03/03/2025
Anxiety can be sneaky - it's not always easy to recognize! Teach your child to notice their body’s signals and practice calming strategies together.
Help your child notice how their body feels when "Worry Brain" is in control. Tight muscles, fast heartbeats, or sweaty palms are sometimes signals that big feelings are building.
Try it at home: Practice a 'Body Check-In.' Try having your child draw a body outline. Then, have them name their current feeling. One they have identified a feeling, have them draw symbols or color in the body outline to represent the feelings in their body. For example, if your child is feeling nervous, they might feel tightness in their chest, a rapid heartbeat, racing thoughts, or energy in their legs. Once your child has noticed the feeling and where it lives in their body, try playful stretches, wiggling it out, or practicing slow breathing to help release tension and regulate their nervous system.
Doing this exercise helps kids to recognize what their emotions feel like and how they show up physically. Noticing our feelings and how they impact us is KEY to increasing our ability to emotionally regulate.
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