Shift and Shine® Technique

During its many years of scientific research into human stress and emotions the Institute of HeartMath has established that the qualities of joy, caring, appreciation and openheartedness, which children so naturally possess, have the power to transform our lives. Like you, we see in our children the hope of the future, and we have studied extensively ideas for nurturing these positive qualities of the heart in young children.

HeartMaths Shift and Shine® Technique is a powerful tool developed especially for ages 3-6 that has proven effective in giving children an early start on how to manage their emotions and engage in socially accepted behavior, while also strengthening positive feelings such as love, caring and appreciation. Like adults, children, even our youngest, experience stress, and this tool can help lessen it by teaching them skills they can carry throughout their lives.

Parents, grandparents and teachers pre-school and elementary will find this technique easy to teach and fun for children and themselves. It takes only a few minutes so you and your children can practice it daily.

Parents: Ask your child: Do you ever have a warm feeling in your heart when you feel love or care for someone? Its kind of like the warmth from the sun.

Shift and Shine® Technique Parents, help your children with the following steps: Heart Attention Place your attention on the area around your heart or center of the chest. It helps to put your hand over your heart area. Model by putting hand over your heart. Heart Breathing Now pretend to breathe in and out of your heart. Take three slow breaths. Model the breathing. Heart Feeling Think of someone or something that makes you feel happy, like your mom or dad, or maybe a special place that you visit, like the park. Feel that happy feeling in your heart and then shine that happy feeling to someone or something special your brother or sister or the whole world. Let the children experience the feeling for a few seconds. The length of time will increase with each exercise.

Thats all there is to it, but practicing these steps daily or a few times has the power to reinforce the best qualities in children, to improve their outlook, self-image, sense of security and more.

With Care,

Sara Childre, President

P.S. Learn more about the benefits of HeartMaths Shift and Shine® Technique in a special color slide presentation: click here. Educators interested in learning about HeartMaths Early HeartSmarts® program for ages 3-6 and HeartSmarts® for grades 3-5, both of which teach Shift and Shine in a group or classroom setting, can do so at Early HeartSmarts and HeartSmarts.

For the original article, and more links and info go to the heartmath website below-

http://www.heartmath.org/templates/ihm/e-content/broadcasts/general/2010/online/shift-and-shine-online.html

father walking children

sun warmth

child beach sun