wandering and you’re thinking about something else or
starting to worry, just go back to focusing on your breath.
Follow that wave of the in-breath and the out-breath.After a minute or so Andrea had Nicole open her eyes and sit up.
Andrea explained that this technique is a powerful way to calm the
mind and body. She told her to keep this exercise in her pocket for
when she needed it—for instance, just before the recital. If she
began to feel her heart pounding just before she played her violin,
she could return to thinking about her breath coming in and going
out, even with her eyes open.
You can see how a calming mindsight exercise like this could be
a simple but powerful tool to help a child deal with fears and other
challenging emotions. Plus, mindsight exercises lead to integration,
because as you know, where we focus our attention, neurons ɹre
and become active, then wire to other neurons. In this case, when
Andrea helped Nicole focus on her breath, she was not only
addressing her feelings of anxiety. She was also helping her
daughter return to her hub, so she could notice other parts of
herself and even physical sensations that she could then
intentionally change. So her neurons associated with mindfully
focusing on her breath became wired to her neurons related to
feelings of calm and well-being. She moved into a completely new
state of mind and was able to get back to her hub.
While this example focuses on an older, school-age child,
younger kids can beneɹt from mindsight exercises as well. Even as
young as four or ɹve, kids can learn to focus on their breath. A
good technique is to have them lie down and place a toy—like a
boat—on their stomach. Ask them to focus on the boat, watching it
rise and fall as it rides the waves of breath.
But we’re not suggesting that mindsight exercises require a
person to lie down and enter a meditative state. One of the best