Ways To Reduce Anxiety And Stress In A Child

Anxiety and stress is not the domain of adults only; even children and adolescents face stress with about 10 to 20 children out of 100 experiencing anxiety and stress symptoms. We as parents need to surely reduce the stress and anxiety in our children.

Reduce stress and anxiety in a child in the following ways:

 
a) We should not force our wishes on our children and not force perfection on them; striving for a goal is a good thing, but we also have to be able to accept and embrace our children’s mistakes and imperfections and accept the child as he/she is. It is necessary to strive, though our children may not necessarily succeed.

 

b) Parents can reduce anxiety and stress in children by encouraging them to face their fears and not run away from it; avoidance of situations that are anxiety provoking only maintains the anxiety, while facing the fear helps the anxiety to reduce naturally over time. Usually anxiety will reduce within 20-45 minutes if you stay in the anxiety-provoking situation.

c) Try to focus your child towards the positive and not get lost in negative thoughts and self-criticism; the more a child starts focusing on the positives, he/she is more likely to be reminded of doing so.

d) Reward your child's brave behaviors when he/she faces his/her fears with praise, hug or something tangible. Make it a motivator by telling your child before he is in such a situation. Then the child will engage more often in such a behavior.

e) Schedule relaxing activities for your children; these activities should include time to play with toys, play a non-competitive sport, yoga, painting, having a tea party and just to play and be silly. All children need to relax and be just kids.

 

f) Encourage good sleep hygiene by setting a bedtime and bedtime routine that your child follows everyday even on weekends. The bedtime routine should include some relaxing activity like reading a book, listening to soothing music or just meditating or praying. This helps your child to transition from the activities of the day to the relaxed state necessary to fall asleep.

g) Encourage your child to express his/her anxiety; do not validate your child’s fear or anxiety before you hear him/her fully. Suggest things like "Yes, you seem scared. What are you worried about?"  and then have a discussion about your child's emotions and fears.

h) Help your child to problem solve after you have listened to the child and validated his feelings. Help your child to identify possible solutions; if the child can’t then you generate some potential solutions for your child and ask your child to pick the solution that he or she thinks would work best.

i) Children follow parents in the way they model behavior, self-care and positive thinking; if you avoid anxiety provoking situations so will they. If you face up to your fears they would also and if you look for positives in situations so will they. So when you think about your child's psychological well-being, then think about your own as well.

j) Inculcate a “never give up” attitude in your child and get him/her used to anxiety and stress management techniques that would help lower his/her anxiety level and help cope with anxiety-provoking situations.

All these ways will help reduce anxiety and stress in children.

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