In both children and teens, symptoms of anxiety are very common. Usually, they worry about school-related issues including fitting in the community, friends, teachers, academics, and even being away from parents. Anxiety in children is one of the biggest challenges that parents face. Since you cannot really eliminate this easily, you can at least help your children manage this feeling.
Here are some ways for you to help alleviate anxiety in children:
Look at the Basics
Children who are hungry or tired will not be able to cope well. This often happens to anxious children when they lack sleep or forget to eat. Always remember to feed your children nutritious meals and snacks. Create a schedule for routines to make things as predictable as possible.
Encourage them to Face Their Fears will Decrease Anxiety
When we are afraid of something, we tend to avoid dealing with that particular situation. So instead of overcoming the situation the fears persist. When children face their fears, they learn that their anxiety naturally reduces overtime. This is due to a system in our bodies that allows one to relax. A person cannot stay anxious for a long period of time. When you are in an anxiety-provoking situation, worries often decrease within twenty to forty minutes.
A Time to Allow them to Worry
As we all know, simply telling your children to stop worrying will not make them easily ignore or get rid of the worry. However, it will be helpful if you allow your children to worry openly to let out stress. Remember to limit this to prevent them from getting too worried over every single thing.
One thing you can do is to allot about ten to fifteen minutes for a daily ritual called “worry time”. Within the time limit, encourage your children to write down all of their worries on a piece of paper before dropping these in a “worry box”. During the activity, allow them to bring out their worries — no rules apply and all of their concerns are valid. When the time limit ends, close the box and tell them to say goodbye to today’s concerns.
Focusing on the Positives instead of Only the Negative
Most of the time, anxious and stressed people get lost in self-criticism and negative thoughts. This usually happens to children, making them focus more on the negative situation instead of looking on the brighter side of the situation. They often worry about future events instead of focusing on the here and now. To help them further, focus on your children’s positive attributes as well as the good things in every situation; this will remind them to be optimistic at all times.
Being a Role Model for Your Child is a Plus
Self-care and positive thinking – these are not only things that you should teach your children, but also you, as a parent, must practice. Children will always imitate what their parents do. So if you take care of yourself and look at the positive side in every situation, your children will learn that these are important and they will instil this attitude in their daily lives. Children learn from
watching their parents, so if you are concerned about your children’s psychological well-being, think about your own as well.
Give Them Food that Can Help Alleviate Anxiety
The food you consume greatly affects the operation of your nervous system as well as how relaxed or stressed you feel throughout the day. Food that contains high sugar such as refined grains, affect your blood sugar levels negatively, thus resulting in more stress. On the other hand, natural food such as nuts, vegetables, and healthy sources of protein often provide a calmer and more stable energy. Aside from having a healthier diet, it is also best to eat anti-anxiety food that are excellent in reducing stress levels; additionally, these also relax the mind and body.
Make Time for Relaxing Activities is a Must for all Children
Unfortunately, fun activities such as sports can be more of a competition instead of something that the little ones can just relax with and enjoy. That is why children usually end up getting stressed and anxious after sports. Always remember that having time to relax is one of the vital things that all children need. To ensure that your little ones have a daily schedule for playing games, with a toy, or sports that do not involve any competition; make this a time for them to completely enjoy what they’re doing.
One of the best ways to enjoy and relax is by playing with the Whistlecopter toys; these amazing toys can fly up to 200 feet when launched. Either the Whistle Copter or Original Copter both with the new Super Glow Wings will be amazing to play with for exercise and fun. Both the Whistlecopter and Originalcopter now feature brighter LED lights as well as louder whistles on the Whistlecopter. Not only that, but the wings of these toys feature unique designs so each of them look different when the Whistlecopters or Original copter fly in the sky. With either the Original Copter or the Whistle Copter , your children will not need to compete since the Whistlecopter toys are made for having fun and spending quality time with the family.