mindfulness: 11 Articles

Late Summer Relaxation

Benefits of Mindfulness August 17, 2021 10:00 am

As summer winds down, many families are taking one last opportunity to rest and restore themselves before the fall rush. If you need a reason to encourage your kid to take it easy, August 15 marks National Relaxation Day. According to the website, “National Relaxation Day advocates chilling out and promotes stress relief through meditation and other relaxation techniques. Managing stress requires relaxation, which leads to a clearer and calmer mind.” Relaxation means different things to different people. Magination Press has books that explore different approaches to relaxation including yoga, mindfulness, and meditation. Bee Still: An Invitation to Meditation by Frank J. Sileo, PhD Bentley is a lovable, calm honeybee. When the queen tells the bees to get busy, it sends them scrambling into a tizzy. But not Bentley. He chooses to be patient and wait. He decides to look for a place to meditate. Bee Still is a child-friendly introduction to meditation. Includes a Note to Parents and Caregivers with more ideas for introducing meditation into your child's life “Through this engaging introduction to the benefits of practicing meditation, children and adults will learn how to focus emotions and relieve stress and anxiety…" —Foreword Reviews Relaxations: Big Tools for Little Warriors by Mamen Duch This book uses gentle affirmations to improve and enhance confidence, self-esteem, concentration, and creativity. “So many kids are dealing with stress in many ways and it manifests itself in ways you may not expect. This book explores some of the basic concepts of relaxation and how you and your kids can find more ways to relax…. The visualization and breathing exercises were great and really allowed you to find an inner-calm within yourself. This is a great book that I highly recommend!” —Dad of Divas A World of Pausabilities: An Exercise in Mindfulness by Frank J. Sileo, PhD Told in rhyming verse and beautifully illustrated, A World of Pausabilities is an inviting introduction to mindfulness. Following a neighborhood on a summer day, readers will learn how to apply mindfulness to simple, everyday moments, and how days are filled with endless possibilities to take a pause. Includes a Note to Parents and Caregivers that further discusses mindfulness and ways to introduce pauses into your child's life. King Calm: Mindful Gorilla in the City by Susan D. Sweet, PhD, and Brenda S. Miles, PhD Marvin isn't like other gorillas. He doesn't stomp his feet and he never ever pounds his chest with a thump thump roar. Marvin is mindful. He's focused. He's calm…and he's about to teach his grandpa to be a king of calm, too! Includes a Reader's Note loaded with information about living mindfully and ways to become more calm, focused, and tuned in to the Great Big World around you. “King Calm is a wonderful gateway for teaching mindfulness to children. The narrative manages to give explicit instructions on being mindful without being pedantic or dull.” —Seattle Book Review Fantastic You by Danielle Dufayet There's one special person that kids get to spend

