Enchanted Forest guided meditation for kids

As an Occupational therapist, I often find myself using my yoga teacher skills and passions to engage my clients in self care. I am a big advocate for using nature as a co-therapist as well as a tool for self care. I have been reading a lot about forest bathing, experimenting with various nature based activities, and my full time job is completely outdoors. I work with adults and teens, but my biggest client population is with kids!

I know that meditation and yoga may not seem like the most kid-friendly activity, especially if your kids are busy and full of movement! However, when I started moving into the realm of teaching yoga and mindfulness practices to kids, I realized that it is not that yoga and meditation isn’t accessible for kids, but that our adult practices need to be modified to meet them! I definitely cannot name one kid that I work with who could come into the 60 minute hot yoga class that I take every Monday, but I know that most of them can do a lot of these poses better than I can! So we can modify yoga to be more fun, interest based, faster, connected to music and playful than your typical class – basically borrowing the magic of yoga poses and making it into play.

I thought it might be lovely to have a guided meditation for kids up on my blog – this is intended to be used whenever it seems appropriate for your child. Perhaps before bed when they are trying to wind down, or when they are feeling a bit anxious and need something to slow them down. Please don’t expect them to sit super still! Movement is encouraged! I will attach some Amazon links at the end of this of some of my favourite breathing books and mindful books if you are interested in a more picture based adventure!

Please note that this is just one idea that I had for a meditation! Similar to the idea above of modifying yoga classes, often times the best meditations happen when you can connect personally to the words, so writing one can be fun and so beneficial! You can always ask your child if they have specific characters they want to hear a story about! Happy story telling and meditating 🙂

Take a deep breath in and when you breathe out let’s shake out our sillies!

First shake your feet! Shake shake shake for 5 seconds! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Then let’s shake our legs! Shake shake shake for 5 seconds! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Then our arms! Shake shake shake for 5 seconds! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Then we’ll shake our hands! Shake shake shake for 5 seconds! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! And now, let’s shake our WHOLE BODY! Be super silly and jump while you’re shaking your body!

That was so funny! Now let’s try to sit or lie down comfy and close your eyes, and take a deep breath in like we are smelling a beautiful flower (you can add in their favourite colour) and breathe out through your mouth like you are blowing out a candle! Are you ready? Let’s go on a magical journey through the wonders of spring!

Imagine you are in a beautiful forest surrounded by big tall trees and colourful flowers. The sun is shining on your face and the wind is blowing the leaves in the trees. You can hear the sound of birds chirping in the trees and little frogs ribbitting!

Close your eyes! Can you imagine a friendly butterfly fluttering around you? This butterfly is the most beautiful colourful butterfly you have ever seen! It looks like its dancing and trying to land on your head! The butterfly comes close to you and you try to catch it! You run after it and it brings you to a patch of flowers. What colour are they? (You can ask and wait for an answer) You want to smell them so let’s take a deep breath and smell the flowers – what does it smell like? (You can ask and wait for an answer). Then blow out your breath like you’re trying to make the flowers dance in the wind! Wow that made us feel so calm. Thank you butterfly!

The butterfly keeps flying so you decide you want to see where it will go next! The butterfly takes you to a creek (or modify the word if they might not know what that is), where you hear the water running over rocks. (you can play music too!) The water looks so blue and it is so warm so you put your toe in! Is the water warm or cold? (You can ask and wait for an answer)

Now you follow the butterfly out of the forest and into a park with lots of soft green grass. You lie in the grass or on a soft blanket and feel the ground under you. When you look up, you see lots of white fluffy clouds moving across the sky. Some look like regular fluffy clouds, but as you watch, relaxed, you notice some clouds look like different shapes! What shapes do you see? (You can add in what you might see)

Now, it’s time to wake our bodies up from this magical spring journey. Wiggle your fingers and toes, and when you’re ready, open your eyes, bringing the magic of spring with you into your day.

Remember, whenever you need a moment of peace and calm, you can return to this spring-themed meditation and let your imagination take you on another enchanting journey.