I love this one! It’s such a fun and yummy way to introduce mindfulness meditation to kids. They will most likely love it, so go ahead and try this fun meditation for children.

It’s called “The Raisin Meditation,” but you can use any dried fruit or pretty much anything else edible. Raisins are great for this exercise because they are so common and unexciting. Having said that, I bet you haven’t tasted a raisin like this before.

See how much more there is to the experience when you really pay attention–when you are fully immersed. “The Raisin Meditation” is a great way to show your child how paying attention can change the way we experience the world.

This exercise is a tactile and fun way to introduce mindfulness that engages all senses, all while enjoying a healthy snack! The point of the raisin meditation is to take something small, that we take for granted, such as a raisin and experience it purposefully through all of our senses.

Conscious attention applied slowly has a calming, awareness building and relaxing effect. Eating mindfully can help us to digest better and studies suggest that mindful attention helps regulate the amount of food consumed.

In one study, the researchers wanted to know if people who ate mindfully ended up consuming more calories because they enjoyed eating more, or fewer calories because their improved attention led to greater behavioral control. Take a guess!

This is what they found out: Mindful eaters consumed significantly less “junk food” and total calories than the control group. The control group (not mindful) consumed 48% more calories. The study concluded that an undistracted sensory focus can increase eating pleasure and even help people regulate the type and amount of food consumed.1

Mindfulness Meditation For Children – The Raisin Meditation

Purpose: Mindfulness, Sensory Awareness, Gratitude

Best for: Ages 3+

What you need: 1 raisin (or other dried fruit).

The raisin meditation is a great way to practice mindfulness through the process of eating. You will need to verbally guide the child through this meditation.

At first, it’s probably a good idea to model the process yourself to show the child exactly what to do. You can “think aloud” when you model the process, but when it’s the child’s turn, have her keep her thoughts to herself.

1. To begin, tell the child to pick up her raisin and look at it. Ask her to make a silent observation about its size and texture.

2. Then, direct her to feel the raisin between her fingers. Does it have bumps and ridges? What does the weight of the raisin feel like in her palm?

3. Have her bring the raisin to her nose. Does its smell remind her of anything? How does it smell different from other foods?

4. Ask her to bring the raisin close to her ear and to squish the raisin gently. Is there a sound to be heard?

5. Next, tell her to put the raisin on her tongue…but tell her not to take a bite just yet! Does the texture feel different when it’s in her mouth compared to when she held it in her hand?

6. After she bites into the raisin, ask her to think about its flavor. Is there more than one flavor?

7. Finally, tell her to swallow the raisin. Ask her to determine what flavors are left lingering in her mouth.

8. We can be grateful for the taste sensations and for having food. Remind her that the food she is eating involves many people and hard work. Remind her of the farmer, the people working at the grocery store and the people who work to prepare our food.

To wrap up the exercise, ask the child what she learned from eating slowly and mindfully.

  • Was eating like this different from how she’s used to?
  • How was it different?
  • Would she like to do this again?
  • How could focusing attention like this help her in other activities?

I hope that your family will enjoy this exercise.

Wishing you many fun mindful moments with your children :-)

Chris Bergstrom

Chief Mindfulness Ninja @ Blissful Kids

 #1 Best-Selling Author of:
 
★★★★★ Awesome “Bought this book for my 6 year old, but even my 3 and 15 yo love the activities. We usually incorporate activities on a daily basis and it’s been working so far.”
&
★★★★★ Cute and calming “With the craze being all about baby sharks, it’s a great idea to take it and use it to help our kids calm down themselves. I’m a therapist and look forward to using this with my kid clients.”

See also:

Liking the Music

Stay Cool Game

5 Mindful Games

If you are new to mindfulness with children OR you want to make practice easy we recommend our online mindfulness courses.


Chris Bergstrom is a bestselling mindfulness author, a leader in the field of mindfulness, the founder of BlissfulKids.com, a blog dedicated to children’s mindfulness, and a dad who is thrilled to practice mindfulness with his son. He is a certified mindfulness facilitator and trained to teach mindfulness to students in K-12. He’s also known as “the dad who tried 200+ mindfulness activities” and has taught meditation for more than 15 years.


Sources:

1 American Mindfulness Research Association, “Mindful attention helps regulate Amount of food consumed”, https://goamra.org/mindful-attention-helps-regulate-amount-food-consumed/, (May 2016).