Interpersonal conflicts will inevitably arise at after-school and camp programs. At Mindful Sports, we take a collective and open approach to helping kids learn to manage these challenging situations. We check in with kids first to ask how their feeling, honoring their current state and validating their narratives. To help us better understand what’s going on, we’ll ask about what may be happening with their friends or at school. Then, we’ll provide feedback on their behavior and our behavioral guidelines where needed. We want all children to feel safe at Mindful Sports, and to understand that they can feel any emotion – there are no bad feelings. However, we do want to help children learn to work within a set of agreed behavior boundaries, such as not running off, or being physical with other kids or coaches to the point where it may become a safety risk. Our mindfulness skills can help in moments like this, but only after continued practice and reinforcement. When we’re feeling activated, it’s often too difficult to call on new skills. With repeated practice and training, kids can begin to slowly trust to try out mindful practices and see how they may be able to help when they are in conflict.
This is a repost from April 2024