(video 8min) Children are naturally mindful. Mindfulness is about noticing what’s happening now – inside and out. Kids are much better at paying attention to what’s happening than adults.

Adults have had more time to develop the habit of being lost in thought. We’re more focused on thinking about the past and the future. Most of us are not so in awe of butterflies and dogs and tractors and clouds anymore. We’re more interested in what we should have done yesterday and want to do tomorrow.

Children are much more interested in their environment. This makes it easy to play with them in a mindful way. Make games out of how many things you can see, hear, smell, taste, feel. Develop this kind of communication and then add in what you’re both feeling emotionally and eventually thinking.

Of course, you want to do this as well… Develop your own connection with noticing what’s going on inside and out, develop your skills of taking about it and use that to inform you about yourself… And your children as you invite them to do this, too. Simple.