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Mental Health and Wellness
What is Mental Health?
Helping Children with Anxiety and Stress as we begin the New Year.
Identifying Stress in Children
According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association (APA), many Americans — both adults and youth — experience high levels of stress. Young people, may not recognize signs of stress or know how to respond effectively. Parents can offer valuable assistance and provide empathy and understanding. By knowing what to listen to and watch for and by seeking out opportunities to engage in conversation with children of all ages, parents can help their children to better manage life challenges. APA offers the following tips on talking with your children about stress:
Be Available
· Notice times when your kids are most likely to talk — for example, at bedtime, before dinner, in the car — and be fully available to just listen.
· Start the conversation; it lets your kids know you care about what’s happening in their lives.
Find time each week for a one-on-one activity with each child, and avoid scheduling other activities during that time.
· Learn about your children's interests — for example, favorite music and activities — and show interest in them.
· Initiate conversations by sharing what you have been thinking about, or what other kids may be thinking about, rather than beginning a conversation with a question.
Listen Actively
· When your children are talking about concerns, stop whatever you are doing and listen.
· Express interest in what they are saying without being intrusive.
· Listen to their point of view, even if it’s difficult to hear.
· Let them complete their point before you respond.
· Repeat what you heard them say to ensure that you understand them correctly.
· Realize that your children may test you by telling you a small part of what is bothering them. Listen carefully to what they say, encourage them to talk and they may share the rest of the story.
Respond Thoughtfully
· Soften strong reactions — kids will tune you out if you appear angry or defensive.
· Express your opinion without minimizing theirs — acknowledge that it’s OK to disagree.
· Resist arguing about who is right. Instead say, “I know you disagree with me, but this is what I think.”
· Focus on your child’s feelings rather than your own during your conversation.
· Ask your children what they may want or need from you in a conversation, such as advice, help in dealing with feelings or assistance in solving a problem.
Consider
· Kids learn by watching their parents. Most often, they will follow your lead in how they deal with anger, solve problems and work through difficult feelings. Help your kids to adopt healthy coping strategies by modeling positive behaviors.
· Engage the family in stress-reducing activities, such as taking a family walk, riding bikes or dancing together.
· Young children may express feeling of stress or worry in their play. Pay attention to themes in their conversations and activities to gain a good sense of their concerns. Teens and older children are often more involved with peers than family as part of developing their own identity. Significant avoidance of parents, however, may be a sign that a teen is distressed and may need assistance.
· Kids learn from their own choices. As long as the consequences are not dangerous to themselves or others, don’t feel you have to step in each time.
· Shielding children from possible causes of stress or anxiety, such as unemployment, a parent’s marital problems or an illness in the family, can worsen a child’s anxiety because children commonly assume a worse case scenario. Help by providing age-appropriate information.
Seek Additional Help
If you have concerns that your child is experiencing considerable stress and the ideas are not sufficiently helping, seek advice from a licensed mental health professional.
This tip sheet was made possible with help from APA members Mary Alvord, PhD, and David J. Palmiter, Jr., PhD, ABPP.
Addressing our Mental Health and Wellness through Mindfulness
The term "mindfulness" has been used to refer to a psychological state of awareness, the practices that promote this awareness, a mode of processing information and a character trait. To be consistent with most of the research one can define mindfulness as a moment-to-moment awareness of one's experience without judgment. Research on mindfulness has identified these benefits:
Reduced rumination. Several studies have shown that mindfulness reduces rumination with reports of fewer depressive symptoms, less rumination, significantly better working memory capacity and capability to pay attention better during a performance task.
Relationship satisfaction. Several studies have also found that a person's ability to be mindful can help predict relationship satisfaction — the ability to respond well to relationship stress and the skill in communicating one's emotions to another individual.
