tools for coping with stress

Music: Play for the child his/her favorite music. Certain tunes, instrumental pieces, certain forms of music have the power to soothe your mind and body. I always think of music as a form of divinity. It bears the strength to fight stress and can distract a child's mind from tensions. Music lovers like me can join the camp of listening to music when stressed out.

relaxation tools

Over the next weeks I will be posting various methods of calming that have worked for many children.

Deep Breathing: This activity helps the children relax by slowing their breathing rate, their heart rate and normalizing their blood pressure. Teach your child to take a deep breath, hold the breath for a few seconds and then release it. This will enable the child to relax.

Anxiety

The most common mental health problem for children today is stress. Sometimes the stress is generalized. Sometimes it is specific to school. Either way there are a few common tools that can be very helpful. Two of the exercises are deep breathing, and muscle relaxation. These help calm down the "fight or flight syndrome."

Our bodies don't know there aren't saber tooth tigers chasing us around anymore. This physical reaction can be confusing, and frightening for a child. Relaxation exercise interrupts the adrenalin from pumping though the bloodstream. There are thousands of these exercises on line. Different tools work for different individuals so you may need to try a few. When children learn they can calm themselves down it helps with confidence and calmness.