Have your tried the pumpkin deep breathing exercise?
Deep breathing exercises to support mindfulness and coping skills works in several different ways-
When children are taught about how their body feels and reacts in certain situations, they can self-reflect on past responses.
They can better understand who they are and how their body reacts to stressful or sensory situations.
By better understanding their states of regulation, they can be mindful of things that may set them off, but better yet, know how to respond.
Having a coping strategy on hand can set them up for success in learning or social situations for life.
Mindfulness is the ability and awareness of thoughts, feelings, and sensations as our body responds or reacts in thought, feeling, and sensations. It is being present in the moment in any given situation with full awareness of inward and outward sensations. Practicing mindful awareness through deep breathing exercises is a great way to notice how our body is reacting in a given moment and so easy to do.
Taking steady breaths with deep breathing can enable children to have a sense of control that helps them rest and when they are upset, worried, or feel a need to calm down.
So let's try this out!
Use a real pumpkin if possible for more sensory benefits.
The small pumpkins children can hold in their hands and feel the weight of the pumpkin are perfect. Ask the children how they are feeling right now at the start of the exercise.
Hold a small pumpkin in the palm of your hand.
Use your pointer finger of your other hand to slowly trace up a ridge and breathe in.
Then trace down another ridge and breathe out.
Continue tracing the ridges of the pumpkin while deeply breathing in and out.
Take the breathing exercise a step further by trace the lines up toward the stem while taking a deep breath in. Hold the breath for a few seconds and then trace a line down another section of the pumpkin while slowly breathing out. Hold that breath for a few seconds. Repeat this process as you slowly trace up and down the sections of the pumpkin.
Ask this children how they are feeling after the exercise.
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