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Mindful Kids

Ciaran Ivanovic ~ Supporting kids mental wellbeing through the practice of mindfulness ~ Private ses Mindfulness classes for children aged 3-5/4-6 & 7-10 yrs.

Group classes & 1:1 sessions available in North West London.

21/12/2025

Winter Solstice 🌲

“The tree is waiting. It has everything ready. Its fallen leaves are mulching the forest floor, and its roots are drawing up the winter moisture….it is far from dead. It is, in fact, the life and soul of the wood. It’s just getting on with it quietly”
Wintering by Katherine May

If we listen to Nature at this time of year, the message is: rest well and feel restored ✨
I’m signing off for a bit and will be back in the New Year.

Wishing you all a wonderful festive period and all good things for 2026! ♥️

➡️ Our series of Wintering Walks in Hampstead Heath begin on January 7 (10-11:30am). Book via the link in our bio.
➡️ For 1:1 mindfulness for kids /teens, please message me directly.
➡️ If you would like to teach Mindfulness in Nature to Children, click the link in our bio for our internationally accredited online training program 🍃🪷🌺

📸 All photos taken in beautiful Hampstead Heath

19/12/2025

Shining a light on ✨ Fadila, who completed our Mindfulness in Nature for Children accredited course in November.

Fadila currently works as an Assistant Psychologist in a world renowned London children’s hospital, supporting children, young adults, and their families.

With great success, Fadila is weaving the mindfulness exercises and learnings from our course into psychology sessions with children and their parents, drawing on what feels appropriate in that moment.
She looks forward to future opportunities to offer mindfulness outdoors and create child-friendly spaces within the health setting to connect with the peace that it can bring 🪷🍃

I can’t wait to meet Fadila in person, at our next Mindful Walk in Hampstead Heath in the New Year🌲🌲

JOIN US on ✨ JANUARY 24, 2-4pm ✨ if you’re interested in our accredited mindfulness training.
This is a great opportunity to chat to some of our current students and graduates 💚

Please message us to book your spot :-)

15/12/2025

HIKES REPLACE DETENTIONS 🥾

Brilliant article from
(All photos copyright )

‘When Leslie Trundy, a Maine high school counselor and avid hiker, started to offer students an option to hike instead of sitting in detention, some students were less than enthusiastic.

🌲But after their first hikes - smelling pine trees, listening to birds chirping 🐦‍⬛ and discussing their lives - they realized hiking wasn’t so bad. In fact, they found it actually improved their moods’

I absolutely LOVE this initiative - a great example of one inspiring teacher thinking differently, and wanting the best outcome for her students 💚

🛑 But why stop at hikes! Not every school has access to parks or fields.

✅ My thinking is a ‘Green Detention’ initiative, where detentions could be any nature-based activity: community gardening, Nature Art & journaling, tending to herb & vegetable gardens, mindful walks in nature, group planting projects. The possibilities are endless…

If ‘Green Detentions’ were a thing, kids would not only be improving their mood & feeling more focused and grounded ➡️ they would be learning something new, giving something back and therefore feeling more motivated + fulfilled.

❇️ Above all, this kind of initiative would be giving kids an opportunity to fall in love with nature and become its guardian; to move away from seeing themselves as a separate entity but as an intrinsic part of the natural world, resulting in a more compassionate and connected generation 🩷

07/12/2025

JOIN ME for some special Wintering Walks in beautiful Hampstead Heath: Wednesday January 7 onwards.

➡️➡️ SIX special walks inviting you to explore the consolations of nature and how it can be wonderfully restorative even on the bleakest of days ❄️

🔹WALKS are weekly, starting on JANUARY 7, and will take you up until early Spring (mid Feb).

🔸 We recommend committing to all six walks (which will have a powerful effect on how you approach winter and all that comes with it) but ! if you can only join one or two walks, that’s fine too 💗

🔹 BOOK via the link in our bio.

🔸 £15 per walk OR book all six and get one FREE.

