, spiritual, social and cognitive aspects of the child’s life. We teach children quietness as a skill to reflect and recharge their inner lives. Lorraine Murray helped us on this journey.” —Sheila Laing, Head Teacher

Stress and behavioral disorders are common in children, who are increasingly bombarded by marketing campaigns, faced with school and peer pressure, and able to sense the stress of adults around them.

Mindfulness and meditation can help children recognize and cope with these pressures, releasing bad feelings gently and giving them simple tools to deal with tension and stress throughout their lives. In this practical and inspiring book, Lorraine Murray shows parents, teachers and youth workers how to lead fun and peaceful meditation sessions with children.

Lorraine explains a variety of different approaches, from meditations around daily activities for busy families, to ideas for group “quietness” sessions in schools. She provides fun, tactile rhymes for toddlers to help them calm down before bedtime, and suggests ways to help teenagers reduce anxiety. She goes on to explain how these methods can help children with ADHD and those on the autistic spectrum, giving a range of case studies.

This book is suitable for complete beginners, or those with some experience of relaxation and meditation techniques. It offers all the advice needed to lead sessions with children, whilst encouraging the reader to adapt and develop their own ways of helping children to feel calmer, happier and more peaceful.

C O N T E N T S:

1. What is Meditation?
2. Understanding Stress
3. The Benefits of Meditation for Children
4. Creating a Relaxing Environment
5. Energy and Meditation
6. Starting and Finishing Meditations
7. Different Types of Meditation
8. Writing and Developing Your Script
9. Top Tips for Teaching Meditation
10. Working with Different Age Groups
11. Meditation with Babies
12. Meditation for Toddlers
13. Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
14. Children on the Autistic Spectrum
15. Calming Methods for You
16. Beyond Meditation—Methods and Tools

About the Author

Lorraine E. Murray is Managing Director of holistic health company Feel Good Therapies. Since 2003, she has taught meditation and relaxation methods to all ages and levels and has worked with Maggie’s centers for cancer, numerous primary and secondary schools, commercial corporations, and individual families. She is passionate about helping children strengthen their self-esteem through meditation and mindfulness, and about empowering adults to help them.