Today’s Excerpt:

How long can you stay focused on breathing in and out without getting distracted? (Try it!)

You can hold your breath, but you won’t last long without air! No matter who you are, you breathe in and out — all day and night.

But sometimes we are so busy we forget that we’re breathing, and we struggle to calm our minds.

Meditation can help us feel calm and focus.

And it doesn’t have to be boring.

Meditation Game: Flicker the Flame
Want to try a simple breathing meditation game? Here are the rules:

1. With the help of a grown up, light a candle.*
2. One by one, invite family or friends to breathe out slowly, making the candle’s flame flicker but not go out.
3. If someone doesn’t make the flame flicker on the outbreath, or if they blow it out, they lose and have to sit out the next round.
4. Keep going in a circle until only one person — the winner! — remains.
5. (If you go several rounds and no one wins, see who can make the flame flicker the most without causing it to go out. The person who does this best wins.)

*If you don’t have a candle, you can play with a timer, seeing who can do the slowest outbreath. The person with the slowest outbreath wins!

This game can help you develop a power you can use any time. Slow outbreaths can help calm you down.