Focusing our attention on the breath is one of the quickest ways to help the mind and body feel calm. Why not enjoy a moment of mindfulness and have some fun at the same time?!
Playing with bubbles is a great way to practise a simple mindful activity and can help children practice breathing from a young age. It can bring so much laughter and joy to children and can help to boost our moods, reduce our stress levels and is something simple enough to use to help explore, play and develop imagination. Younger children love bubbles and even older children and adults become mesmerised by them too!
For this activity, you can either use some real bubbles or just your imagination. Or, try both exercises for some extra fun!
Using real bubbles:
- As you take the bubble wand out of the bottle, do this mindfully and slowly so that you have the best chance of getting lots of bubbles or a really big bubble.
- Think about how softly you need to blow to get a nice big bubble.
- Notice what happens when your keep your breath slow and steady.
- How big can the bubble get? How many bubbles can you blow?
- If you blow too hard or too fast, the bubble might pop!
- Watch your bubbles float into the air, do they travel fast or slow? High or low?
- How far do they get before they pop?
- Have another go, this time can you focus on your favourite bubble and watch its journey before it pops?
If you are using your imagination, close your eyes and imagine holding your bottle of bubbles and when you are ready, imagine taking your bubble wand out and blowing your bubbles really carefully and slowly into the air. How many bubbles can you see? Are they floating into the sky or falling towards the ground? Can you focus on your favourite bubble and watch its journey before it pops?
Variation: If you are working with a large group of children, sit them in a circle if possible, stand in the middle and ask them to take a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. As you all breathe out, you as the adult blow the bubbles and ask the children to watch where they go, how they move. Can they focus on one of the bubbles and watch its journey before it pops?
This is a great activity for indoors or outdoors! Perhaps in the spring or summer give it a go outside, the bubbles travel further and the light plays with the colours through the bubbles!