While you may think childhood was a carefree period of your life, the same thing does not hold true for children nowadays. Stress is a condition everybody suffers, be it adults or children. If we talk about children, they will need external help to deal with and manage their stress as they may not even know they are going through any problem.
As cliche as it may sound, your child is your joy and responsibility as well. You are the first person who can recognize if your child is in troubled, anxious or going through some stress.
Let me get you started with a few key pointers to detect if your child is under stress.
How To Know If Your Child Is Under Stress ?
Let’s Find Out
Kids who are under stress often have trouble with their mood and behavior. You may notice slight changes like unnecessary tantrums, crying, health issues or getting irritated easily.
Further, the child may withdraw from their favorite activities like playing or going outside. Most often, such kids complain of irregular headaches or stomach ache and have a sudden change in their sleeping and eating pattern. Also, you may notice these kids refusing to go to school and indulging in self-negative talk. That being said, you must remember every child is different and may show other signs of stress. As a parent, it is your duty to help your child out and let them know that it’s okay .
Now, let me share the few things that as a parent can help you handle the situation and teach your kid to manage stress and reduce anxiety in them.
How Can You Help Your Child To Manage Stress and Reduce His Anxiety?
What Else You Can Do To Make Your Child Feel Better?
There are just a few more things you can practice with your child to reduce their stress and anxiety issues.
- Use positive affirmations with your child and educate them about its benefits. Say things like, “ I am calm. I am peaceful. I am happy. I am beautiful”. These small statements will make your little one feel happy and in bliss. Never address your child with “don’t do this that.”. Instead focus on saying “do this or that”.
- Children become what you make of them. They are like wet clay in your hands. Tell them it is important to be happy. Practice gratitude. Ask them to daily say thanks and offer gratitude for their life and the uncountable blessings they have. This will make them understand the importance of being grateful and a lot to be happy for.
- Practice relaxing exercises with your child. The very basic relaxing exercises like taking three deep breaths or counting from 1-10 backwards slowly can help your kid a great deal to just slow down the messy thoughts and actually focus on the present.
- Aggressive children can greatly benefit from this technique to help them control their tantrums and just relax.
- Lastly, you can introduce your child to progressive muscle relaxation. Put on some good and positive instrumental music (You may search Zen Garden on Youtube) and teach your kids to relax their bodies starting from the toes to their head. They’ll get a hang of it after 2-3 practices. This body muscle relaxation technique calms the mind and helps release stress in both children and adults.
- You can also practice chanting while waking up or putting your child to sleep. OM is a universal mantra that even scientists have found to be highly effective. If you can, teach your children to chant Gayatri Mantra..This will open up the subconscious power of your child.
- Finally, Just Be There For Your Child You love your child and they know it. However, this busy life doesn’t let you shower them with love and attention as much as you want. Don’t feel any guilt over it. Children nowadays are intelligent. They understand if you explain your situation with right words and love. Kids today also prefer quality time over quantity. Give your child an hour of love, care, and undivided attention. Never forget to maintain eye contact and a loving touch. Play, relax or just listen.
This one hour of quality time will bring your child closer to you and away from any stress or anxiety. If you still feel confused with the behavior of your child, that’s okay. Just ask an expert or a child psychologist who can get your child out of the situation and help you with better parenting tips.
I hope this post was helpful for you and your child. Remember, your child needs you and sometimes just being there is enough. If you’d like more help or guidance, feel free to ask us and we’ll reach out to you.
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