How to cool the flames of Mental Health in children.

One of the biggest gifts we can give our children is the ability to understand their emotions, and know what to do when they feel worried, anxious, or overwhelmed.

We are more aware than ever before that mental health is growing within our younger generations and lockdown has done nothing to reduce those levels.

I have been working with children for the last 14 years and have taught many children simple yet effective techniques they can use to leave anger, frustration, and anxiety behind and embrace calm, let go of sadness, overwhelm and worry and feel happy and confident. 

I believe by guiding children from a young age to know how to process the ‘energy’ of emotions they experience we are giving them precious life-long skills that will enable them to thrive. 

Communication is an art and one we want our children to learn to use effectively so they feel safe and secure enough to express how they feel otherwise emotions and feelings become suppressed and hidden, sometimes for many years which has an effect on adult life and relationships.

As a single mother I often felt very challenged, irritable and sometimes I struggled to cope and these were always the occasions when my boys were more unsettled within themselves and struggled to express their emotions and frankly I realised my behaviour had a huge impact on them. Effective communication was definitely not happening, creating a very stressful environment between all of us.

I understood for them to feel safe and secure as a parent I needed to be ‘present’ with them, communicate effectively and listen, and often listen to what wasn’t being said!

I want to share with you the A, B, C, of Reconnecting to your Zenergy so that children can have a way of acknowledging how they feel, change those feelings, and feel confident and happy within themselves.

By the way parents, you can do this too!

So, let me explain first what I mean by Zenergy?

Zenergy is a combination of living in a high vibe energy state with a balance of calm.

Follow these 3 steps to take you from a place of stress and anxiety to a place of calm and presence.

A – Awareness. A feeling in your body will always be your stress messenger. Whether you feel the tension in your shoulders, neck, a headache, or that fuzzy feeling in your stomach. Maybe you clench your hands or your jaw. Asking children to identify what ‘feeling’ is going on inside their body allows them to start recognizing the signs of stress and anxiety.

B – Breathe. When we are feeling stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed we tend to take short breaths from the upper part of our body which is activating the stress response and putting the body into the fight and flight response. Consciously take long deep breaths from the lower part of your stomach for the count of 5 and breathe out for the count of 10. Do this for 5 or 6 breaths until you start to feel calmer.

C – Change state. Tap with the flat of your hand under the collar bones and on the upper part of the chest as you continue to take those long deep breaths. These points are known as K27 ‘energy points’, or acupressure points. By tapping your hand on these points you are calming down the stress response in the body, boosting the immune system, and bringing the body into a place of harmony again.

Continue to follow these 3 steps until your children and of course, you, start to feel calmer, confident, and happier.

Stress, overwhelm and anxiety is not the biggest problem we have, the problem is what we do about it. What solutions can we explore and what can we do right here at this moment to return to a place of inner peace, calm, confidence, and true happiness.

To cool the flames of Mental Health we each have a responsibility to share with our children from as young an age as possible to recognise, accept and process emotions so that they do not get stored in the memory bank of the body to repeatedly show up in another pair of shoes later down the line.

Attached is a link to a video where you can follow this simple but effective practice.

https://youtu.be/9L8c4Xkk3nM

I do have more videos on my Youtube channel with deeper 'tapping' sessions and much more.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC49vdc1LYAiJHSHqr7RlDOg

I would love to know your thoughts and your experiences once you have tried the A, B, C, and of course contact me for more information or to have a chat.