Grounding

Mindfulness provides us with simple and practical tools to work directly with our nervous system, helping us regulate emotional states and focus our attention (you can read more about the benefits of mindfulness here, here, and here).

Mindfulness is the act of bringing your consciousness to the present moment. It is about not allowing your mind to take you elsewhere - either to the future or the past. Mindfulness is about being aware of your present moment. The Here and Now.

There are many exercises that help both children and adults become aware of their present moment.

One of the most popular mindfulness exercises is the 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding exercise, where we utilize our 5 senses to bring our awareness back to the here and now. I like to use my face with little children to remind them of the sensations:

Think of our brain like a talented storyteller, who wishes to share with us various stories. Think of these stories as our thoughts.

What does every storyteller need? An audience who pays attention! To make sure the audience is listening, our mind spices up the stories with details - sometimes these details are magnificent, and other times they are nasty and scary stories about the future or the past.

By utilizing our senses, we remind our mind that we are in control of what we are attentive to - we will not listen to the scary stories about the future or the past, but instead will focus on our surroundings and our present moment.

We will notice what we can see around us, we become attentive to the different sounds we hear, we observe the sensations on our skin, we note the flavours we taste, and distinguish any smells.

Download these child-friendly posters for your own home, in full colour and low colour, in both English and Greek!

Bonus idea: perhaps try this exercise with the child’s calming place in mind instead of the actual place? There your child can notice the different sensations! Will they pick the sea? Or a forest perhaps? Is it the park? Or an imaginary place?