Practice- “Clear Mind” Game for Children
by meditative - April 4th, 2011.Filed under: Insights for Mindful Intelligence.
Abstracted from “Mindfulness for Children”~ Susan Kasier Greenland
Take a clear glass bottle with a cap or lid. Fill it with water. Put it on a table, and ask your child or children to look through and see what’s on the other side. They’ll probably see you or whatever’s sitting on the tabletop. Now, pour a cupful of baking soda into the water and shake the bottle. What does it look like now? Can they still see through to the other side? Probably not; the baking soda clouds the water and obscures their vision. Just like the baking soda in water, thoughts and emotions can create havoc in our heads and cloud our otherwise clear minds. After a minute or two, take another look at the water. What happens when you leave it alone? Sure enough, the more the water rests, the more the baking soda settles, and the clearer the water becomes. Soon, all the baking soda will settle to the bottom of the bottle, and your child or children will be able to see through the glass again. The same holds true with our minds. The longer we rest in the steady rhythm of our breathing, the more our thoughts and emotions settle down and the clearer our minds become.