improve concentration

Mandala Meditation for Kids

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Just a few minutes of “non-doing” can make a big difference. What is non-doing ? To define that let's start with doing. From all directions kids are bombarded with stimulus; video games, action movies, and YouTube videos. This is all fun stuff to a point, but it becomes an issue when children become reliant on that level of stimulation to feel happy and alive. It’s the same for all of us. Our reliance on excitement, drama and or high adrenaline means we are prisoners to it. It’s just like that old adage - it’s the little things in life. So how do you get there? How does enjoying the little things become part of your, or your child’s, life? The good news is this is one of the bigger side effects of meditation or as it is sometimes referred to, non-doing. Just a few minutes of meditation, effective meditation, can enable all of us to bring the perspective of stillness, non-doing, and peace into our lives.

With brief 2 - 5 minute Mandala Time meditations, you and your children can experience a deep sense of calm, and let’s call it “okayness”, with just being. Experiencing this regularly will result in an increased ability to sit still, focus, and concentrate for your children. The need to be running from zombies, blowing things up or watching crazy people doing crazy things on YouTube will subside to a certain extent and believe it or not, this means more freedom. This is what the term “liberation” is referring to. Because you are free from the dependence on a relatively small category of high stimuli activities, you are free to do and enjoy so much more. Even the little things, which are freely offered here and now and in every moment.

Providing this tool of Mandala Mediations at a young age provides children the ability not to build the deeply engrained patterns of behavior adults have to work hard to extricate themselves from. You are offering them more freedom from their emotions and the ability to live more conscious lives.

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Two Minute Meditations Add Up (Maybe Even Multiply)

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One of the great things about meditation is that it builds on itself. This means that you don’t have to sit for twenty minutes to gain the benefits of twenty minutes of meditation. Two minutes here and five minutes there throughout the day has the accumulative effect of twenty minutes of mediation. The challenge for beginners is achieving the meditative state quickly enough to realize the benefits in brief segments. With Mandala Time! you can achieve a meditative state within seconds enabling you to benefit from quick rejuvenating mediations throughout the day.

You can know you’ve achieved a meditative state by the visual effects you see while focusing on the mandala during meditation. Often, even on the first try, people see an interaction or shifting between colors of the mandala which typically happens within seconds of starting the meditation. As soon as you start to experience visual changes in the mandala you know you have entered into a deeper more centered state. (See the blog post “Why Visual Meditation is More Effective” for more info on this).

Any amount of time you exit the state of doing, doing, doing, with its emotional ups and downs and become centered, you begin to rewire. With each mediation you start to loosen the grip your automatic behaviors have on you. Which means gaining, little by little, freedom from your compulsive behavior. You create a little distance between you and your emotions, you and your habits and you and your cravings. This means more freedom. This means the ability to live more consciously instead of reactively. This means you slowly but surely turn down the volume of chatter in your head until one day there will be a moment when you notice the birds singing, the breeze blowing through the leaves, and the scent of flowers. And for that moment, its more than enough.

Try two to five minute mediations at your desk throughout the workday for two weeks and you will notice wonderful benefits. Comment on this blog and let us know how it goes!

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