So how do the course techniques help?
The meditation & mindfulness techniques are neurological techniques, which specifically switch on the rest and digest nervous system (parasympathetic) and these are used to help your child work through all kinds of emotions on a level that they can understand, and process calmly and with a bit more logic. So as a parent if you use your own fight or flight system to communicate with your child this can trigger your child’s too. The techniques are designed to use the back of the brain, the part that a teenager already uses, which are the 5 senses of sight, sound, touch, smell, taste.
Talking about how you feel is not always an option for children, sometimes they identify with their emotions in other ways. Once an emotional issue is recognised using these techniques, the course is then designed to help your child use other techniques to try and resolve the emotional problem for themselves. If a problem cannot be resolved, the process will also help them recognise this, and then be able and more likely to help them talk about it, rather than bottle it up until it becomes a bigger problem.
As the brain does not mature and solidify until 25 years of age getting your child to learn meditation and mindfulness at this point will more likely help them for the rest of their life. The brain is still so flexible and plastic the techniques will be learnt and remembered easily and become a habit they then become good at and rely upon.
Building a better brain?
The programme is 6 weeks long and is therefore repeated, this is what makes the programme 12 weeks long. This is because research shows that it takes anywhere between 2-3 months & upwards to make a permanent change to the brain.
You can take longer to do it but no less.
Each week is organised into 3 different modules. One emotional, one spiritual and one physical and each module can be used separately or put together to build a portfolio of techniques they can use 24/7.
This is so that children can recognise and learn more about where a problem stems from, and, that there is more than one way to deal with a problem, giving them a much better chance of dealing with stressful situations more confidently and successfully, with the hope of a better resolve at the end of it, and choices in how to deal with stress and how to handle their reactions to the world.
Once the programme is completed it is then repeated, which deepens the neurological and personal understanding of themselves and their emotions, and, knowing how to implement the appropriate techniques. It’s easy to understand when we are out of breath and what to do about it because it stares us in the face, but when we are mentally stressed most of the time we don’t know it, and to put it into words and deal with it is even harder. It is difficult for an adult to often recognise these symptoms let alone a child.
It manifests with symptoms of withdrawal or defiance, aggression or depression.
All changes in normal happy behaviour that are prolonged are then a symptom. Every child shouts and screams but it should be temporary not long term. Both ends of the scale are symptoms from depression and withdrawal to defiance and aggression and they are treated in the same way…. to help your child recognise what the problem is and to learn how to process that feeling/ problem in a way they can.
Once a child is given permission to express themselves and given techniques to recognise their own behaviour, then often a child can write down the problem or feeling and talk about it/ write it/ draw it, and it can be resolved, processed and moved on from.
With this programme, it makes processing and resolving stressful emotional issues easier. As a child learns the techniques and is supported throughout the course, it helps them to realise they have the ability to deal with their problems, and, emotional misunderstandings become much easier to deal with.
How can I help my child and myself?
As a parent/teacher/carer you can do the course alongside them, this will improve your communication with your child, and, learn what your child may be thinking and feeling. You will learn how you deal with stressful situations also which again will benefit your communication skills as an adult. It surprises us to sometimes when we look at how we deal with things. You will enjoy the mindfulness and meditation techniques and hopefully learn lots of new things about yourself, but if not, it will give you and your child a better understanding of there emotional reaction to things.
Is it an instant cure?
No it isn’t, but nothing is!
Our aim is to promote the health and wellbeing of children’s mental health, and to promote children’s skills in learning coping techniques through mindfulness and meditation to carry them through the stressful times in life.
Many children today struggle with mental health issues in an ever-increasing stressful world, and no one say’s to them…….
‘Hey, its ok to have mental health issues and we can work through them’
Through meditation and mindfulness techniques we help your child to find the space within their mind to get to know and understand themselves. What is a better feeling than knowing you are fully in control of your own mind & learn to be friends with your own mind, rather than thinking it controls you all the time.
It’s incredibly exciting getting to know yourself and who you are as a person and what makes you tick.
This helps you cope much better in life, and, to develop a type of resilience to the various stresses in life because you will know what to do by the end of this course when stress arises in your life, and in most cases, you can get rid of your mental health problem because after all you didn’t have one. You were just having a reaction to a situation you didn’t understand.