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Sitting Still Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids (and Their Parents) by [Eline Snel, Jon Kabat-Zinn]

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Jon Kabat-Zinn

Eline Snel

Sitting Still Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids (and Their Parents) Kindle Edition

by Eline Snel (Author), Jon Kabat-Zinn (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition

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Simple mindfulness practices to help your child (ages 5-12) deal with anxiety, improve concentration, and handle difficult emotions—with a 60-minute audio CD of guided exercises

Mindfulness—the quality of attention that combines full awareness with acceptance of each moment, just as it is—is gaining broad acceptance among mental health professionals as an adjunct to treatment. This little book is a very appealing introduction to mindfulness meditation for children and their parents. In a simple and accessible way, it describes what mindfulness is and how mindfulness-based practices can help children calm down, become more focused, fall asleep more easily, alleviate worry, manage anger, and generally become more patient and aware. The book contains eleven practices that focus on just these scenarios, along with short examples and anecdotes throughout.

Included with purchase is an audio CD with guided meditations, voiced by Myla Kabat-Zinn, who along with her husband, Jon Kabat-Zinn, popularized mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) as a therapeutic approach.

Print length

125 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Shambhala
Publication date

December 3, 2013
File size

559 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sitting Still Like a Frog introduces the basics of mindfulness to children in an easy-to-understand and playful way. It guides children in the cultivation of presence: presence of mind, presence of heart, and presence in the body. This is something we are all capable of but usually don't cultivate intentionally. Why not start young in training those capacities? The world nowadays is so complex and fast-paced that knowing how to ground oneself in the present moment is an absolute necessity to make sense of the world and to continue learning, growing, and contributing what is uniquely yours to contribute in this world." —from the foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn

"Sitting Still Like a Frog teaches children mindfulness through an amphibious friend who sits very still. . . . Many practices fill the book and audio CD, and all of them remind us, and our children, just how easily thoughts can move us off our lily pads." —Mindful magazine

"From the central image of sitting still like a frog to the spaghetti test for physical relaxation, the images, metaphors, and practical exercises are pitched at the right level to really engage children—this book and CD will prove a valuable resource for our family's spiritual explorations." —Juno magazine

“An informative Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn introduces this valuable guide on mindfulness and meditation for children. Eline Snel is a seasoned parent, therapist and teacher. Her book is filled with practical suggestions and examples of how mindfulness can help to cultivate attentiveness (internal and external), relieve stress, recognize moods, relax, and deal with what is happening within and around us. The CD provides eleven guided meditations. For parents, teachers and anyone ages 5 to 12 (and up).”
—Light of Consciousness magazine

“In a simple and accessible way, Sitting Still Like a Frog describes what mindfulness is and how mindfulness-based practices can help children calm down, become more focused, fall asleep more easily, alleviate worry, manage anger, and generally become more patient and aware.” —Children’s Books Daily

“Whether you prefer the book or CD, Sitting Still Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids and Their Parents is an excellent tool for helping kids wind down before bed.” —Mind Body Green --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

ELINE SNEL is a therapist and certified MBSR trainer and runs the Academy for Mindful Teaching in the Netherlands. She has been developing and teaching mindfulness-based courses for over twenty years and trains teachers to teach MBSR techniques to students. Her program has been used in numerous primary schools in the Netherlands. She has recently started a pilot project in various secondary schools to teach mindfulness practices to teenagers. Eline also teaches the program in Belgium, France, and Germany. More information is available on www.academievoormindfulteaching.nl and www.elinesnel.nl. For children's training by AMT instructors, see www.aandachtwerkt.com. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00GS6H3E6
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Shambhala; Pap/Com edition (December 3, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 3, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 559 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 125 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #282,172 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #107 in Buddhist Rituals & Practice (Kindle Store)
- #281 in Buddhist Rituals & Practice (Books)
- #514 in New Age Meditation

Customer Reviews:
1,162 ratings

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Jon Kabat-Zinn
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Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, is internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society. He is professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and author of numerous books, including Full Catastrophe Living, Arriving at Your Own Door, and Coming to Our Senses.
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Eline Snel
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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

1,162 global ratings

5 star		72%
4 star		14%
3 star		7%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Sakuteiki

Self soothing, self calming pause, survival skill habit

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 6, 2015

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Self soothing, self calming practice. High school PE teacher told our class to lie on our backs, eyes closed, knees tented up, place flat hands on abdomen to feel breathing deep into lungs. The idea that through a simple breath practice I could moderate stress, physical emotional intellectual, and change the trajectory of a situation, was new National Geographic: Stress - Portrait of a Killer documentary.

