Meditation and Relaxation

Meditation is concentration and gaining control over your mind and life. The procedure is simple, yet often difficult to master. You can focus on your breathing, a mantra, an object or have a guided meditation and maintain that concentration for as long as you can.

Meditation creates mental clarity and generally improves your life. It is a process that leads to a state of consciousness which brings serenity, clarity and bliss and is important in balancing today’s busy and stressful lifestyle. The deeper you meditate the more you know about yourself and true knowledge presents itself.

Relaxation Exercises:

Lie on the floor and feel the hardness of the floor beneath your back, feel your muscles start to sink into the floor, relax.

Now be aware of your feet in your shoes/socks, wiggle your toes slowly, now tense them up, make them stiff, hold, now release.

Feel the balls of your feet, push them out and away from your body and push hard, hold, now release.

Be aware of your breathing; breathe in and out through your nose slowly. Breathe.

Now be aware of the muscles in the backs of your legs, hold them tight, real tight, hold, now release, it feels like your legs are also melting into the floor, you are starting to feel so relaxed.

In your mind move up towards your tummy and feel your back also. Squeeze all those muscles in tightly, hold, take a deep breath in, now let go of your breath and release your muscles too.

Now feel the muscles in your fingers hold them tightly together, make a fist, squeeze, squeeze, release.

The muscles in your arms and shoulders and neck, pull them in too, hard, take a deep breath and release all those muscles.

Now finally tighten your face, pull a screwed up face, pull harder, go on, harder, aaahhhh now release. Your whole body is now in total relaxation.

Meditation/Visualisation: 1

A simple visualisation for children is to ask them to think of themselves as a tree.

Ask them to picture roots growing from their feet and going down into the earth, as far as they can.

Then ask them to think of their body as being the trunk of the tree and their arms and head the branches. Suggest they grow more branches and to make the tree as thick and as tall as they wish it to be.

Then ask them to put lots of leaves on the tree and maybe some fruit and flowers. Suggest also that they might take care of some birds, and allow them to eat some of the fruit, and maybe there are butterflies too.

The idea of this short meditation/visualization is to focus their energy on the ground, which brings many children back from the ‘dreamy’ state and brings them ‘down to earth’. This is a good one to start the day.

Meditation/Visualisation: 2

Prior to bed, a good meditation is to ask your child to walk to a beautiful garden and meet their angel.

Suggest that they picture themselves walking towards a gate, they open the gate and the first thing they see is a big tree. On the tree they need to picture themselves placing a sheet/s of paper with all their worries. The tree will take care of them, and they won’t need to be bothered with them again.

Then ask them to walk on a path towards the garden. Suggest that as they walk they are joined by angels, the number is not important, they can be male or female and it is possible that it could be someone they know. Tell them that they are never alone, that these angels walk with them every day and guide them.

As they enter the garden, it is filled with flowers, lizards, insects and birds and it is a most beautiful place for them to explore. Ask them to look around and spend time there, they may like to skip and dance in the garden and you might suggest that they play with the angels.

After a time, ask them to leave the garden and walk back up the pathway towards the gate. They may like to have a few words with their angels and as they pass the tree, they leave their worries there and know they are being cared for. Ask them to wave goodbye to the angels, the garden and the tree and come back to their bed.

Your child should be happy and relaxed and ready to sleep.

Page updated 22 Aug 2007