Kids, especially those who are struggling, prefer to act out their problems rather than speak about them. Adults are frequently just slightly better.
When words aren’t accessible, it’s helpful to think of different ways to show the link between thoughts, feelings, and actions. One of the most striking visual metaphors for that relationship is a snow globe or glitter jar, which shows how mindfulness—the development of stillness in the midst of life’s spinning chaos—affects us.
The Calming Glitter Jar is a fun craft project to do with your child and a terrific tool for calming down. The Calming Glitter Jar is a tried-and-true mindfulness item that may help kids and adults of all ages relax. The Calming Jar also provides a practical way to “mediate” with a child who refuses to sit still. The idea is that your youngster will be able to use the jar on his own when he’s having a hard time. The Calming Jar teaches youngsters how to focus, relax, and understand how paying attention to their senses can help them regulate their emotions.
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Awareness of Senses
We have the ability to notice what we smell, touch, hear and see. We are mindful whenever we bring consciousness to what we are experiencing with our senses. Our minds relax when we perform this simple exercise.
What Causes this to Happen?
The quick explanation is that focusing on your senses diverts your attention away from your emotions and ideas. You focus your mind and eliminate brain chatter instead of worrying about the future or the past. It’s both basic and effective.
When you realize this, you can use a variety of amusing methods to assist your youngster to relax.
What Is the Purpose of a Mindfulness Jar?
You can call it whatever you want: a mindfulness jar, a glitter jar, a mind jar, a calming glitter jar, calm down jars, DIY mindfulness jar, galaxy jar, mind-in-a-jar, or sparkle bottles. A mindfulness jar is an excellent way to begin teaching mindfulness to your children or pupils. A mindfulness jar is basically a clear glass jar filled with water, dish soap, and glitter or glitter glue (similar to a mason jar). It’s a powerful visual metaphor for being able to communicate one’s emotions. Your ideas, feelings, and behaviors are represented by the glitter in the jar. When a child is agitated or furious, he or she can shake the jar and watch the glitter swirl around before settling down. The user can equate the glitter settling to the bottom of the jar to their mind settling. After the spinning and turbulence have subsided, cultivating calm is highly helpful. You may also use these jars as a visual timer for brief mindful breathing exercises.
Many people prefer to spend a few minutes during the day to gather their thoughts and get away from their routine. Using a mindfulness jar to time these brief breaks allows you to concentrate on the break rather than how much time you spent meditating or being mindful. Mindfulness jars are a great method to teach kids about how their minds work when they’re having a bad day and what they can do to feel better. Adults can also benefit from mindfulness jars as a form of relaxation. If a youngster is unable to be consoled, these jars can serve as a visual “anchor” to help bring their concentration back to the present and to one location rather than being in multiple locations at once and feeling out of control.
A mindfulness jar can also assist by providing a physical outlet for releasing energy in a less damaging manner than striking, smacking, or kicking. The child’s hands and eyes will be led to the center of the jar while they hold the bottle and watch the glitter settle, which will help to center the nervous system. The steady sinking of the glitter in the jar can serve as a visual guide for them to decrease their heart rate and breathing automatically.
The Advantages of a Mindfulness Jar
Children and adults alike can benefit from mindfulness jars. One of the best things about them is that you can customize how you utilize them to best suit your needs. While they may aid in the control of anger in one individual, they may also aid in the control of anxiety in another. You can interpret the glitter metaphor in whatever way you like.
1. Assist People in Calming Down
If you’re nervous, keep your gaze on the glitter and watch it slowly sink to the jar’s bottom. Connect your anxiety to the glitter, and allow your breath to slow down with it as you return to your comfortable spot. This can help you relax if you’re anxious or calm down if you’re upset.
2. Instruct Students on How to Concentrate
Concentrate solely on the glitter as you watch the mindfulness jar move. Allowing oneself to be distracted by the sounds or movement around you is not a good idea. This will aid in the development of attention skills and encourage youngsters to live in the moment.
3. Assist in Emotional Regulation
Consider your tumultuous emotions as the tumultuous glitter within the mindfulness jar.
Then, much as the glitter regulates itself, explore how you can manage your emotions. Because the youngster can see how the jar clears up once the glitter settles, they will be able to compare this to their own minds clearing up after being disrupted.
This will also educate children to slow down and think before acting on something. This will allow kids to learn how to respond skillfully to a difficult situation rather than reacting impulsively.
4. Develop Heightened Sensory Awareness
Consider the sound of running water, the feel of the glass, and the visual image of glitter moving.
During the workout, concentrate on each of these points.
