Mindfulness Techniques to Improve Attention, Executive Functioning and Anxiety

Ready to ditch the stress and amp up your calm? Forget the stress overload—mindfulness is here to rescue you with practices that are not only effective but also surprisingly fun. Mindfulness techniques and strategies are fun and easy to teach to children. Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) is particularly beneficial for children, promoting mental and emotional well-being through mindful practices. They are often simple to do (some requiring only one or two steps). By incorporating mindfulness into our sensory experiences, we can increase our sense of joy and appreciation for life, making everyday activities more enriching and fulfilling. (Bögels et al., 2014)

When parents come to me at my Ridgefield, CT clinic, I always incorporate mindfulness based therapy when treating dysregulated kids. I suggest a number of mindfulness resources that parents can use, and they often share positive feedback about how easy it is to do and the immediate relief that their kids experience.

Practicing Mindfulness with Your Child

Mindfulness is a powerful practice that involves paying attention to the present moment in a non-judgmental way. Mindfulness takes practice and it can be a fun activity that you can do with your kids. Practicing mindfulness helps individuals stay grounded and focused, allowing them to experience life more fully. It’s about cultivating awareness of one’s thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations without getting caught up in them. While mindfulness is often practiced through meditation, it can also be incorporated into daily activities such as eating and walking. Mindfulness increases the overall sense of well-being and is great not only for your kids but for you too.

How Mindfulness Can Help with Attention, Executive Functioning, and Anxiety Disorders

Mindfulness can play a crucial role in improving attention, executive functioning, and anxiety, offering a holistic approach to enhancing overall well-being. By focusing on the present moment, mindfulness practices help regulate the nervous system, which can positively impact these areas in several ways:

Improves Attention

Mindfulness enhances attention by training the brain to focus on the present moment. Practices like mindful breathing and listening help strengthen the brain’s ability to sustain attention and reduce distractions. Regular mindfulness practice improves concentration, allowing individuals to stay focused on tasks and follow through with greater efficiency.

Boosts Executive Functioning

Executive functioning skills, such as planning, organization, and impulse control, benefit from mindfulness by promoting self-regulation and emotional control. Mindfulness exercises help individuals become more aware of their thought patterns and reactions, fostering better decision-making and problem-solving abilities. By calming the mind and reducing stress, mindfulness enhances cognitive flexibility and working memory, key components of executive functioning.

Reduces Anxiety

Mindfulness is effective in managing anxiety by shifting the focus away from worrisome thoughts and encouraging a non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. Techniques like mindful breathing and guided imagery help calm the nervous system and lower stress levels, reducing the intensity of anxiety. With people with social anxiety disorder, mindfulness can quiet down negative thoughts. By learning to observe thoughts and feelings without becoming overwhelmed by them, individuals can develop healthier coping strategies and a greater sense of inner peace.

When we encourage mindfulness into daily routines it can lead to significant improvements in attention, executive functioning, and anxiety, providing a comprehensive approach to mental and emotional well-being.

Mindfulness and Self-Regulation

The benefits of mindfulness are numerous and well-documented. Incorporating mindful awareness into parenting helps parents pause and shift their perspective, allowing them to focus on the long-term relationship with their child. This approach enables them to better meet their child's needs while practicing self-regulation and making thoughtful choices in their actions. (Duncan et al., 2009). 

Mindfulness has also been linked to improved emotional regulation, increased self-awareness, and enhanced cognitive functioning. Additionally, mindfulness has been shown to have a positive impact on physical health, including reducing chronic pain and improving immune function. By incorporating mindfulness into daily life, individuals can experience these benefits and more, leading to a healthier and more balanced lifestyle.

Mindfulness Meditation for Kids and Teens

Mindfulness meditation can be a wonderful gift for children, offering them tools to manage their emotions, improve focus, and cultivate a sense of inner peace. By introducing mindfulness in a way that's engaging and fun, you can help your child develop a practice that supports their overall well-being. There are different mindfulness meditations that you can do with your kids, here are some ways:

Mindful breathing

Mindful breathing is one of the easiest things to teach children. Deep breathing focuses on paying attention to your body, it can be done anywhere. To practice mindful breathing, focus on the inhale and exhale of breath. Tell children to think about the big breaths they take at the doctor’s office. It’s the same thing but slower.

This type of meditation practice is about noticing how you are breathing, which is different than controlling or changing how you are actually doing it. When you begin to pay attention to your breath, the body has the capacity to automatically settle into a more gentle and slower pace of breathing.

