Busy body. Calm mind. A Little Book of Physical Focusing
New Resource!
Children are naturally mindful. If you take the time to watch a small child interact with the world around them then it’s plain to see. Not surprisingly, the main factor in holding a child’s attention comes down to how interesting he or she finds the subject matter.
In school, teachers often find that some children seem to struggle to pay attention; arguably many of them do but many quickly learn the norms of behaviour that are associated with ‘paying attention behaviour’; sitting still, keeping quiet, looking in the direction of the speaker, keeping hands and feet to yourself. These are great indicators of compliance and social conformity; they are not guarantees that the child is actually paying attention.
As adults, we know full well that we can do the look of paying attention while mentally preparing our shopping list, re-running an emotive conversation, or running through the many other tasks we hope to get through before the day is out; so it’s useful to make the distinction between sitting compliantly and actually being present with your attention.
This resource is designed to work with children’s natural propensity to pay attention in ways that are familiar to them. The physical nature of many of these activities makes them particularly well suited to children of a livelier disposition.
