3 Creative Mindfulness Activities For Comfort & Safety
During every stage in life, we all want to feel a sense of support, comfort and safety. With these creative activities, we can help encourage a greater understanding of situations and people that make children feel safe. Alongside this, it can be beneficial to explore important memories and significant moments in the minds of children, and help them understand their awareness so they are able to effectively regulate emotions when faced with challenge.
All of these creative activities serve to help understand children better, and can be great ways to encourage communication by exploring anything that arises.
~ by HERE Co-Founder Jen Armstrong, MSC
1. My Safe Space
Finding out what and how a child feels safe can be so valuable. It can help us understand what can make them feel held, supported, and safe. Once a child feels safe, they can be better able to communicate, learn and develop.
The child’s safe space can be represented as a world which is separated into quarters, within each quarter where they can draw pictures or write words of things, people, or places, that make them feel most safe.
We can explore where a child feels most safe in school, home, out in the community, and the people / person who makes them feel safe. Feel free to adapt the focus depending on the child.
2. Important Memories In My Life
This is a film strip of a child’s life.
The child can draw pictures of memories on the film strip which represent significant moments in their life. These can be memories from when they were younger or they can be from yesterday! They can be good or bad memories, or just things that have made a mark on their lives for whatever reason. This can serve as a great insight into their family dynamic, big life changes and important moments which might not have been well known.
“In order for positive action to take place, we need to feel calm, relaxed, and supported within our environment. For many of us, and especially for youth coming from high-stress and/or traumatic households, entering a space of peace and comfort allows the body to relax and the mind to become clearer. Being in this state of calm encourages learning, reduces stress and anxiety, and allows us to connect with ourselves and the world around us.”
3. My Pause Button
When uncomfortable feelings arise from a situation, it is important to remember what can be done in that moment to help manage and effectively regulate those feelings.
A good way to help with this is to visualise a bit red button in the mind, and when we press it, a calm, mindful action can be taken to rest attention elsewhere and help regulate the emotions.
With this activity, draw as many red pause buttons as you would like, or perhaps ask the child how many actions they think they can take and draw the corresponding amount of red circles. Within each circle, they can identify an action to take In time of need.
More Mindfulness Activities For Children
Teddy Bear Belly Breathing
Healing Mantras For Children
Boat Pose and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" Mindfulness Activity For Kids
