In today's episode we are learning about something called Metacognition. This big word just means thinking about thinking. We're going to do some mindfulness practices that will help us to notice what our mind is doing, where are thoughts are going, and see if we can start to have a little more control over what is happening up there. Then we'll listen to a story called Quinn and the Worry Channel about a little boy who has a hard time falling asleep because of his worrying thoughts. Speaker A: Hi friends. Welcome to PoMCast the Peace of Mind podcast. I'm Linda Ryden, the peace teacher. I created peace of mind to help kids manage their emotions, be kinder to themselves and others, solve conflicts peacefully, and prepare to build a more peaceful world. I created this podcast to share peace of mind's helpful tools with kids everywhere. I send me a voice memo with your questions about your emotions, friendships, conflicts, whatever, and maybe I'll play it and do my best to answer it on the next show. I would love to hear from you. Okay, let's get started.Speaker B: In today's episode, we're learning about something called metacognition. This big word just means thinking about thinking. We're going to do some mindfulness practices that will help us to notice what our mind is doing, where our thoughts are going, and see if we can start to have a little more control over what's happening up there. Then we'll listen to a story called Quinn and the Worry channel about a little boy who has a hard time falling asleep because of his worrying thoughts.Speaker A: Let's get started. Today we're going to be focusing on our breath in a new way. We're going to use it as an anchor or a home base. Try this. Put your hands on your belly and take a few breaths, just breathing in and out and in and out. Did you notice that your breath has two parts? The breath goes in and the breath goes out. Today we're really going to focus on our breath, so let's just try taking three deep breaths together. Just slowly and gently breathe in. And out. And in, and out, and in, and out. Now just let your breath settle back into its natural rhythm. You don't have to change it at all. Now, while you're just breathing normally, place your hand on your belly and feel the little movement that happens when your breath goes in and out. It might be a really small movement. Now move your hand to your chest and see what you feel there when your breath goes in and out. Notice where you felt your breath the most and keep your hand there, either on your belly or your chest. Now we're going to count ten breath. You can count them any way you want to. You can count one in breath, or inhale and one out breath, or exhale as one whole breath. Or you can count each inhale and exhale as one breath. It doesn't matter how you count them. Just try to keep your mind focused on counting your breaths. As soon as you notice that your mind has wandered away, just try to bring it back to your counting. Starting again at one. Try not to count higher than ten. Once you get to ten, start over at one, or you can even count backwards. You ready to try it? Let's get into our mindful bodies. You can close your eyes if you want to, or look down into your lap. Put your hand on your belly or your chest, and we're just going to try it. We're just going to see if you can count ten of your breaths. Remember, this is just for fun. Don't worry if your mind wanders. Just try to bring it back when you notice that it's wandered. Let's start now. All right, let's stop focusing on counting our breaths and just take a moment to notice what happened. Were you able to keep your mind focused on your breath the whole time? Was it hard to keep your mind focused on your breath? Did counting help you to focus? It's perfectly normal for our minds to wander. This happens to all of us. With practices like this one, you're developing your ability to bring your focus back to whatever you need to be focusing on. Even when it's not always super exciting, you're building a really important skill. So try to practice this a couple of times this week and see if it gets any easier. Okay, so now we're going to be paying attention to our breath in a different way, and we're going to be noticing what happens in our minds when we try to focus. When I asked you to close your eyes and focus your mind on a sound or your breath, what usually happens in your mind? You probably said that your mind wanders. The good news is that this is perfectly normal. It happens to everyone and it's not usually a problem. But what happens when you're in math class and your teacher is telling you what the homework is and you're thinking about something else, like what you're having for dinner? That's not a great feeling. In mindfulness, we're trying to notice that moment when our minds wander and see where our minds go. Then we can decide if we want to redirect our minds. That's part of the fun. Paying attention to what is ...
