This week in Mindful Minis we thought about the third colour in the rainbow which is blue. We thought about all the things that we see in nature that are blue such as blueberries, blue flowers, blue birds, the blue ocean and of course the blue sky!
Blue is a very tranquil, peaceful and serene colour. I explained to the children that it is a very useful colour to help us calm down. I gave the scenario of when it is crazy hour in their homes and they are full of beans – wanting to run riot, jump around on the couch, jump off the table, run under your feet while you are preparing dinner – you get the picture! You on the other hand simply want them to sit down calmly.
I explained that if they feel that they have no control over their bodies and they feel like their bodies have a huge amount of crazy energy that they don’t know what to do with, that breathing in blue light from the sky can help. They simply imagine themselves lying on a patch of comfy, green grass looking up at the blue sky and taking in deep breaths of blue light. They imagine the blue light flowing all through their bodies – from their heads all the way to their tippy toes. They take deep breaths in and then breathe out all the extra energy. So the next time things get crazy at home, remind your children how wonderfully calm the colour blue is and encourage them to take in some deep breaths of blue light from the sky.
As part of our mindfulness exercises today, the children each received a block of ice to feel, touch and explore. They were encouraged to rub it on their lips, on their cheeks, behind their ears – some of the boys even rubbed it under their arm pits! I asked them to notice and pay attention to how the ice felt – cold!! We noticed that if you hold the ice still on your hand for some time, it actually almost feels like the ice is burning your hand even though it is cold. This was a great exercise in bringing awareness to touch sensations.
We listened to a wonderful guided visualisation about a friendly dolphin. We went on a journey swimming with this dolphin in the ocean. It was a kind dolphin that allowed us to hold onto its fin as we swam with it underwater experiencing the wonderful calm and peaceful world below the water. Some of the children shared afterwards that their dolphin took them to Candy Land and Sweets Land. Some swam past schools of beautifully coloured fish. One little girl’s dolphin even grew legs and took her for a journey on land! But the resounding comment was that they all found the visualisation very relaxing – the background sound of ocean waves helped!
I think the highlight of the class was our footprint penguins. I painted each child’s foot and asked them to pay attention to how it felt – ticklish, uncomfortable, nice, prickly, slimy etc. They then had to push their foot hard on the cardboard to make the footprint. And while washing their feet I asked them to notice how the water felt on their skin – cold, warm, slippery, clean, soapy, etc. Then it was the fun part of decorating their footprints using googly eyes, felt, bobbles and colouring-in pens. The result was a colony of penguins that beats Boulders Beach penguins any day!
A great class with a wonderful message of how to self-calm using the colour blue.
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