How I Started Meditation With My Kids

I recently started doing nighttime meditation with my two kids, ages 7 and 3.5. Introducing them to meditation and relaxation techniques has been the best thing I have done for them in a long time and they both enjoy it so much. I get many questions from other parents on how to introduce meditation to their children so this blogpost is here to answer all your questions!

As a disclaimer, I am no expert in meditation but I do believe that by following some basic guiding principles, anyone can do it. Don’t worry about being perfect or getting it right. There’s a reason we call it a “practice”, after all. The key is to just start without expectation and pressure.

What are the benefits from meditation and what made me start with my kids?

If you think about it, our lives today have very little down time. This applies not just to adults but also to children. There is societal pressure and expectation to keep our kids engaged and busy all the time. Add to that the technology surrounding us in the form of phones, TV, and other gadgets. All of this leaves very little time for our brains to recharge. Meditation just felt like the right answer to me. I believed it would be beneficial in the long run for the following reasons:

• Instill better bedtime/sleeping habits
• Practice mindfulness
• Learn stillness and deep breathing to help calm oneself and reduce stress/anxiety
• Be in tune with their emotions and have a positive mental attitude
• Learn gratitude and reflection on the day
• Get quality time together at the end of the day

I also recommend this article on the Parent magazine called “Meditation for Kids: A Beginner’s Guide”.


Ok, so what exactly do you do? Walk me through this.

The kids lie down in their beds with the lights off. I lie down next to them and once we’ve settled in, I take one of two approaches. Either I will turn on an app which does a guided meditation for kids or I do my own. If it’s the latter, these are the steps I go through in a slow, calming voice:

• We take in 3 deep breaths, breathing out with our mouths each time. I tell my kids that we are breathing in all that is good and positive and breathing out all that is bad and negative
• I do a mindfulness exercise which I call the “X-ray”. We sweep our inner eye over every single part of our body, starting from the tips of our toes to the top of our head. The objective is to focus on each part of our body and relax our muscles.
• Then I start a visualization exercise called a “mental vacation”. I describe a calming place (e.g. beach, park, favorite playground) and talk about how we feel at that moment in time. Sometimes I will talk about a situation which may cause anxiety and stress (e.g., making new friends, getting angry) and how we can deal with it through deep breathing, being resilient, or doing positive affirmations
• We talk about 1 thing we liked about our day or are grateful for
• Together, we end with 3 rounds of Om followed by the Gayatri Mantra, a powerful incantation that is associated with strong energy vibrations.

This whole thing lasts anywhere from 5-10 minutes. Often the kids will talk or ask questions in the middle. While I don’t discourage it (they are curious little beings, after all!), I do tell them that this ritual is effective only if we lie still and succumb to our surroundings for a while.

Can you introduce meditation to young kids? Do they even sit still?

Yes, definitely! You can start them as young as age 3. The key is to keep it short because of their attention spans. So 4-5 minutes is sufficient. I also think the time of day matters. I purposely choose to do it in the night because it works as a great wind down. The kids are tired from the day already and are more likely to practice stillness and be receptive to it. Both my kids really enjoy the session we do together and ask to do it every day!

What apps or resources do you use for this?

I like the Calm app which has short sessions for the little ones. My kids particularly love the “Thomas & Friends: Learn to Meditate” sessons. Headspace is another good one I would recommend. For a list of apps for guided meditation for kids, check out this link.

If you want more guidance on how to do your own meditation with kids, check out Greenchildmagazine. It has some really nice scripts which you can read aloud or get ideas from.