5. Develop a Greater Sense of Self-Awareness
Ask children what kinds of situations could cause the glitter to whirl when teaching them about mindfulness (meaning what could happen to them in their real lives to elicit an emotion). The glitter can be used to explain to the youngsters how they can be more self-aware and how it can be tough to keep track of all of their thoughts and emotions for each identified occurrence.
Calming Glitter Jar For Kids And Teen’s Mindfulness
Purpose
Emotional Regulation, Calm, Focus Ages 3 and up are recommended
Materials
- Clear glue
- Glitter
- Small jar (make sure it can retain liquid tightly) (any colors you like)
- A few drops of food coloring
- A whisk or a stick
- Hot water
Direction
- When your child scatters glitter all over the place, you may need to employ your mindfulness abilities to stay calm 😉
- This is a terrific tool for de-stressing, and it’s easy to make.
Depending on the type of glue you use, you may need to experiment to find the correct consistency. - It’s all in good humor.
- You can experiment with a mixture of 20% glue and 80% water, as well as as much glitter as you like.
- The longer the glitter takes to settle after shaking the container, the more adhesive you used.
- To achieve the desired effect, you can use transparent school glue and glitter, or glitter glue and extra glitter.
- Using a whisk, combine the glue and hot water (tap water is fine). The adhesive gives the liquid a varied viscosity and creates stunning glitter swirls.
- Sprinkle some glitter on top. Starting with 1-2 tablespoons of glitter is a good place to start. If you use iridescent glitter, you’ll get a wonderful lighter look, so give it a go.
- To make it more exciting, add a drop or two of food coloring.
- When everything is well combined, cover the jar and shake it vigorously to disperse the glitter evenly.
- Remove the lid and set it aside to cool.
- Use super glue to secure the lid.
Try It Out With Your Friends
After you’ve finished making the glitter jar, you can explain what it’s for. Shake it and explain to your youngster that our minds are sometimes like the glitter in the jar, full of thoughts floating about. We all have furious thoughts from time to time. Tell them that it’s fine to have strong sentiments, but that we can also quiet our minds and bodies. Allowing your ideas to settle like the glitter in the jar is one approach to do this. It’s easier to solve problems and talk about whatever is causing us to be upset when our minds are calm. Shake the jar vigorously until the glitter is madly swirling. Then place it on a table or the floor and watch it with your child until the glitter has settled down, as well as your brains.
How to Practice Mindfulness with a Glitter Jar?
Depending on what you wish to stress, there are several variations of this approach. Each hue reflects a particular emotion that the children are experiencing. Using a few plastic beads to represent behaviors and waiting until the behaviors separate from the thoughts and feelings is another variant. Kids might also try to concentrate on just one color, one bit of glitter, or all of them until they settle.
The following is an example of a script:
- The jar represents our mind, and each hue of glitter represents a distinct aspect of it.
- Let’s use red to represent thoughts, gold to represent sentiments, and silver to represent drives to act. (Add a sprinkling of glitter to each comment.)
- We’re about to put the lid on the jar. (Seal the jar by putting the lid on it.) After that, we begin our day.
- When we wake up, everything is in order. We can obviously see that. (Show how the glitter has dropped to the jar’s bottom.)
- However, things quickly begin to spin out of control. Perhaps we’re running late (swirl the jar). Breakfast is ruined when our older sister eats the last pancake, resulting in a brawl (shake the jar).
On the way to school, we hear terrifying things on the news (swirl the jar). When we get to school, we discover that we have acquitted ourselves on the exam (shake the jar).
- It’s only a few minutes into the school day, yet we can’t see properly because our thoughts, feelings, and desires are interfering.
- So, what can we do to enable the glitter to settle and allow us to see clearly once more?
- Keep your cool! And what happens if we remain motionless? We can see plainly once more.
- It’s also impossible to hasten to be still. We won’t be able to get all of the glitters to the bottom. All we have to do now is wait and watch. It’s not going to happen no matter how hard you try.
- When things become clearer, we’ll know what to do next. In reality, seeing things as they are and deciding how to act is one definition of wisdom.
Does the Glitter Go Away While We Wait?
No, it will remain at the bottom. Thoughts, sentiments, and urges are still present in our minds, but they no longer obstruct our eyesight.
A glitter jar that has been finished can be used as a visual timer for other activities, such as breathing exercises. “Let’s do some mindful breaths till the glitter settles,” for example, you could shake the jar and say.
Conclusion
We don’t want to let go of our thoughts, feelings, and desires. We simply want them to move out of the way so that we can see clearly. Some families use the jar as a “calm-down jar,” marking and measuring the amount of time they take to relax.
When there’s a fight, the whole family should utilize the calm-down jar together: “Right now, we’re all upset with a lot of thoughts and feelings.”
So let’s all take a pause till the glitter in the calm-down jar settles, and then we’ll resume our conversation.”