These gentle mindful walks are suitable for all fitness levels :-)
They also support those with S.A.D.
(Discounts available, please ask)

03/12/2025

‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new sights, but in looking with new eyes’ Proust

When you truly see it, you feel it. And when you feel it, anything is possible. This feeling is known as our sixth sense; a sense of awe and pure joy.

Each time I embark on the ‘same’ walk in Hampstead Heath I begin walking with ‘new eyes’ and am always amazed by the ethereal beauty in nature ✨

➡️➡️ COMING SOON: a special series of 6 Wintering Walks on the Heath, beginning in January. Register your interest via the (Wonder Walk) link in our bio 🔗

27/11/2025

Today on Thanksgiving I’m looking back on some of the things children have been thankful for (expressed at our mindfulness in nature camps)

✨New friends

✨Food

✨Feeling connected to nature

✨Family

✨Salted caramel (love this one…)

What’s wonderful is that none of these things are ‘big and flashy’, they’re accessible to most of us: Experiences + People

When we pay attention to these things - ie what is available to us in that very moment (a kind friend, a morning walk, a taste of salted caramel…), we feel fulfilled and experience a deep sense of joy…our lives become richer 🙏🏻

So here’s to celebrating what you’re grateful for today and every day!

Happy Thanksgiving 🧡

25/11/2025

In celebration of National Tree Week 🌳🌳

To the Wayfarer
(Anon)

I am the heat of your hearth on the cold winter nights, the friendly shade screening you from the summer sun, and my fruits are refreshing draughts quenching your thirst as you journey on.

I am the beam that holds your house, the board of your table, the bed on which you lie, and the timber that builds your boat.

I am the handle of your hoe, the door of your homestead, the wood of your cradle, and the shell of your coffin.

I am the bread of kindness and the flower of beauty. Ye who pass by, listen to my prayer: Harm me not.

We cannot live without trees so let’s love and respect them 💚

✅ Try this simple tree appreciation practice with children:

⭕️ Sitting in a circle, invite each child to name one thing that comes from trees (a pencil, a skateboard….loo paper!!) Keep going around the circle until the list is exhausted.
✅ Encourage a moment of quiet to give thanks to our precious trees 🌲

All photos taken in and
Final photo of a tree in my tea ☕️

17/11/2025

Me + Margeaux

I met Margeaux around seven years ago, when her daughter started coming to one of my after school mindfulness classes.

Soon after this, Margeaux’s daughter, ‘T’ became one of the first to join our outdoor mindfulness in nature camps, and became a regular for many years.

Over the years I’ve also seen T in a number of private 1:1 sessions, where I’ve got to know her and her wonderful family on a deeper level.

And now it is an absolute honour to have Margeaux enrolled on our Train to Teach accredited course. I’m thrilled to be supporting her on this new journey 💚

Watch out for Margeaux in 2026 when she’ll be sharing mindfulness in nature with the home-Ed community and with local children here in Queen’s Park 🍃🌳

➡️➡️ TAP the link in our bio for full course details
✅ Our versatile Mindfulness & Nature course is suited to home-educators, child psychologists, parents, forest school leaders, teachers & all health professionals 💗

2nd Photo of T at one of our outdoor camps during a mindful eating activity.

10/11/2025

Excellent article by

Honestly, when are we going to get up to speed with Finland, Denmark, and other forward thinking countries…

Government funding should be offered to all U.K. schools and nurseries, to remove asphalt and other synthetic materials currently being used in playgrounds & outdoor spaces.

These types of unnatural materials release harmful chemicals into the air. Why would we want our kids (& those caring for them) breathing in even more polluted air than they are already?

✅ Instead, we should be following what is being done in Finland - swipe left to see the health benefits of green nurseries, including boosting kids immune systems.

➡️ Final photo taken at when I visited New Orleans in April 🤎 No asphalt here, just piles and piles of good, healthy earth for kids to play in.

✅ Our Mindfulness in Nature accredited course includes muddy play and sensory garden ideas ➡️➡️ LINK IN BIO

06/11/2025

GETTING TEENS OUTDOORS….not always easy, I know!

