Useful Resources for managing Stress & Anxiety in school.
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Just as many adults deal with stress and anxiety in the workplace, students are no different. They're juggling homework, extracurricular activities, friendships, and life at home. It's never a bad time to introduce new and effective ways of helping them learn how to properly manage their emotions through the use of healthy coping skills.
Below are useful tools to support students.
Mindful Breathing
Mindful Breathing (5 minutes) Students can stand or sit for this activity. Ask students to put both hands on their belly. Students should close their eyes, or look down to their hands. Guide students in taking three slow deep breaths in and out to see if they can feel their hands being moved. You may like to count “1, 2, 3” for each breath in and “1, 2, 3” for each breath out, pausing slightly at the end of each exhale. Encourage students to think about how the breath feels, answering the following questions silently, in their mind. What is moving your hands? Is it the air filling your lungs? Can you feel the air moving in through your nose? Can you feel it moving out through your nose? Does the air feel a little colder on the way in and warmer on the way out? Can you hear your breath? What does it sound like?
Mindfulness
Mindfulness helps kids disengage from the constancy of thinking, judging, planning, worrying and other cognitive functions that keep our minds so busy all day long.
Kids benefit from the amazing changes that simple mindfulness practices can bring about for their emotional health and wellbeing. A regular mindfulness practice helps condition the mind and body to be less reactive and more resilient to daily stress.
Mindfulness
Try the 5-4-3-2-1 coping technique.
When you’re overwhelmed with anxiety, the 5-4-3-2-1 coping technique could help calm your thoughts down.
Here’s how it works:
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Five. Look around the room, then name five things you see around you. These can be objects, spots on the wall, or a bird flying outside. The key is to count down those five things.
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Four. Next, name four things you can touch. This can be the ground beneath your feet, the chair you’re sitting in, or your hair that you run your fingers through.
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Three. Listen quietly, then acknowledge three things you can hear. These can be external sounds, like a fan in the room, or internal sounds, like the sound of your breathing.
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Two. Note two things you can smell. Maybe that’s the perfume you’re wearing or the pencil you’re holding.
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One. Notice something you can taste inside your mouth.
https://alderhey.nhs.uk/application/files/9815/8515/7280/Mindfulness_activities_for_kids.pdf
Add a Touchy Feely Focus (10 minutes)
Restless minds are magnetised by the sensation of touch: we can’t think and feel at the same time. The stroking and feeling itself (when using a prop to help children focus) becomes the meditation, in place of the breath awareness focus. You might like to begin your class journey towards mindfulness with some of these more tactile activities. Provide students with a prop to hold, touch, balance or focus their eyes on during one of the above activities. small soft toys small bean bags or beany pillows stress balls pieces of furry fabric
Spidey Senses (5 minutes)
Spidey Senses is a fun way to frame this traditional mindfulness exercise. Ask students to switch their senses up to a superpower level, just like Spiderman. In this moment, – What can they hear? – What can they see? – What can they taste? – What can they smell? – What can they feel? Guide students as they stay in this Spidey state for 2-3 minutes.