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Mindfulness Activities to Help Children Cope with Anxiety

 

Modern life has a lot of pressures. So it’s no surprise that children can sometimes feel anxious. From struggling with homework to family troubles, kids get stressed out and it’s important to help them find healthy ways of dealing with this. The good news is that developing coping strategies in early years can help children grow into strong, resilient adults. To help them do just that here are three different activities for them to try.

1. Arts and Crafts

Arts and crafts can be incredibly soothing. Whether it’s painting, making a collage or taking photographs, doing something creative acts as a distraction while also giving your child an opportunity to express their worries or fears. Why not start with watercolours or even ink stamping? Get basic supplies online and set your child a challenge. Work up from here to build their confidence and find out what kind of creative activities suit them best. Just be sure to know how to remove ink stains from clothes and similar situations as all crafts have the potential to get a bit messy. For tips and advice on this, click here.

2. Exercise

Exercise is a great way to deal with anxiety so it’s definitely worth teaching your child to use this as a healthy coping mechanism. When it comes to which kind of exercise to do it is worth trying a few different options. The best activity for your child is the one they enjoy as that’s the one they’ll actually keep doing. Try everything and anything until something sticks – running, yoga, dance, swimming and more!

3. Meditation

Finally, meditation is always worth a try when it comes to lowering anxiety and children can be surprising responsive to this. You might think it difficult to get kids to sit still long enough to meditate, but in fact when they get in to it, many little ones actually love the peaceful stillness that meditation brings. Try doing it together each night before bed and see what difference it could make.

Those are our top tips for dealing with anxiety through mindful activities – try arty things, exercise and meditation then see what works best for your family. Just get the few pieces of equipment you need before your start. Then you’ll be ready to help your child deal with anxiety in a healthy, sustainable manner.