Slowly breathe in from your stomach (expand like a balloon) and slowly breathe out (deflate). Belly Breathing: Put one hand on your stomach and one hand on your chest.Release, and notice how your body changes. Squeeze Muscles: Starting at your toes, pick one muscle and squeeze it tight.Here are two common mindfulness techniques to try: When we are feeling anxious, we start worrying about what might happen in the future - all those “what ifs.” To avoid getting caught up in worries about the future, try practicing mindfulness, which is a technique for focusing on the present. It can be very difficult to communicate a sense of calm to your child when you are struggling to cope with your own anxiety. Howard adds, “it’s helpful to know it sooner and to learn the strategies to manage sooner.” That means managing your own stress as effectively as possible, and helping your kids manage theirs. The second important thing to do is implement strategies to help ensure that you do not pass your anxiety on to your kids. “It feels really bad to have anxiety, and it’s not easy to turn off.”īut the transmission of anxiety from parent to child is not inevitable. “There’s no need to punish yourself,” says Jamie Howard, PhD, director of the Stress and Resilience Program at the Child Mind Institute. But if you are dealing with anxiety and start to notice your child exhibiting anxious behaviors, the first important thing is not to get bogged down by guilt. It can be painful to think that, despite your best intentions, you may find yourself transmitting your own stress to your child. And there is evidence that children of anxious parents are more likely to exhibit anxiety themselves, a probable combination of genetic risk factors and learned behaviors.
I WORRY WHEN IM AWAY FROM MY KIDS HOW TO
Kids look to their parents for information about how to interpret ambiguous situations if a parent seems consistently anxious and fearful, the child will determine that a variety of scenarios are unsafe. Witnessing a parent in a state of anxiety can be more than just momentarily unsettling for children. Parenting while taking care of your own mental health is hard, but you don’t have to do it alone. If a certain thing causes you a lot of stress, find other adults to take over or give you support. But try to avoid putting kids in charge of managing your anxiety. For example, maybe they get points toward a little reward every time they get ready for school on time.
Talk to kids about how you can work together to make life less stressful. It can also help to plan for dealing with anxiety before it happens. But I know there are better ways to react when I feel that way.” Talking about anxiety sends kids the message that stress is normal and they can manage it.
If you do something you regret later, talk about that too: “I yelled at you this morning because I was anxious we would be late. You might say: “I’m feeling scared right now, but I know it’s not that likely that the thing I’m scared of will actually happen.”
Instead, talk to kids about what you feel and how you cope with it. Once you know how to manage your own stress, you can help kids learn those same skills. You can also try to identify the things that make you anxious and set boundaries or come up with a plan for how to respond to them.
Practicing mindfulness every day can help you feel calmer in general and make the techniques more effective when you are feeling anxious. You can try mindfulness techniques like deep breathing. Managing your own stress is the best way to keep your child from picking up your anxiety.