Meditations for Anxiety in Children:
Benefits and an Easy Visualization Practice to Calm Your Child Now
When your child isn’t feeling well their physical symptoms often cause a lot of anxiety. Illness causes anxiety, anxiety causes the body to tense and release adrenaline and cortisol, which in turn causes more physical symptoms, increased pain, and then even more anxiety. This is a cycle that you, as the parent of an ill child, really want to break. While it isn’t a cure for serious illness, research study after research study prove that meditation calms anxiety, and eases its physical symptoms, like muscle tension, digestive distress, and pain. Meditation has a soothing effect on the mind which helps the body to feel better. In essence, meditation is a mind-body practice which has the power to directly affect health. Mental, emotional and even social and spiritual factors can influence healing and help our wellness journey.
Here are some of the many benefits of meditation:
1. Less Pain and Illness
Meditation can help kids manage the pain and symptoms of illness. A study done at a university in Thailand found that meditation reduces cortisol levels in the blood. In addition, meditation releases endorphins, those feel-good hormones that reduce feelings of pain and illness. When your mind relaxes, your body does too, and that leaves you feeling better, long after your meditation time is over.
2. Increased Immunity
A recent University of Florida study found a correlation between mindfulness meditation and better immunity. Other studies show a similar correlation between mindfulness and meditation and increased immunity. This may have something to do with #1 (above.) With reduced anxiety, bodies produce less cortisol, a stress hormone, which causes weakened immunity.
3. Better Sleep
Research published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine showed that kids who do mindfulness (meditation) sleep on average, 74 minutes more per night. This study was not done on children with illnesses, but the fact remains that meditation helps kids relax their minds an bodies, so they can fall asleep quicker and sleep more deeply. A good night’s sleep can be hard for children who are in unfamiliar and often scary surroundings, away from their loved ones, dealing with beeping machines, different smells, many interruptions, all on top of the symptoms of their illness. These children need sleep the most, and fortunately, meditation can help.
4. Enhanced Personal Power
Children with serious illnesses often feel a lack of personal power and autonomy. They have many medical appointments, tests, and hospitalizations that they need, but don’t want or choose, and they are often left feeling powerless.
Meditation is a way to give children some power back and also assist them in feeling better. Andrew Weill, M.D the founder and director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, says, “The body has an incredible ability to heal itself given the right conditions and support.” Meditation provides the right conditions and support for the body to heal and feel better. There are many wonderful guided imagery and visualization practices to holistically support your child through their illness.
The colorful light or smiley face practice below is one such way. Feel free to adapt it in any way that resonates with you and your child.
Whether your child is at home or in the hospital, you might want to enhance this meditation practice by using an aromatherapy oil they enjoy, playing soft music, or having them meditate with a stuffed animal buddy.
Colorful Light or Smiley Face Visualization Practice
Almost every child enjoys the world of magic and make-believe. A visualization meditation practice can help children connect with their imagination to bring calm to their mind and ease some of their physical symptoms, too.
Tell your child that they have the power, with their imagination, to help their mind and body feel calm and peaceful. They can do this by imagining their favorite color, a soft, warm light, or even a smiley face, touching their body on the outside, or even the inside.
The colorful light or smiley face has magical powers to make their body feel better.
If the child is able, you might want to offer them crayons or markers. They may want to draw a shape in their favorite color to represent the light, or make an image of a smiley face. They might want to give their colorful light or smiley face a name. If you don’t have any way to physically represent this, they can just use their imagination.
If your child is comfortable, ask them to close their eyes to eliminate any distractions. If this isn’t comfortable for them, have them look down, or focus on an empty space. Invite them to imagine their favorite color, in a soft, warm light, or a smiley face at the top of their head. Tell them that they can invite that colorful light or smiley face to touch their body, to help them feel better. They may want to talk to the colorful light or smiley face to become comfortable with it.
When they are ready, ask them if the colorful light or smiley face can tough their body. Tell them they can use words, said silently, or out loud, to give the light or smiley face permission to touch them.
They might want to imagine that it touches the outside of their body. If they are comfortable with this, guide them into a body scan that has the colorful light, or smiley face gently touching each part of their body, with a special focus on the parts that hurt or don’t feel well.
If the child is comfortable inviting that color, light or smiley face into their body, ask them where they would like it to enter. (Children who have had many invasive procedures may not want to think of something going inside of their body, so it is important to let them decide and not trigger any fear or trauma with this practice.)
They might want the light to enter at their head, or their heart, or maybe even their tummy. You can tell them that this body part has a special doorway to let in the color, light or smiley face, and that only they have the key to open the door and let it in. This gives them a feeling of bodily autonomy and control. Invite them to use their imaginary key, open the door, and let the colorful light or smiley face into their body.
Once the color or smiley face is inside their body, they can choose what part of their body they want it to touch, or you can help guide them on where they want it to go, doing a sort of body scan and focusing on parts of their body that are ill, injured or painful.
Whether they imagine the light or smiley face on the outside of their body, or the inside, the practice is just the same: letting this soothing image bring them feelings of calm and relaxation.
You can say things like:
-The (colorful light, or smiley face) helps you feel calm and peaceful and healthy and strong. It sends your body love, hugs, and healing
-Every place the (light or the smiley face) touches feels so relaxed and peaceful
-The (color or smiley face) fills your whole body with love. It soothes your pain and helps parts that don’t feel well to feel better
When your child is done meditating, and if your child is able, they might want to take a few slow deep breaths as they finish the meditation. They may want to wiggle their fingers or toes, and open their eyes, if they were closed, when they are ready.
They can imagine the colorful light or the smiley face going back onto the paper or going into a magic, imaginary box, where they can take it out when they want to use it again. If they invited the light or the smiley face into their body, they can imagine it leaving through the door and then closing the door and using their key to turn the lock.
If they have drawn a picture of the light or the smiley face, you might want to hang it on a wall, where the child can see it. Tell them that they can always imagine the colorful light or the smiley face with them when they feel sick, scared or unwell in any way. It is always with them to keep them company and to help them feel better.
Invite your child to share how they felt doing this practice and remind them that they can do this practice on their own, anytime, even if you aren’t there with them.
Written by Janis Gioia, MAEd
Janis Gioia, MAEd, is a meditation teacher, former special education teacher, and the creator of Wee Meditate. Wee Meditate is a meditation platform that teaches kids meditation in a storybook world with a magical dragon and his forest animal friends.