Healthy coping strategies kids are to be learned, not innate. As emotions are introduced to kids, coping with them become a challenge if not taught properly. Parents also face difficulty if their children can’t deal with emotions of life. A child is not born with the skill of dealing emotions in a right way. Hence, it is important part of parenting to teach children how to handle emotions.
No doubt, if emotions are not managed properly, stress, anxiety and depression find their ways to our lives. Many parents goes through a rough phase when they see their children not able to regulate their emotions. Later this unmanageable emotions increases the risk of stress and anxiety in life.
Teaching healthy coping strategies kids doesn’t mean to stop expressing their feelings but responding thoughfully. This post will help parents to learn different strategies for kids to cope with their emotions to have good mental health.
What are coping strategies for kids?
When someone is happy, it is very easy to express feelings. But it is hard to express the difficult emotions of our life. Hence, coping strategies are required during these tough times. Coping strategies in simple terms means the mindful actions to manage the tense situations of life. The actions should focus on reducing the stress and solving the problem.
Any how individuals deal with emotions in their own way. If not aware, children may pick unhealthy ways to cope with their emotions. On other hand, children who are taught about the healthy strategies of dealing with emotions become more resilient and positive in life.
There are lot of differences the way we face the tough situations of life. If someone manages the stress in constructive way, leads to a well being life. On other hand avoiding problems or becoming aggressive during stress is an unhealthy way of coping emotions. Unhealthy coping skills may give temporary relief but later it leads to negativity that ruin your mental and emotional health.
Why Teaching Healthy Coping Strategies Kids Matters
Children should always be taught to find the right way to get out of stressful situations every-time in life. Therefore teaching healthy coping strategies kids is really important. As expressing emotions is important, it is also crucial to learn to regulate your emotions. When a child cope with negative emotions, they channelize their inner energy with positivity and make better choices in life.
Benefits of healthy coping strategies are :-
1) Healthy coping skills help to handle the adversities of life with strength and positivity. You learn to bounce back and become resilient in life.
2) You get the power to control your emotions without getting aggressive or depressed.
3) As coping skills help to navigate the challenges of life smoothly, this boost your self-confidence.
4) Constructive coping skills foster the ability to focus on the tough situations with clear vision and enhances your problem solving skill.
5) Effectively managing emotions, releases stress and leads to better productivity.
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Healthy Coping Strategies Kids
There are many different strategies to teach healthy coping skills to children.
Physical Coping Strategies
- Deep Breathing : It is the foremost strategy to adapt to cope up with emotions. Deep breathing exercises promotes calmness in mind and diverts our fearful mind to relaxation. Relaxed breathing controls the nervous system and calms down our mind. When children learn to practice deep breathing during stressful situation, they feel more secure and confident.
- Physical Activity : Physical movements accelerate the production of endorphins in our body that boost our mood. Children should always be encourage to do physical activities as these activities help them to feel good and reduces the level of sadness. Physically active children deal with anxiety and depression without much effort. They are resilient in life.
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation : Children who are nervous, depressed or stressed, muscle relaxation technique can help them to cope with emotions in much better way. Progressive muscle relaxation is method to release tension and relaxing different muscle groups through out the body. It is a technique that involves tightening and relaxing muscle group in specific way that give feeling of relaxation to the body and mind. MentalHealthCentreForKids have posted a script of practicing progressive muscle relaxation to help parents and gurdians.
- Movement Based Activities : It is important to learn to release overwhelming emotions inside us. Movement of body may seem to be irrelevant for coping. But it had been observed that children who spent time in physical activities suffer less anxiety and stress. As because physical movement lowers stress hormone called cortisol and uplift the mood.
Relaxation Coping Strategies
- Mindfulness and Meditation : These helps to foster emotional stability in children. These activities encourage children to think, realize and then act accordingly. Children who practices meditation and mindfulness learn to avoids impulsive reactions in life. Rather they try to analyze and impose calmness in their behavior. They show more compassion towards other.
- Guided Imagery and Visualization : One of the healthy coping strategies kids is using imagery and visualization. It helps to distract the brain from fear,anxiety to calmness by imagining something pleasant. Encouraging kids to visualize something good and beautiful things or places will sooth them and make them feel relax. It helps children to face the challenges in a easy way.
- Taking a quiet break : Having short quiet breaks is like pressing the reset button of our mind. Where mind gets time to recharge and comes back with more energy and efficiency. Breaks make feel happy that boost children’s energy and get rid of overwhelming feeling from fatigue. Children should be given short quiet break to deliver more fresh and innovative ideas to the world.
Creative Coping Strategies
- Art and Drawing : Activities like art and drawing are substantial way of releasing stress and anxiety. It helps children to stay calm and concentrate. This help children to create a meditative state of mind. Art just opens a door to children where they can paint all their emotions in a calm way and learn to regulate them very well.
- Journaling : Journaling is one of the most important healthy coping strategies. It gives children a space to express their emotions. Writing down worries, sadness, anger or any overwhelming situations free up the blocked space of mind. In addition when children practice writing their experiences or problems on paper, it helps them to analyze the problems mindfully. They get more clear vision and ways to overcome these situations .
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- Music and Singing : These are two powerful tools to process inner stress and anxiety. Listening to good music always shifts your mind and makes you feel kid. Music triggers the feel good hormone of our body that boosts our mood. And singing is an art where there are endless ways to be creative. Incorporating music and singing in child’s everyday routine is important for child’s well being.
- Play Therapy : Playing is a medium through which children can communicate freely. It is a safe space for them to release their anxiety. Playing keeps children happy, cheerful and foster creativity. It teaches them so many real life problems and learns to be resilient. Role-play helps children to solve their conflicts in a much better way.
Emotional Coping Strategies
- Seeking Support From Trusted Adults : Children need to learn from the experiences of trustworthy adults for their well being. Asking for guidance or suggestions from parents, teachers or gurdians help children to feel secure. And they get motivations from adults to bounce back that make a way to overcome emotional outbursts. Adult’s experiences teaches children to overcome the challenges calmly and positively.
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- Talking To Friends And Family : Sharing the load always make feel lighter. We should always encourage children to share their thoughts with their friends and family. They feel loved and understood during tough times. Sharing one’s problem with loved ones help to see different perspective of the problem. Being parent you should also discuss your experiences and thoughts with your children. In this way they will learn skill of social communication. And Children understand that their feelings are acknowledged by their family and friends.
- Humor and Laughter : Charlie Chaplin once said, ” A day without laughter is a day wasted”. Laughter and humor are the natural therapy to heal stress and grief. Learning to laugh makes you feel lighter. When you laugh, your mood lightens up, and this develop a positive mindset. Humor and laughter are the simplest and one of the best healthy coping strategies kids.
Conclusion
I hope this post gave a clear idea about healthy coping strategies kids are learnable skill. That need to be taught to kids from an early age. Not to be forgotten that there are different strategies for different kids as each individual is different. Practicing and incorporating these skills take time and patience but they are worthwhile. Healthy coping skills help children to be resilient in life and develop a “can-do” spirit in them despite of all the hurdles.
