What is Mindfulness?

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom” – Victor Frankl

Mindfulness is simply… noticing what is happening right now.

Mindfulness is taking notice of how your body feels and what you see, smell and taste. 

What happens when you start noticing these sensations?

When you notice what is happening around you, you focus more deeply, improve your attention to your surroundings and begin to allow yourself to become in control of your emotions. 

It can help you to calm down when you’re sad, angry or frustrated. Mindfulness helps you deal with tough emotions, and mindfulness can make you happy and feel good. Mindfulness can also ..

• Help us create space between the emotions we have and the response we have to them.
• Mindfulness can make us feel better emotionally and physically.
• Mindfulness can help us to sleep better
• Decrease stress and anxiety
• Better problem solving 

See the below resources to give mindfulness a try!

Quick mindfulness activities to try at home!

• Finger painting is a great sensory activity to try at home.
• Colouring is fun and relaxing for children and adults.
• Meditation is very relaxing. Check out YouTube for guided meditation!
• Lego building is a great form of play therapy.
• Play dough or playing with sand.
• Yoga and stretching. 
• Cloud watching.
• Children will love to do a ‘noticing walk’. We can walk along noticing things we haven’t seen before and then have one minute where we are completely silent and pay attention to all the sounds we can hear, such as birds singing etc.