Late Summer Relaxation Eileen Hanning 2021-08-11T12:45:49-04:00

Have a Calm Summer: Yoga and Mindfulness for Kids

Practicing Mindfulness June 22, 2021 10:00 am

Celebrate International Yoga Day with Bentley Bee. He'll be practicing all his favorite poses from Bee Calm: The Buzz on Yoga by Frank J. Sileo, PhD. And International Yoga Day is just the start. Bee Calm and other Magination Press books about calming strategies and meditation can help your child have a soothing summer. Bee Calm: The Buzz On Yoga by Frank J. Sileo, PhD Bentley Bee sees his friends doing some funny positions in the garden. It's yoga! His friends teach him how to do several of the poses in this kid-friendly introduction to yoga. “This sweet book introduces yoga to children in a loving and engaging way. With friendly characters, beautiful illustrations, and a gentle rhyming cadence, it’s a joy to read, easy to practice to, and quickly becoming a favorite with our 2- and 6-year-old daughters.” —Jennifer Cohen Harper, Founder of Little Flower Yoga, Author, and Mother Check out Bentley Bee’s other books, Bee Still: An Invitation To Meditation, and Bee Heartful: Spread Loving-Kindness. Mindful Bea And The Worry Tree by Gail Silver Bea is anxiously waiting for her friends to show up for her birthday party. When the worries start to grow around her like tree branches, she uses breathing exercises and visualization techniques to calm herself down. “Children who struggle with anxiety will be able to relate to Bea and find some of the strategies helpful. It can help a child realize they are not alone and that others have the same worrying thoughts.” —Oregon Coast Youth Book Preview Center Relaxations: Big Tools For Little Warriors by Mamen Duch This book uses gentle affirmations to improve and enhance confidence, self-esteem, concentration, and creativity. Breathe by Inês Castel-Branco Breathe is a conversation between a boy and his mother at bedtime. But this conversation can happen at any time, in any place. This introduction to mindfulness presents a collection of illustrated exercises to help little ones become aware of their breath and their body. “With practice, the child discovers how these tools can rob fear and sadness of their power to keep us awake at night. This book speaks to children with the confidence that they can understand how and why attention to our breath is so powerful.” —Mindful A World Of Pausabilities: An Exercise In Mindfulness by Frank J. Sileo, PhD Following a neighborhood on a summer day, readers will learn how to apply mindfulness to simple, everyday moments, and how days are filled with endless possibilities to take a pause. “Sileo invites readers to explore the potential in "pausabilities"…he offers a wealth of ideas for how children and families can stay engaged in the present.” —Publishers Weekly Check out even more books for kids about mindfulness.

Have a Calm Summer: Yoga and Mindfulness for Kids Eileen Hanning 2021-06-21T15:14:03-04:00

Celebrate Earth Day!

Practicing Mindfulness April 22, 2021 3:12 pm

It’s Earth Day! Celebrate our planet with books that explore the environment. These stories explore social-emotional and developmental issues, but the natural world plays an important role. All the Feelings Under the Sun: How to Deal With Climate Change by Leslie Davenport , illustrated by Jessica Smith All the Feelings Under the Sun: How to Deal With Climate Change is a timely, thoughtful workbook that will help young readers work through their feelings of anxiety about climate change. Through informative text and activities, the book gives children age-appropriate information about the climate crisis and gives them the tools they need to manage their anxiety and work toward making change. Camilla, Cartographer by Julie Dillemuth, PhD, Illustrated by Laura Wood Camilla loves maps. Old ones, new ones, she loves them all! She often imagines what it must have been like to explore and discover a new path for the first time. One morning, Camilla wakes up to a huge snowstorm. Her neighbor Parsley can't find the path to the creek. But Camilla has her old map — which inspires her to make her own path and her own map! While focused on cartography and developing spatial awareness, Camilla Cartographer also explores what it’s like to see your environment in new and different natural conditions. A Bank Street College Best Book of the Year “Wood's delightful illustrations and Dillemuth's expertise in the matter engage readers in the woodland creatures' adventures. In addition, Dillemuth, who holds a doctorate in geography, provides activities in the backmatter for parents and caregivers to help children develop their own spatial-reasoning skills, such as sketching and reading maps or using cardinal directions. An adorable adventure in cartography.” —Kirkus Reviews Hear Camilla, Cartographer, read aloud. Read an excerpt from the Note to Parents and Caregivers in Camilla, Cartographer. Grow Grateful, Grow Happy, and Grow Kind by Sage Foster-Lasser and Jon Lasser, PhD, illustrated by Christopher Lyles While these three books explore positive psychology and the process of developing kindness, happiness, and gratitude, all are set in the natural world and draw parallels between gardening or being in nature and these positive feelings. Grow Happy My name is Kiko. I'm a gardener. I grow happy. Let me show you how. Kiko shows the reader how she grows happiness: by making good choices, taking care of her body and mind, paying attention to her feelings, problem solving, and spending time with family and friends. Grow Grateful Head off with Kiko on a school camping trip and learn how she figures out what being grateful is and what it feels like. Maybe you can grow grateful, too! Grow Kind Kiko grows and cultivates her garden, harvesting and sharing the fruits and veggies with her friends, neighbors, and family. This delightful tale serves as a metaphor of nurturing relationships and community, while sharing kindness with others. Grow Kind is a gentle narrative based on positive psychology and choice theory, essentially about cultivating kindness. “In their follow-up to Grow Happy and Grow Grateful, the father-daughter

Celebrate Earth Day! Eileen Hanning 2021-04-22T21:02:16-04:00

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