Just Breathe

Exercises for Children Aged 5 to an age

Breathing is such an important part of being human but many of us don’t take the time to consciously breathe daily. It has so many healing and calming effects if practiced regularly for even a few minutes a day. The Explanation is suggested for the first time you start this series with the children so they understand the importance of deep breathing and the benefits of it. For subsequent exercises you can leave out the explanation and go directly to the breathing exercise. Explain to children why breathing is such an important exercise on a daily basis and what kinds of things breathing can help within the body. 

Breathing in and out lets the whole body move in rhythm. It brings air into the lungs helps the muscles contract and expand pumping blood to and from the heart helps the garbage to be pushed into our sewage system for removal. Ask kids if they prefer to keep the garbage in the body or to remove it? What if we didn’t have anywhere to throw our garbage at home and our house got full of it? How would that be? 

When you breathe deeply into the lungs, the lungs send vital energy throughout the entire body system so that you can have lots of energy to get through your busy day.  There is a little vault in the back of the brain at the back of the top of the neck and when you breathe that vault opens up to let the spinal fluid move in the body so that your nervous system can work properly. (Explain to the students the function of the nervous system if you wish to do into more detail. If you think of the brain as the main computer that controls the body, then the Nervous system is the network that sends the messages between the brain and the body. When you breathe deeply, that spinal fluid can move into all of the areas of your central nervous system for it to work at its best) You can think well, the messages get around the body nicely, it’s easier to focus, to think clearly, feel calmer, to pay attention and to understand the information that you are taking in because the computer is able to talk to the other parts of the body properly. (For older kids, explain this can help with exams if they do this exercise just before or during studying) 

Also in the spine we have little bones called vertebraes. Ask the children to feel each others vertebraes. When you breath deeply, it makes those little bones rock in rhythm and helps to keep the spine and spinal cord healthy. When you breathe deeply in and out, your brain gets a chance to scan the entire body for any problems. (Give an example of those games at a fair where you have to hit the ball really hard to make the bell ring – or if any child has used a breathing pump to test their breath where the harder you breathe, the easier the pump whistles) In the same way, when you breath deep, your brain can scan your entire body all the way from the bones, muscles, blood, emotions and to your thoughts rather than just part of it with shallow breathing. Breathing in it scans from heaviest to lightest, and breathing out it scans the opposite to see if there are any malfunctions. And by doing this you can also feel inside if something isn’t right or if you are unhappy about something or if something is bothering you.

And that leads to the last and probably the best benefit of deep breathing. When you breathe deeply, you can relax, calm your mind, slow your heartbeat, and just feel what it feels like to be in your body. When your body is calm and relaxed it is so much easier for you to take in information, to make good decisions, and to think clearly about whatever it is you are doing. For example how many of us get angry sometimes??? And when you are angry you cannot think rationally. You cannot make clear, conscious decisions. (Teach older kids that this deep breathing helps you gain control back in any situation so that you can think rationally) But if you choose to breathe deeply when you are so angry, you will see how things change in your body. So now after we do some deep breathing, you can see how you feel yourself.

Breathing Exercise

1. Ask the children to either lie down comfortably (Older children can do this standing up) and put their hands on their bellies. They can close their eyes during this exercise.

2. Ask them to think about how they are feeling in the moment, and if they have any negative feelings inside, or if they are struggling to figure out anything or if they are feeling great overall?

3. Then as they hold their tummy, ask them to take a deep inhale (as if they are inhaling the fragrance of beautiful flower) for a count of 2 and then hold it for 3 and breath out (as if they are blowing out a birthday candle) for a count of 4.

4. Take a few normal breaths in between

5. Repeat step 2 and the normal breaths in between 3 more times.

After the breathing exercise ask children the following questions so they get used to thinking about how they feel before and after their breathing. Ask children how they feel? And also if they can describe what they were feeling before the breathing and after. Was anyone feeling yucky before? Were there any changes in any of the kids? *You will probably notice a nice shift in your children whether at home or in a classroom.

Of course once children have had some practice at breathing deeply on a regular basis you can do a short version of this exercise whenever you feel that you need to bring the body and mind back to a state of calm and anytime throughout the day.