Mindful Listening with Ange

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Mindful Listening

A 10 minute activity for the whole family

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is paying attention to what is happening in our experience via the senses as well as observing our thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness allows us to:

Pay attention to our experience in such a way where we can respond and not react to a difficult situation.
Engage in positive states of mind that come from the heart like kindness and compassion.

We spend a long time strengthening our intelligence in school and bodies through sports but we give very little attention to the mind.

Mobile phones, social media and video games all train the mind to move quickly, which is detrimental for the mind's development.

When we strengthen our mind through mindfulness we increase our ability to:

Focus and concentrate
Manage emotion through self regulation
Make better decisions
Decrease feelings of stress, anxiety and depression
Empathise in our relationships

Mindful Listening with Angela (10 mins)

The duration of the practice can vary based on the child's age and attention span. Shorten the practice accordingly, especially if they are younger in age.

Even 30 seconds to 1 minute of mindful activity can be beneficial.

All you will need is your own singing bowl that has a nice long resonance like our Full Moon Singing bowls.

Using the red mallet is particularly potent in capturing and focusing attention to practice mindful listening.

Note: If you are experiencing issues playing the video click here

A script for teaching Mindfulness of sound to your kids

Get into a comfortable position where you can relax, seated or lying down.
Gently closing the eyes or take the gaze down the nose.
Start to listen to the sounds outside of the room…. animals, traffic, birds singing (pause 10 seconds)
Noticing the direction of the sound…. is it close or further away (pause 10 seconds)
Now bring your attention to the sounds inside of the room, the sound of the humming heater, cooler, others perhaps moving…. (pause 10 seconds)
Now bring your awareness to the sound of the bowl……(sound the bowl - let the sound of the bowl drown out)... noticing where the sounds of the bowl begin and end. Play the bowl three times letting the sounds dissipate each time.
Noticing the sounds arise in your awareness before slowly moving out into silence (Pause 10 seconds)
Now open up to other sounds, those outside of the room (observe what you can hear and highlight those sounds for your children)…..notice the sounds inside the room…… (pause 10 seconds) Noticing the volumes of these sounds, are they close or further away in the distance
Perhaps even the sounds of others breathing or your very own breath (pause 5 seconds)
On your next inhale take an extra deep breath and exhale through the mouth. Gently bringing in movement into your body…. Wiggling the toes and fingers, stretching the arms up and over head……..before rising up to seated.

Ask your kids:

How do you feel?
Did you find it challenging to just listen to the sounds?
Did you notice thoughts coming into your awareness?
Where you able to come back to the sound

If you did notice thoughts it’s completely normal. The mind will naturally wander…. this is natural, and what the mind has been doing since we were really young. Know this is ok, time and practice is all it takes to make mind training your superpower. What you’re beginning to develop is observing a single thing for an extended period of time.