Sitting Still Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids

Amazing. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.

This is my first review for a product I have purchased on Amazon. I feel so strongly about it that I felt the need to write and encourage other parents to try it. We have been using this CD daily for over 3 months. It has created an almost miraculous change in helping my severely anxious child learn to calm himself down. This book has literally changed my child's life. I feel like a proselytizer when I tell people about it, but I feel strongly enough about it that I don't even care. ;) I have a young elementary-aged child with anxiety so extreme that in the past, it was interfering with him falling asleep at night. We would do the whole bedtime-routine, I would turn out the light and leave the room and then he would spend up to 3 hours walking in circles in his bedroom until he fell over from exhaustion. He simply did not know to "turn off his brain" so that he could sleep. We tried many different things to help him calm down: hot baths, massages, reading books until he fell asleep, etc. None of them really worked. Recently his therapist recommended that we try some "mindfulness" training. I had the vague idea that mindfulness meant focusing on gratitude, taking some deep breaths, etc., but I had no idea how to teach that skill to a child. I started looking on Amazon for books on mindfulness and stumbled upon this Book/CD set. I ordered it, along with some of the Indigo Dreams CDs and crossed my fingers that something might help. When the book and CD arrived, I skimmed the book and was totally unimpressed. I didn't even bother to finish reading it, because it came across as dry and boring. But the CD...that's another thing. The CD has 11 meditations on it that cover a variety of situations, from general anxiety to sadness to not being able to fall asleep. And they are amazing. They tap into a kid's deepest thoughts and insecurities and needs in ways that kids can't even verbalize. They are...magic. For the past three months, my kid has been falling asleep on aver...