Mindfulness
Today Múinteoir Clíona told us about mindfulness, which means living in the present. We all relaxed as she took us through that wonderful colour shower meditation.
Did you know that a guided meditation can be about anything? Why don't you have a go at writing one yourself?
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Deep in the ocean
- Floating through space
- A magical flying carpet ride
- A day at the beach
- A happy memory
Guided Meditation
Some tips: A guided meditation is usually a journey, so imagine you are travelling through one of the locations, remembering to be visual and include everything you see in detail.
Remember to include lots of sensory details.
For example, if you choose the day at the beach option, you could include:
Touch: the warm sun on your skin / the sand in between your toes / a light breeze.
Smells: the smell of sun lotion.
Sounds: the lapping of the waves You can either be yourself in your meditation or someone or something else.
For example, if you choose the ocean option, you could be a whale floating through the water or a starfish on a rock on the ocean floor, watching all the other sea creatures go by!
You can download some more tips and advice in the activity sheet here!
My Guided Meditation
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Music in meditation
Often, a piece of relaxing music is played underneath a guided meditation, to help us relax.
What piece of music would you choose to go with the meditation you just wrote?
You can specify a song, or just a genre or instrument you find relaxing to listen to (e.g. gentle classical piano music).
Often, doing a craft with your hands is a great way to become mindful.
Creating is a good way to pull your focus to one thing, and drown out all the other noise – that is what mindfulness is all about. Making your own homemade play dough is particularly great for mindfulness because:
(a) You will feel mindful making it
(b) Playing with it and moulding it into stuff is very mindful, as it is a very sensory activity! Have a go at making your own…
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1/3 cup salt
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Gel food colouring
Method
1 Add flour, cream of tartar, and salt to a saucepan
2 Add a few drops of food colouring to the water, stir and add to the flour mixture.
3 Add the vegetable oil to the mixture.
4 Turn on your hob to medium/low (Get an adult's permission to do so first!).
5 Cook and stir until your playdough starts to solidify. It will be a little lumpy – that’s ok.
6 Keep stirring. Once the dough starts gathering together around the spoon you know it’s done. This can take up to 2 minutes.
6 Carefully remove from the saucepan and cool and put it on some waxed paper or a plate to cool.
7 Once it’s cooled, squish and knead your dough to remove lumps.
8 That’s it - you’ve made homemade playdough!