Here are some suggestions THAT WORK ⬇️

💥 Don’t just offer ‘a walk’ - to them, this can sound boring….tune into their interests - if they’re into photography, suggest some close up shots of birds / trees / spiderwebs / insects etc. 🧗If they’re a climber, then tree climbing…if they’re more creative, try nature art using fallen natural materials 🪶🏵️
✅ All of these activities are ways for your child to develop present moment awareness which will help them feel grounded and calm.
🔗 To discover more about the power of mindfulness in nature, tap Teacher Training in our bio

💥 Spend time TOGETHER and follow their lead. This is bonding and a great way of getting on their level (which they’ll welcome) and discovering more about them, as they’ll be more likely to talk /open up to you.

✅ Don’t give up! Kids need to spend mindful time outdoors for their overall health & happiness - especially teens who spend more time on screens than younger children.
Remember that 💚GREEN TIME balances SCREEN TIME💚

And finally, if your teen wants to bring a phone with them to take pictures, make sure that they keep them in their pockets (with volume off!) until the end of the walk, and do the same! :-)

Photos taken by my 14yr old son and I in the
First we played in nature, with fallen twigs, balancing them between the trees, and then we got up close with our cameras 📸 🌲

31/10/2025

🧡 Happy Hall’o’ween / Samhain / La Dia de los Mu***os

Growing up with an American mum, Halloween was all about carving pumpkins, scary outfits and trick or treating (which I loved! 🎃)

Nowadays I tend to lean more towards the reflective celebrations and traditions of Samhain.

Samhain marks the point where we enter the dark part of the year, knowing that the light will return ✨
It is a time when we remember & respect loved ones who are gone, often by placing candles next to photos of them 🖤🤍 In Mexico there are celebratory parades that recognise our own mortality and reconnect us to those who have gone before us ✨🙏🏻

Photo 1: Spiderweb, Hampstead Heath

Photo 2: by Rock-it with Linda

Photo 3 ➡️ Mindful Crafts from our accredited Mindfulness in Nature course ➡️ SECURE 3 small sticks into a snowflake shape by tying wool around the centre. Invite children to weave the wool around the sticks thereby creating a web 🕸️ - a grounding activity that’s also excellent for concentration.

🕷️ TRY a Spot the Spiderweb walk with your kids: This is a fun way of spicing up an ordinary walk, and it’s a mindfulness exercise too as kids pay close attention to what’s around them ✔️ 🕸️

28/10/2025

I absolutely love seeing the gathering of fallen leaves beneath the trees at this time of year and have been wondering what to call them 🤔

On my last walk in Regent’s Park, I thought of (upside down) Tree Halos ! 🌳✨🍁 Any other suggestions welcome !

Sharing some of my favourites here from and my local

🍂 The fallen leaves that have settled under each tree are still part of them, even after having been released. The layer of leaves acts as a natural mulch, protecting the soil from erosion and preventing w**d seeds from germinating. It also insulates the tree’s roots from cold weather 💚

This can serve as a useful metaphor for how things that we emotionally release in our own lives (at this time of year especially) are still an important part of us as they make us who we are, and can make us stronger and more resilient ✨

I’ve been sharing this with some older teens I’m supporting and they’ve loved the simplicity of the message and have found it useful 🌳🫶🏻 I hope you find it useful too :-)

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Ciaran Ivanovic is a former Montessori teacher (Montessori Centre International) who is now following her passion of supporting children's mental well being through the use of mindfulness techniques. Ciaran completed a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Foundation course with Michael Chaskalson (Mindfulness Works in London) before completing further training to teach mindfulness to children, including the Mindfulness in Schools Project, enabling her to teach the Paws b Mindfulness program in Primary schools.

Ciaran is also trained to teach the Tai Chi for Kids program and incorporates many movements in to her sessions.

Mindfulness is taught to children in private sessions (one to one or within a small group), and at Mindful Kids Camps and workshops which run throughout the year.