A 10 Minute Meditation for Young Children

Father Mark, founder of Mind Friends, leads a 10 minute visualisation meditation for younger school children. This visualisation is ideal when children are stressed at home or at school or struggling to sleep or just feel that things are not right.

Visualisation is a kind of meditation which activates many of the same neural networks as are activated when we actually perform an action. Neural networks are paths of interconnected nerve cells that link what your body does to the brain impulses that control it. We can use visualisation to our advantage in different ways. For example, imagining yourself doing movements can help you get better at them: Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus practiced each shot in his mind before taking it.

So, when we suffer mental stress or find we are operating on autopilot for long periods of time, a visualisation can help to switch of the fight-flight response and activate the more creative, relaxed "rest and digest" mode of being.