When Anne Cater of Random Things Tours sent an email asking if anyone would be interested in a book on mindfulness for children, I knew I had to take part. I have a very excitable six year old and though he loves yoga as a calming technique, exploring other options is always interesting. I'm extremely happy I did!
Meditation For Children
Author and meditation tutor Shelley Wilson takes you on a magical journey to a calm and happy place that you and your child will love.
Children of all ages can learn and enjoy the benefits of meditation.
Designed to help access creative abilities through relaxation and imagination, these stories help develop the necessary tools needed at a young age for lifelong healthy habits of managing stress and anxiety while also improving learning skills.
Meditation for Children is a simple way to introduce children to mindfulness through guided visualisation. Includes a handy reference guide and instructions.
Children of all ages can learn and enjoy the benefits of meditation.
Designed to help access creative abilities through relaxation and imagination, these stories help develop the necessary tools needed at a young age for lifelong healthy habits of managing stress and anxiety while also improving learning skills.
Meditation for Children is a simple way to introduce children to mindfulness through guided visualisation. Includes a handy reference guide and instructions.
My Review
I'll start off by saying I absolutely loved this book, so how much of this will be "review" and how much will be "gushing" will be interesting to see!
The book begins with some advice and tips, setting expectations for the techniques used and how to achieve them. Though these are, I'd imagine, aimed at parents, my six year old found it easy to read and grasped the concept of what the book was about. I think this is masterfully done as though he understood, I also didn't feel like it had been "child proofed" in any way.
The book includes ten stories which all are the perfect length to keep anyone engaged throughout, even a younger child. Each story is accompanied by beautiful illustrations which we spent time looking at before reading each story. I like how it encourages a habit of reading a story before bed each night, we already have this in practice and have for both children from birth. The way we used the stories was to read them after the main bedtime story, to settle down and concentrate on the words and close his eyes (which is why we looked at the pictures first) and to slow ourselves down ready for a good sleep.
Even reading the stories and following the guidance, I felt myself calming and my heartbeat and being slowing down and I felt lighter once I'd finished each time. I've never really meditated myself before, not in a concentrated effort any way and I feel this book has inspired even me as an adult to look into mindfulness for myself as well as the children. As a parent, you don't always get time to bring yourself that calm that you may need to get through the day, but as this book shows, it can take literally only a coupe of minutes to achieve.
Overall an absolutely amazing book and one I'm very glad to have read. We will be reading the stories again and again in the future.
I gave this book five stars.
About The Author
Shelley Wilson is an English author of motivational self-help titles and young adult fantasy fiction.
Her sensible side writes non-fiction books to inspire you to be the best you can be, and her cheeky and playful side writes young adult fiction to remind you to nurture that inner teen.
Shelley is a single mum of three, has a crazy black cat called Luna and is obsessed with vampires, Tudor history, and exploring castles.
She's tall (5ft 10inches) which seems to surprise people when they meet her. She often hears, "you're much taller than your profile picture!"
Find her on twitter www.twitter.com/ShelleyWilson72
or Facebook www.facebook.com/FantasyAuthorSLWilson
Her sensible side writes non-fiction books to inspire you to be the best you can be, and her cheeky and playful side writes young adult fiction to remind you to nurture that inner teen.
Shelley is a single mum of three, has a crazy black cat called Luna and is obsessed with vampires, Tudor history, and exploring castles.
She's tall (5ft 10inches) which seems to surprise people when they meet her. She often hears, "you're much taller than your profile picture!"
Find her on twitter www.twitter.com/ShelleyWilson72
or Facebook www.facebook.com/FantasyAuthorSLWilson
Don't Forget To Check Out The Rest Of The Tour
Wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this wonderful blog tour support xx
ReplyDeleteI tried to leave you a comment on my phone but it appears to have got lost in outer space! So, back to the laptop for me - Thank you SO much for this amazing review, you made my day! I'm thrilled that you enjoyed the book so much and feel free to gush as much as you want LOL. Huge thanks for your support xx
ReplyDeleteWhen we are in a situation of stress or danger, our brain responds instinctively in two ways: fight or flight. However, magnetic resonances of the brain show that two months of meditation practice are enough to cope with these difficult moments with greater maturity and tranquility. It is also proven that meditating influences the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that is linked to our ability to make decisions and social behavior. All these studies suggest that meditation helps our mind disconnect from its own stress center.
ReplyDeletePositivity.
ReplyDeleteIt induces to maintain a more positive attitude towards life, accepting and facing your day-to-day challenges, even the most difficult ones, as part of your continuous
process of personal growth, decreasing the propensity for negativity.