I used that simple belly breathing to slow down before speeches, oral exams, public presentations through the years until at Harvard I took a course led by David Eisenberg MD ( Healing & the Mind (Programs 1-5) PBS 5 episode series David Eisenberg MD on Tai Chi, Qi Gong, acupuncture, Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD Chronic Pain Mindfulness Meditation, David Spiegel MD metastatic breast cancer meditation and group therapy, Rachel Remen MD Commonweal Hospice) and learned Mindfulness Meditation ( Dhamma Brothers documentary of 10 day meditation training and 10 year follow up) with Jon-Kabat Zinn and began using that as a tool for slowing down before embarking on a challenging day and then again when preparing for sleep.

I read Sitting Still Like a Frog by Eline Snell and listened to the CD. This gentle book is a less imposing introduction to the concept of personal agency in self soothing for adults as well as children. Parental teaching is less intimidating when we have experience with the practice of self calming and are able to communicate that confidence to children. I shared with a PE teacher at our local high school that one simple exercise helped me throughout college, and he immediately said "belly breathing." Mindfulness is the opposite of motoric hyperactivity. Learning to value boring quiet time for thought reflection emptying the mind of worries is an important survival skill.

The Soloist biopic of Nathaniel Ayers Julliard trained cellist with schizophrenia demonstrates the healing power of self discipline to combat frontal cortex cognitive disruption, endow us with momentary reconnection with rationality and self control, and restore balance.

Solitude, the ability to sit alone with one's own thoughts for 15 minutes in an empty room without distracting talk, electronics, doing or writing, is a survival skill which serves to restore well-being in a hectic moment.

Just 3 deep slow belly breaths is enough of a distraction to delay an uncontrolled emotional outburst which could damage self regard, and may result in stigma from observers. Learning to pause and attend to the breath puts us back in control.

Human brains function best unitasking, thinking one thing at a time. If we are watching our belly rise, pursing our lips to breathe out slowly, the natural metronome of breath slows us down, achieving natural stillness.

Life cannot be all mountains of peak activity. We need valleys of rest to reflect and restore our souls. Mindful solitude can control chronic pain, help connect with what is meaningful and valuable in our lives now, and remind us that we are not alone in our vulnerabilities.

We want to avoid the fate of The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Bantam Classics) Leo Tolstoy feeling we wasted precious and irretrievable moments on meaningless gazingus pins like [ASIN:B00X3DC702 Madame Bovary] Mia Wasikowska, Your Money Or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money And Achieving Financial Independence 1992 hardback or 1993 paperback only, later editions written by different author, anger The Karate Kid (Special Edition) Ralph Macchio Pat Morita and existential loneliness vs self nurturance, Departures Oscar Best Foreign Film English subtitles abandoned age 6, tries to please absent father, fails at life career, spouse leaves, mentored by new employer and bath house owner, learns self agency, forgiveness without apology, grows self up, The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy, but Doesn't, What Shouldn't Make You Happy, but Does Sonja Lyubomirsky.

Self agency in problem solving comes with practice in coping with events out of our control, like parental mental illness, conflict or divorce, chemotherapy radiation and surgery, bullying, cognitive disability and discovering that we can survive, figure out a way to deal with adversity and move on. The younger we are when we develop confidence in our self soothing skills, the more durable our resilience as teens and adults [ASIN:076364367X The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane] Kate DiCamillo, Dhamma Brothers documentary of 10 day meditation training and years later follow up of learning self soothing for the first time in adulthood.

5* gentle boring introduction to meditation for grown ups and children alike.
Be well.

One person found this helpful

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RHatfield

Amazing. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 19, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is my first review for a product I have purchased on Amazon. I feel so strongly about it that I felt the need to write and encourage other parents to try it.

