When this Grandma was a child in the safe times of growing up in the 1950’s, parents were apt to send you outside to play with the admonishment to be home by dinner.
Free time and free play are no longer in our over programmed high electronics driven world. Children have “play dates” instead of free play, a sign of the changed society of two working parents and of an unsafe world environment. In order to succeed, whether you are age three or thirty, one must use every moment of every day seems to be our “new age” philosophy, ignoring true “new age” philosophy.
This Grandma’s life philosophy instilled by being a child of immigrants and Holocaust survivors, assisted in her professional and personal success, with seeking dreams, focus, determination, and using every moment of every day. Yes, this has been beneficial, but also a burden. So much so, that a dear long (we never say old) friend, when Grandma entered her sixties, said, “you know, it is okay to schedule time each day to do nothing.” This has added joy to this Grandma’s life. This had never occurred to this Grandma.
Apparently, scheduling time to do nothing is a big deal in America. As reported in the New York Times, January 16, 2014, in “BACK STORY,” section, January 16 is National Nothing Day. Stacy Cowley reported:
“The holiday was invented in 1972 by Harold Pullman Coffin, a columnist based in California, who argued that there should be one day a year people have no obligation to commemorate anything. Mr. Coffin contacted the editor of an annual events calendar and learned that only one day remained unclaimed: Jan. 16. “The response was crushing,” Mr. Coffin told Newsweek in 1979. “I got mail from everywhere.” The date now sometimes overlaps with Martin Luther King’s Birthday, and is also, by annual presidential proclamation, Religious Freedom Day. But to many, the day’s nothingness reigns supreme. For those who struggle to remain idle, Mr. Coffin, who died in 1981, had a suggestion about the ideal people to ask for advice: your representatives in Congress. “They are probably the best experts on doing nothing,” he said.”
Ignoring the politics of Stacy Crowley’s reporting, a form of “doing nothing,” meditation, has been found to be beneficial for adults and children. The father of the eldest grandchild has been meditating with significant benefit and the oldest grandchild has begun to emulate his father, loving the process and experience.
They are not alone. Meditation is now looked at as a panacea for children and adults and studies have been done.
Schools have found benefit adding meditation to the daily curriculum. See this link.
Parents who are transitioning toddlers and preschools from nap time have found instituting quiet time helpful. See this link..
If you put “how to teach a child to meditate,”into google, you will get many bits of advice.
Here is one to start:
It really starts with the grandma or parent of the grandchildren. It is easiest to teach the grandchild the importance of breathing. This Grandma, a yogi, sits with a grandchild, each in a comfortable cross-legged sitting position. Start with hands on belly, and graduate to fingertips together in front, forming a tepee with the hands, fingers pointing up and thumbs pointing toward your heart. Practices breathing in through the nose counting to five, hold the breath for a count of five, then breathing out through the nose counting to five. This slows the breath down and provides a means to concentrate on counting to oneself. We do this for about twenty five breaths, about five minutes and building to ten minutes. This meditation creates a steady breath rhythm allowing your body and mind to relax. Before bedtime is a great time to start a new habit of quieting down.
The power of meditation is the power of quieting oneself in an over stimulating world. We think we are doing nothing when we meditate, but we are nourishing mind and body.
Sharing the wisdom of years and skill building by grandma is
Joy,
Mema
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