In my mindfulness research, I recently happened upon a site on how to teach meditation to children. The idea of a glitter jar is you shake up the jar of glitter and tell the kids how the water in the jar is their mind and the glitter represents their thoughts and feelings.
When we shake up the jar all you see is swirling glitter. You can’t see the clear water anymore. It’s chaotic and confusing when we can’t see clearly. Like when we have a tantrum of some sort. It gets messy in that mind of ours. So, what to do? Pause. Set the jar down and breathe. Watch (for about 3 minutes) as the glitter slowly settles down. After it settles we can see the clear water, our mind is clear, we can now make better decisions.
Whenever I see something made for kids I have a tendency to say, hey, that would work for me too! I like glitter. I like making stuff. Why should kids have all the fun? So, I went ahead and made my own glitter jar for my own grown up self.
Here’s how you can make one for your own grown up self too.
- Get a jar. I chose a fancy one that once held a delicious bottle of sake.
- Get glitter glue. I found mine on Amazon.
- Warm up some water and then fill up the jar, leaving some room at the top. Pour glitter into the jar. Eyeball how much you want to put in. But be careful, if you put too much, the glitter won’t settle, defeating the purpose. I had to empty mine after my first attempt. I got carried away with the glitter. It happens.
Voilà! You just made your own grown-up glitter meditation jar!
Here’s a video I made for you of a 3 minute meditation using the jar.
Happy meditating!
Featured photo credit: Mind in a Jar via amazenu.com
