Mindfulness for Tweens

Mindfulness for Tweens

By Denise Carlin M.S., family Coach at The UCLA Family Commons
July 25th, 2011

I’d like to talk with you about Mindfulness training for tweens. Mindfulness is a practice that helps people to reduce their stress levels, and find balance amidst the challenges in life.

As we know, tweens are constantly undergoing challenges at school, at home, and in their peer group. Mindfulness classes at the UCLA Family Commons are focused toward games, movement and exercises for tweens who want help to reduce stress and be more calm in their daily life. Mindfulness practice will also help them to remain calm when they need to solve problems either in life or in their schoolwork.

One of the games we play at the UCLA Family Commons in our Mindfulness practice is a game that involves noticing; a kind of an extreme noticing. If we’re sitting in a circle with teens who are needing to reduce their stress in test-taking, I might have everyone hold a pencil in their writing hands and look at the pencil and just observe the pencil. We do some breathing exercises while we’re looking at the pencil, which will help us to be more calm in that place of getting ready to take a test. Now the tweens can use this exercise, or even just picking up and holding a pencil, as a cue that it is time to reduce stress.  While holding the pencil, we may do a series of visualizations that involve breathing in and breathing out and releasing the tension.

These kinds of Mindful Awareness practices can be applied to many stress inducing situations for tweens. We work with children to help calm their thoughts and anxiety surrounding various situations.  

At The UCLA Family Commons, we can help your tween get through their anxiety and reduce their stress level so that they can be a more happy and more balanced person.