Welcome to the "Worry Wednesday" section of FREE and FABULOUS resources available for you to be using right away!
Worry Wednesday popped into my head as an idea for a theme because as a therapist, I know a lot of adults as well as children, struggle to talk about their worries. Mental health is becoming more widely a talked about term although there are still anxieties attached to talking openly.
With this being the case, I felt it was right to start promoting talking about our worries. Creating a good old famous hashtag # to get you and your little people in the habit of saying what is on your mind.
Teaching our children that it is ok to walk about worries is a great way to help them out in the future. When we acknowledge our worries our brain begins to chunk them down and make sense of the things that have been bothering us. Most of the time, our brains then decide that they're actually not worth worrying about and we're able to move past them. If we stumble across a worry that needs a bit more attention then #worrywednesday is a fantastic way to start.
As the middle of the week arrives our little people often hold their worries in. We may not always have the answers to all of our own worries let alone our children's. This can often be hard as a parent not having the answers we feel we should have. One really important skill for our children to learn is to acknowledge their worries. By writing our worries down, we allow our brains to begin to process them. Take on board how they make us feel and let us deal with them and a lot of the time, let them go.
The Worry Cloud
Begin by writing the worry in the cloud. Use the larger raindrops ( worry drop ) to take note of feelings that worry brings. Then visualise each worry drop getting smaller, dropping into the sea. Next, imagine a big wave coming and washing your worries right out to sea. Breathe a long slow breathe in and as you breathe out, let the worry go.
The worksheet has also been designed so it can be coloured in once you finish
Click the download under the image for your free PDF of the Worry Cloud. Print to use as and when required.
Today we are going to use the power of our minds to create relaxing visuals that help our little ones to reduce the feeling of anxiety by offering a way to control our negative thoughts.
While a lot of the things we worry about may be out of our control, which is the main reason why they cause us with so much anxiety, it's vital that we take back the power over the things we can control.
It isn't helpful to teach our children that they can control everything! In more ways than one I am sure you all know however, a very useful strategy for their mental well-being toolkit is to use visualisation to control their anxious feelings.
When our little ones feel anxious, have knots in their tummies and feel sick, ask them to take a big breathe in and as they do so, they are going to breathe their worry right into the bottom of their tummy, imagine it's like a liquid. They can feel it running through their body and into their tummy.
Once the worry is in their tummy, magical things are going to happen. The liquid starts to change colour, sparkles appear to run through the liquid and its all different shades of their favourite colour.
On their breathe out is where the magic really happens. As they breathe out they're going to watch butterflies leave their mouth. These butterflies are carrying away their worries. They carry them on their beautiful wings and fly off into the sky taking the worries away. Notice the feeling as you let your worries go.
You can easily adapt this visual once your child has got the hang of it and make it into a much quicker process. I myself use a very similar visual as its perfect for adults too.
In my daily life whenever anxiety hits I slow my breathing down, breathe into my tummy reminding myself of the worry and then on the slow breathe out I release all my butterflies give it a go then try it with your littlies
Back with another fabby and creative activity to help with our little ones worries!
Anyone fancy making a tally of how many times I say "actually" it's amazing how our brains latch on to words at certain times and we have no idea how often we 'actually ' say them
Enjoy all companions and let me see your littlies and their monsters!! How many monsters can we get eating up worries! After all, that's what they like to eat
Stay Tuned for more ideas!
I would love to hear about any activity you get involved with, so feel free to tag @worleyandco on Facebook, comment on the posts and share photos or even drop me an email with what you have been getting up to ( jodi@futurefootstepscoaching.co.uk )