The cultivation of attention and awareness
Being Present
How can we help our children deal with frustration and anxiety? Help them find time to relax, switch off and be bored?
Eline Snel, founder of the International Academy for Mindful Teaching and author Sitting Still like a Frog, has develop a method of ‘Mindfulness Matters’ to help children and adolescent achieve inner calm, increase attenion span & focus and build confidence.
“Children, of course, are naturally mindful, in the sense, that they live very much in the present moment and are so preoccupied with the past and the future. The most important thing we can do is not to kill that natural quality of openness and presence but reinforce it and invite it to continue to develop”
“They will need to know how to pay attention, how to focus, and concentrate, how to listen and how to learn, and how to be in wise relationship with themselves – including their own thoughts and emotions – and with others.”
“The world nowadays is so complex and fast –paced that knowing how to ground oneself in the present moment is an absolute necessity to make sense of the world and to continue learning, growing, and contributing what is uniquely yours to contribute in this world.”
“Helping your children learn to practice mindfulness is a worthy impulse as long as you as you don’t inadvertently wind up foisting it on them, driven by your own expectations and enthusiasm.” – But too much enthusiasm or too strong an attachment to result could backfire, possibly turning our children off to mindfulness altogether” –
Peki incorporates many of the elements taught by Eline Snel in how it selects and organizes its activities and playtime.