This month our guest writer is Sarah-Rose from Heart Of Play! Sarah-Rose is a mama and a teacher who loves all things play. She is a beautiful advocate for child-led learning and is here to share some insights with us on mindfulness.
Are you prone to being mind-full? Mind-full is where you are in a constant state of overthinking and over planning. Your thoughts are mostly focused on the future and all the things you need to do. It can lead to chaos if you’re not careful. It’s especially easily to do as a busy parent and I’m definitely guilty of being mind-full more often than I’d like to admit.
Being mindful on the other hand is more about the present moment. It’s about being in the here and the now. Are you tuning your thoughts into the present? Or spending it rehashing the past/ worrying about the future?
This month I decided to set myself the challenge of being less “mind-full” and more ‘mindful’. I started a play prompt on Instagram that is all about promoting moments of being connected and present with your children through play.
Play can be so healing for all of us! It is not only fun but it also allows us time to slow down and live more in the moment. Children are the masters of this! They live for the here and now everyday. They joyfully explore life. They are brave, taking on all of life’s many challenges with their emotions right on the surface. I often think to myself ‘How beautiful it must be to live in this way?’
The truth is that you can if you really want to! The power of your mind is incredible and if you can tap into living in the present moment more the better you’ll became at doing it and the better you will feel.
You can achieve mindfulness through breathing techniques and visualisation. Some people call it meditation or breath work, others prayer but whatever you call it, it really works!
When I first started using breathing techniques with my 2 year old I wasn’t confident that it was going to achieve much but now nearly two years on he’s so incredibly confident in using breathing to self regulate his emotions. He sometimes goes away to his room to “have some space” and I know that means he’s taking his rainbow breaths or holding onto one of his calming rocks.
Mindfulness can be incorporated into your daily life with your children as part of your routine. For us it involves things like reminding our children to breathe through big emotions, getting outside as much as we can and appreciating life’s simple things.
Sarah-Rose @HeartOfPlay