Mindful breathing involves mindful awareness. Start by bringing awareness to a part of the body that is actively involved in breathing normally, such as their nostrils, or their abdomen. This is called finding an “anchor” for breathing. “Breath is an anchor for the mind”. Body awareness and focusing in on a specific body part during breathing increases children’s ability to stay with the strategy. If their mind wanders or drifts, they can learn to bring attention back to their “anchor”. Just by being aware of physical sensations makes one be in the present moment.

Breathing In and Out
This is a quick exercise for younger children. You can say, “breathe in the flowers, blow out the candles.” This is simple exercise is one of the mindfulness activities that are easy for kids to understand and do.

Exaggerated Breathing
Another good practice is to take exaggerated breaths or deep breaths. Tell children to breathe in for a count of 3, hold their breath for a count of 2, and exhale for a count of 4. The counting gives the children something specific to focus on. To add a visual, place a stuffed animal on the child’s belly while he or she is lying down, and ask the child to take a deep breath and make the stuffed animal go as high as it can, then as low as it can when breathing out.

Focus Breathing
Focusing on breath forces the mind to be in the moment. Results are felt immediately due to the physiological changes that happen in the body as you breathe mindfully. Heart rate and breath rate stabilize, and the nervous system is reset. As a result of the immediate effect of calm and relaxation, children realize that they actually have control over how intensely they experience their emotions.

Having children focus on their breathing can help them bring their attention to their bodies while grounding themselves. By incorporating these exercises into daily activities, children can cultivate mindfulness, enhancing their awareness and emotional regulation.

Mindful listening

This technique is the act of focusing on everything happening around your body. Mindfulness training can significantly enhance this practice, offering benefits for both personal and professional growth. It can be done in a variety of ways. The strategy used is often based on the individual child.

Sometimes, it’s best to have a child focus on a specific sound, such as a singing bowl or bell chime app. However, in public this isn’t always an option. Sometimes, you can ask a child to focus on the sounds around them and give you five specific noises they hear. You can also ask children to focus on the sounds that exist in what appears to be a silent room or offer them specific sounds and ask them to identify the sounds.

Mindful listening requires the child to focus on the moment. Being present means being aware of their surroundings. When children with executive functioning problems get overwhelmed by their environment, having them focus on a specific aspect of their surroundings helps their central nervous system calm down. Many kids are sensitive to and overwhelmed by sound, so calming the brain and reducing stress is important.

For children of all ages (even adults!) who are beginning to practice mindful listening, something like a singing (or Tibetan) bowl can be used as follows: hit the rim of the bowl to produce its tone, then ask for your child to listen with a quiet and still body.  Then, ask them to raise a hand to indicate when they can no longer hear the sound.

Body scan meditation

A body scan meditation is the process of focusing on each part of the body by moving from smallest to largest, promoting relaxation and mindfulness. The process can be as short as three minutes or as long as thirty minutes. For children who have a lot of kinetic energy and feel they can’t control their bodies, body scan meditation offers them a way to get in touch with their physicality.

Teaching this to children involves having them be still. Although some meditations suggest lying down, it’s also possible to do it while sitting or standing. Ask them to sit or lay down in a comfortable position. You want to ask the child to practice focusing on different body parts in a sequence. Ask the child to focus on what their pinky toe feels like. Is it warm? Cold? Is it touching a sock? What about the rest of the foot? Next move on to the other foot. From here, you move up the leg, torso, arms, fingers, neck, eyes, face, and head. Then you can ask the child to focus on the whole body. You can do this from the head down or toes up.

Many children with executive functioning issues find that when they get physically wound up or have sensory issues so they cannot self regulate their bodies well. Practicing body scan meditation can help these children learn how to slow down and pay attention to the different areas over which they want to exert more control.

For example, if a child gets overstimulated playing tag, it can lead to them becoming too physical. If the child is used to practicing body scan meditation, they can be guided away from the situation to work through their body scan. This can help the child recognize how their hands, feet, arms, and legs feel when they are overstimulated. As they get older, they will be able to recognize the situations themselves and practice this on their own.

By teaching the child to ground their body, you are having them focus on the sensory stimulation as well as their ability to control these individual parts. Practicing more mindfulness helps children connect with their emotions and fosters a sense of calm.

