Why is it important to teach them to have moments of silence?

It is very common to see teenagers doing their homework with the television in the background, the mobile phone on one side and the computer screen in front, oscillating quickly from one stimulus to another. The days, weeks and months go by without you having probably enjoyed a few moments of silence, of peace, since many of them even go to bed and fall asleep with the television set on, the radio or the screen of the computer on.

Noise harms us more than it may seem. Children (and also adults) exposed to it constantly tend to be more irritable, more restless and aggressive. In addition, they usually have less ability to concentrate and lower performance while performing tasks. Today’s children are digital natives, so they are accustomed to attend to different stimuli at the same time and to receive and process a large amount of information.

Silence to be able to learn

It is said that currently we produce in two days the same amount of information that previously required about 5000 years. Therefore, more than ever, we must teach the little ones to stop the avalanche of stimuli to which they are exposed and to enjoy the stillness and the calm from time to time.

Silence is a fundamental part of the learning process, necessary for content consolidation and reflection. There are more and more teaching models that value silence as a valuable tool both for cognitive teaching and for the integral development of the student.

This helps you to know yourself, value yourself and make decisions. In it we connect with ourselves. Some questions are born and others are answered. Silence calms the body, mind and spirit, is a tool available to all, healing and peacemaker.

The game of silence

Helping children discover the beauty that is in silence is a great gift of incalculable value. The game of silence helps children learn to relax, to breathe, to become aware of themselves and also of the amount of sounds around them, many of which go unnoticed. To enjoy the moments of silence has multiple variants of game today. This is one of them.

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Material

You just need a comfortable place to knock your child down, or sit at your desk with your head on the table. Make sure it is not cold in the room or too hot.

Procedure

Direct your child towards an attitude of silence and absence of noise. It may be humming a song that invites silence. It’s time to put ourselves in a position that allows us not to move for a couple of minutes.

After humming the song twice, we will ask you to close your eyes, relax and remain silent for the duration of the activity. The first few times it may not exceed two or three minutes. We can point out that it is attentive to see which sounds break the silence both on the outside and within himself.

The Silence Game can have different variations:

• Light and observe the flame of a candle and blow it at the end of the exercise.
• Use a timer as a timer. We will turn around the beginning of the activity and observe how the grains fall until the end of the activity (we will try to make the clocks small).
• Sound a Tibetan bowl and keep sitting in silence until we stop listening to its sound …

To finish we will simply ask you to open your eyes slowly and we will ask you how you felt during this time.

It is fundamental to learn from children skills that help us achieve emotional well-being and manage our emotions. Practicing self-awareness exercises in a progressive way will help the little ones to get to know each other, to manage their emotions and to enjoy the benefits of a few moments of silence, which will continue throughout the day … and throughout their lives.