A woman and her husband are taking their young child for a little stroll in the woods, as part of a mindfulness exercise for helping kids process big emotions.
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Mindfulness Exercises for Kids: Helping Them Process Big Emotions

Emotional literacy is a crucial skill for children, enabling them to identify, understand, and manage their feelings. Mindfulness exercises can be incredibly effective tools for helping kids process big emotions like anger, sadness, or anxiety. By teaching mindfulness, parents and educators can empower children to navigate their emotional landscapes with greater ease and resilience. Here are some simple mindfulness exercises specifically designed for kids.

Belly Breathing

Belly breathing is a foundational mindfulness exercise that helps children connect with their breath and calm their minds. Here’s how to practice it:

Instructions:

  • Have the child sit or lie down comfortably.
  • Place a small stuffed animal on their belly.
  • Instruct them to breathe deeply through their nose, watching the stuffed animal rise as they fill their belly with air.
  • As they exhale through their mouth, encourage them to visualise the stuffed animal sinking back down.
  • Repeat this for a few minutes.

Benefits: This exercise teaches kids to focus on their breath, grounding them in the present moment and reducing feelings of anxiety or overwhelm (Kabat-Zinn, 2003).

Emotion Wheel

An emotion wheel is a visual tool that helps children identify and articulate their emotions. You can create a colourful wheel with different emotions represented.

Instructions:

  • Ask the child to colour or decorate the wheel.
  • When they experience a strong emotion, encourage them to point to or choose the emotion on the wheel that best represents their feelings.
  • Discuss the emotion they chose and brainstorm ways to cope with it.

Benefits: This exercise promotes emotional awareness and vocabulary, allowing children to communicate their feelings effectively (Goleman, 1995).

Mindful Observation

This exercise encourages children to focus their attention entirely on a single object. It can be done with any item, but a natural object like a leaf or stone works remarkably well.

Instructions:

  • Give the child a leaf or stone and ask them to observe it carefully.
  • Encourage them to look at its colours, textures, and shapes.
  • Ask questions like, “What do you notice?” and “How does it feel in your hand?”
  • After a few minutes, have them share their observations.

Benefits: Mindful observation cultivates focus and attention, helping kids learn to slow down and appreciate the present moment (Siegel, 2012).

Gratitude Jar

Creating a gratitude jar encourages children to focus on the positives in their lives, which can help balance out negative emotions.

Instructions:

  • Provide the child with a jar and colourful paper.
  • Encourage them to write down or draw things they are thankful for on small pieces of paper and place them in the jar.
  • Set a regular time (e.g., weekly) to read the notes together.

Benefits: This exercise shifts focus from negative emotions to positive experiences, fostering a more optimistic outlook (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).

Rainbow Walk

This mindfulness exercise combines movement with observation and is a fun way for kids to engage with their surroundings.

Instructions:

  • Take a walk with the child and encourage them to find items in nature that correspond to the colours of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet).
  • As they find each colour, ask them to pause and observe what they see, hear, and feel.

Benefits: The Rainbow Walk promotes mindfulness in nature, enhancing awareness of the environment while providing a calming effect (Louv, 2005).

Conclusion

Mindfulness exercises can be powerful tools for helping children process big emotions. By incorporating practices like belly breathing, using an emotion wheel, engaging in mindful observation, maintaining a gratitude jar, and enjoying a rainbow walk, kids can learn to navigate their feelings with greater awareness and resilience. Teaching these skills supports emotional regulation and fosters a lifelong appreciation for mindfulness.

References

  • Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
  • Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Bantam Books.
  • Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Context: Past, Present, and Future. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 144-156.
  • Louv, R. (2005). Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Algonquin Books.
  • Siegel, D. J. (2012). The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are. Guilford Press.

If you think you can benefit from professional support on this issue, you can reach out here.

Yasmine Bonnici  has obtained a degree in nursing (Hons) and a Masters in Counselling (Melit) from the University of Malta.She was drawn to counselling because she felt that in the medical field, there is a tendency to focus on one’s physical needs and neglect the psychological aspect. Thus, this led to her to achieve her temporary warrant in counselling.

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