We have been using this CD daily for over 3 months. It has created an almost miraculous change in helping my severely anxious child learn to calm himself down. This book has literally changed my child's life. I feel like a proselytizer when I tell people about it, but I feel strongly enough about it that I don't even care. ;)

I have a young elementary-aged child with anxiety so extreme that in the past, it was interfering with him falling asleep at night. We would do the whole bedtime-routine, I would turn out the light and leave the room and then he would spend up to 3 hours walking in circles in his bedroom until he fell over from exhaustion. He simply did not know to "turn off his brain" so that he could sleep. We tried many different things to help him calm down: hot baths, massages, reading books until he fell asleep, etc. None of them really worked. Recently his therapist recommended that we try some "mindfulness" training. I had the vague idea that mindfulness meant focusing on gratitude, taking some deep breaths, etc., but I had no idea how to teach that skill to a child. I started looking on Amazon for books on mindfulness and stumbled upon this Book/CD set. I ordered it, along with some of the Indigo Dreams CDs and crossed my fingers that something might help.

When the book and CD arrived, I skimmed the book and was totally unimpressed. I didn't even bother to finish reading it, because it came across as dry and boring. But the CD...that's another thing. The CD has 11 meditations on it that cover a variety of situations, from general anxiety to sadness to not being able to fall asleep. And they are amazing. They tap into a kid's deepest thoughts and insecurities and needs in ways that kids can't even verbalize. They are...magic. For the past three months, my kid has been falling asleep on average within 10 minutes of turning on the CD player. There was ONE night that meditation didn't work, and that was because he was too worked up to use it.

The CD starts with a 9 minute introduction that teaches kids how to meditate. (They don't realize that's what is happening. They think they are just learning to "sit like a frog.") After listening to that several times, my child had a very clear idea of how the meditative process worked and how it made him feel. He wanted more, because the feeling was so good. Over several days, we worked our way through all the meditations. Now he cues up the tracks he thinks he needs based upon what he is feeling. "The Conveyor Belt of Worries," "Sitting Like a Frog," "The Secret of the Heart Chamber," and "Sleep Tight" are our favorites. We listen to at least one every day. And the cumulative affect has been much greater than just helping with bedtime. It has helped my child to be calmer all throughout the day.

In researching the affects of meditation on the brain, I discovered that there are studies showing through the use of MRIs that mediation can actually shrink the fear-portion of your brain and strengthen the higher-reasoning portions. This affect is cumulative; the more you meditate, the greater and longer-lasting the benefit.

I have recommended this CD to anyone and everyone I know who has small children. The life lesson of learning to be calm and recognize that "thoughts are just thoughts and they don't KNOW everything" sends an incredibly powerful message that I think benefits all children. I even gave our copy to my child's teacher so she could use it in the classroom, because she said that all the kids are struggling to maintain calm as we get toward the end of the year. Now I'll be purchasing a new copy for home, because we can't be without it. :)

368 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Jay

Book not like its cover or Amazon page. Disappointed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 14, 2018

Verified Purchase

This book looks good on the amazon page, but when you get down to reading and using it, it's not that great. The author has basically hijacked another mediation book, and repackaged it.

Which I didn't mind, I thought the book would have nice illustrations for children (like the picture the cover) and meditation scripts tailored for children, but the text of the book and accompanying CD are more for adults.

Really you can get any mediation book, think yourself how to adapt it to children use a frog as an example of sitting and you have this book. I was hoping the work was already done for me.

The book waffles on about the benefits of mediation and examples of success, its about 100 pages and its 26 that the first exercise starts. I wanted practical tips to help my child start mediation not be sold the benefits of mediation.

22 people found this helpful

Alyissa

Helps my daughters anxiety

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

My daughter struggles with social anxiety (mainly at school) my GP recommended this book as her husband is a clinical psychologist and swears by it. My daughter has tried three of the exercises so far, she wasn’t keen to participate in the breathing exercises at first but really enjoys it now.

2 people found this helpful

Paula

Helped my 13 year old

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 18, 2019

Verified Purchase

Bought for my son after a recommendation, he says it has hepled him to understand more about the anxiety problems he has been experiencing. Good book, easy to understand, comes with a CD. Would recommend for any parent whose child suffers from anxiety.

3 people found this helpful

Carole Anne

Highly recommended to any parent with a child with attachment issues

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 6, 2015

Verified Purchase

Highly recommended to any parent with a child with attachment issues, ADHD, ASD etc.

Within the first two days there was a vast improvement in my son's sleeping patterns. Amazing book.

28 people found this helpful

P Godden

Great buy!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 25, 2016

Verified Purchase

I found this a really great little book and CD. I bought it to use with young clients who suffer from anxiety and difficulty getting to sleep and they have reported that it has helped. I have also suggested it to a few adults who find the whole concept of meditation and Mindfullness difficult to grasp. I have also found it helpful for myself! Elite has a very soothing and calming voice which helps too.

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