Mindful Breathing

Take a breath. It sounds so simple, and yet we often rush through our days without pausing to notice a single breath. Mindful breathing is an important part of each mindfulness lesson at school. Before we started we found our anchor spot.  We did this by placing our hand in three different spots (belly, chest, and in front of our nose) and noticing where our breath felt the strongest. We can use this as our anchor spot. Just as a boat comes back to its anchor spot if it drifts too far, we use our anchor spot to gently bring us back to our breath when our mind wanders. We might have to do this again and again and that is OK. Noticing that the mind has wandered and kindly bringing it back to the breath is the practice of mindfulness breathing.

Family Challenge:  Find a time during the day when you can practice mindful breathing. This could be first thing in the morning, right after school, or before you have a snack. You can pause for one big mindful breath, 3 breaths, or time yourself for 30 seconds or a minute. Remember that it takes practice and to be kind to yourself.