Other benefits. Mindfulness has been shown to enhance self-insight, morality, intuition and fear modulation, all functions associated with the brain's middle prefrontal lobe area. Evidence also suggests that mindfulness meditation has numerous health benefits, including increased immune functioning, improvement to well-being, and reduction in psychological distress (Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Ostafin et al., 2006). In addition, mindfulness meditation practice appears to increase information processing speed (Moore & Malinowski, 2009), as well as decrease task effort and having thoughts that are unrelated to the task at hand
Six Ways To Teach Mindfulness To Children
1. Mindful Breathing
Ask children to sit comfortably and then close their eyes. Draw their attention to their breathing, telling them to feel the sensation of breath coming into and out of the body. You can have them put their hands on their stomach to feel the gentle rise and fall with each breath, as this will help them keep focused. Alternatively, you may ask them to repeat the word “in” and “out” as they inhale and exhale, or you may say it for them. Do this for about five breath cycles (five inhales and exhales). At the end of the five breaths, guide their attention to any thoughts and feelings that may be present (and any possible differences in how they feel now compared with how they felt before the practice).Ask them to then let those thoughts and feelings go as they return their focus to their breath, then repeat the breathing cycle (as many times as feels appropriate).
2. Mindfulness Sound Game
Have the child or children begin by focusing on their breathing (as above) . After about five breath cycles, tell the children they’re going to hear a sound, and that they should focus on this sound as it gets softer and softer. Instruct them to raise their hand when they no longer hear the sound. Play a sound for the children. This sound can be a bell, Tingsha (Tibetan meditation chimes), a “singing” bowl, a rain stick, or you can strike a note on a piano… any sound that will resonate and gradually evanesce will do. Return to five breathing cycles. You can repeat this exercise a couple of times if you like, if the children are receptive to continue.
3. Mindful Eating Game
If you’re sharing a meal or a snack with children, tell them you’re going to make it an exercise in mindfulness. Start with the breathing exercises. Invite children to be mindful of their food— of the aroma, of the feel of the food (or the feel of the spoon in their hand). Tell them to take a bite of food and chew slowly. If they’re holding a utensil, ask them to put it down until they finish chewing and swallowing. Have them chew slowly for 20 or 30 seconds, asking them to notice the taste and the texture. Repeat five cycles of breathing, then repeat with another bite if desired.
4. Walking Mindfully
Eventually you’ll want to show the kiddies that mindfulness is not just for sitting still. Go for a short walk with them and teach them to be mindful while in motion. Have them start with focusing on the breath, then as you begin walking invite them to notice how the ground feels under their feet as they walk, what the movement of the body feels like when in motion.You could draw their attention to feeling other associated sensations of walking like the clothing moving against their skin or the breeze moving through their hair. Aim to guide them to feel these sensations and not to get into labeling them or thinking about them. Every now and then you can suggest they return their attention to their breathing to help keep them in focus.
5. Mindful Play
Put out some finger paints, a water or sand table or any kind of fun activity into which kids can really get their hands into. You can have them begin the exercise with their breathing cycles.As they play, guide them to be fully present in the moment whenever they get distracted. You can focus on their senses— what they see, hear, feel and smell. Invite them to notice how the water slips through their fingers or runs down their arm, how sand shifts and pours out of the hand or how the colours of finger paints swirl together to blend into new colours. Allow them to go for as long as they’re engaged in the activity and see how long they focus on it. You can end the play session with five breathing cycles.
6. The Hunting Game
When I was little I would often go out into the back yard and pretend that I was hunting. I wasn’t really after a particular ‘target’ but rather, I just loved the feeling of ‘hunting’. I would walk between the trees slowly and deliberately with zen-like focus listening out for every sound and watching for the slightest movements in my environment. In this way I was totally immersed in my senses and fully engrossed in the present moment. Not thinking at all – just sensing. Every now and then I would see a small animal and maybe stop to study it closely in silence.Perhaps go out into the garden or yard together (or play inside) and tell them they have to be very quiet and slow as you go on your hunt. Guide them to be highly alert and use their senses fully. You can tell them to be very ‘quiet inside’ so that they can ‘listen’ to the world around them so they can discover a creature or what ever you go on a hunt for.
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Website: www.southlakecarroll.edu
Location: Southlake, TX, United States
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