Background: Simply by focusing your mind on the speed of your heart, you can help slow it down, which in turn calms your brain. This effect works even better if you think of a person, animal, or place that you love, sending calming signals both ways through the vagus nerve.
Today in Class: We talked about how our brains and hearts can calm each other. Then we did a "heart meditation": We placed one hand on our hearts and the other on our stomachs, closed our eyes, and thought for two minutes about a person, place, or thing that we loved. Afterward, we discussed how we felt.
Self-Reflection: Whom do you love? What place do you love? What thing do you love? Place hands on heart and stomach, close your eyes, and think for two minutes about who or what you love. How do you feel?
At-Home Support
With your child, discuss heart meditation.
- You learned about heart meditation today. What's that? (Thinking of a person, place, or thing we love and focusing the thought on our heart for two minutes)
- What was that like? What did you feel like afterward?
- Our hearts and brains are connected, and they can soothe each other.
- Let's do a heart meditation right now, together. Think of a person, place, or thing you love.
- Now, let's put a hand on our hearts and a hand on our stomachs and close our eyes and think about what we love.
- (Two minutes later) How do you feel now? This is how I feel: ________________________ .
- Let's keep learning together about healthy ways to self-soothe.

fizkes/Shutterstock.com