Mindfulness Exercises

Mindful movement, quite simply, refers to any type of movement or exercise that is done with awareness. Walking meditation, a specific form of meditation practiced while walking, combines physical activity and mindfulness, promoting relaxation and wellness by encouraging practitioners to focus on their bodily sensations and breath as they walk. You probably remember back to your childhood when you were curious about your environment. Perhaps you recall hiking down a favorite walking path, climbing a tree, or balancing on slippery rocks next to a stream. Simple mindfulness exercises creates better mental health by promoting present-moment awareness and calming the brain and the nervous system.

When stress levels go up, and worrisome or anxious and obsessive thoughts and feelings increase, people use a lot of cognitive energy and forget to connect with their bodies. When people disconnect from their bodies, they may miss important signals that they are on overload. Practicing mindful movement or doing mindfulness exercise decreases the intensity of anxiety and other negative feelings because it engages different areas of the brain. This, in turn, calms down the limbic system in the brain, where the amygdala, or “fire alarm” is housed.

Yoga for kids is an incredible way to teach mindfulness and to blend fun with fitness while nurturing both their bodies and minds. Through playful poses and imaginative practices, children build strength, flexibility, and focus, all while learning to manage stress and boost emotional well-being. With engaging activities like animal poses, story-based yoga, and partner exercises, kids discover that yoga isn’t just a workout—it’s an adventure that helps them feel more balanced, relaxed, and connected to themselves and others.

Walking meditation

Mindful walking is one of the many mindfulness exercises that can benefit children by enhancing their focus and well-being. This strategy involves having a child focus on his or her feet. Simply ask the child to pick up one foot, move it forward slowly, and then invite the child to feel his or her heel hitting the floor or ground, then the toes. The child repeats this with the other foot.

As the child is taking steps, encourage them to continue to focus on the feet and legs. You also want to invite curiosity from the child as to what he or she may be noticing in other parts of the body as they mindfully walk. There is no “right” or expected response; all responses are valid.

A mindful walk can be done anywhere – at home, outside, even at school if a child can take a movement break to the water fountain. The hyperactive child needs to specifically focus on slowing the movements down as much as possible. Depending on the child, this may need to be done incrementally so that they are comfortable with moving at a slower pace. A child may begin to think of other things during mindful walking. This is normal. Encourage the child to notice that he or she is having a thought and gently prompt the child to focus back to the feet. This meditation practice is not only good for one's emotional health but has also health benefits.

Mindfulness, Self-Compassion and Emotion Regulation

Mindfulness and self-compassion are closely linked. When we practice mindfulness, we cultivate a greater sense of awareness and acceptance of ourselves and our experiences. This can lead to increased self-compassion, which is the practice of treating oneself with kindness, understanding, and patience. By combining mindfulness with self-compassion, individuals can develop a more positive and loving relationship with themselves. This can lead to increased confidence, self-esteem, and overall well-being. Practicing mindfulness allows us to be more forgiving of our mistakes and more appreciative of our efforts, fostering a healthier self-image.

Mindfulness can be a powerful tool for emotion regulation, as it teaches children to observe their feelings without judgment. By staying present and aware, they can better understand their emotional triggers and responses. This practice helps them manage overwhelming emotions, like anxiety or frustration, leading to a calmer, more balanced state of mind. Over time, mindfulness can build resilience, making it easier for children to navigate emotional challenges with greater ease and confidence.

Mindfulness and Sensory Experiences

Mindfulness can be practiced through sensory experiences, such as eating, walking, and even showering. By paying attention to the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of our experiences, we can cultivate a greater sense of awareness and appreciation for the present moment. For example, mindful eating involves paying attention to the taste, texture, and smell of food, rather than eating on autopilot. Similarly, mindful walking involves paying attention to the sensation of our feet touching the ground, the movement of our legs, and the rhythm of our breath. By incorporating mindfulness into our sensory experiences, we can increase our sense of joy and appreciation for life, making everyday activities more enriching and fulfilling.

Mindfulness techniques and strategies are wonderful to do together as a family, especially when you are starting out. Practicing these strategies with your child also affords you benefits of being mindful, such as a calm, relaxed feeling, and a more present state of mind and body. Being a mindful state and incorporating these techniques into one's daily routine can help children develop better focus and improve self regulation.

Remember that there is no perfect, or textbook, way to practice the skills; children are often able to modify some of the strategies in a way that feels more effective for them. Go with the flow, and encourage their creativity and sense of intuition. No matter what mindfulness technique you try out with your child, you will be certain that they will enjoy it!