Covid-19 Stress-Relieving Tool Kit

​Are your children anxious about Covid-19?
Are your own stress levels increasing with each newscast?
Are you wondering how to help your children to calm their worries?
 
We are living in unprecedented times. The world has changed seemingly overnight and we don’t know where this is all leading. Uncertainty about the future tends to provoke anxiety in adults, which is then picked up by our children. One of the best ways to beat anxiety is to have something that you can do right away to calm down. Studies have shown that smiling, being grateful, taking deep breaths and helping others are all powerful ways of relieving stress and reducing anxiety. 
 
Here are six tips that you can teach your children and then give them a ‘tool kit’ as a tangible reminder of how to relax whatever the circumstances. You’ll likely have most of these items around.

1. Smile. Smiling makes us feel great! It makes the person you smile at feel great too. Smiling works remotely as well. You can smile at a neighbour from a distance or smile at a grandparent in another city via Skype, Facetime or Zoom. Put a smiley face eraser, ball or sticker into a bag or box as part of the kit. If you don’t have anything on hand, then just draw a smiley face on a piece of paper and pop it in the kit.
2. Be Grateful. If you don’t already have a family gratitude practice I suggest you try it and adopt one ASAP. Being grateful is an easy way of beating anxiety. It’s like flipping a switch from negative to positive thinking. Teach your child that if they are feeling anxious all they have to do is look around the house or garden and find five things they are grateful for. Find a number ‘5’, or a Thank You card to pop into your kit as a reminder.
3. Breathe. Taking five deep breaths will help to calm down the nervous system. Teach young children to belly-breathe or pretend to blow out a candle slowly. Add a birthday candle to the tool kit.
4. Be kind. Being kind brings us good feelings and distracts from anxious or nervous feelings. Pop a Band-Aid or a hand shape in the kit as a reminder for your child to look for something kind to do each day. They can help bake and deliver cookies to an elderly neighbour and leave them on the doorstep, or make a video call to a grandparent in another city. They can help around the house by tidying, or walking the dog.
5. Hug. Include a heart shape or a small bear in your tool kit to remind your child that they can give themselves a hug any time. They have all the strength and love within themselves to see them through an anxious day. No hugging anyone besides parents until it is safe to do so!
6. Connect. Keeping the routine as normal as possible will help to relieve anxiety. A playdate via any video-conferencing platform could be arranged so that children can play with their Legos, dolls, bears, or other toys side by side, but in their own homes. Add to the kit a couple of Lego blocks or any other items that connect.

 
You can review the day by finding out if they used the tool kit reminders at all and which ‘tools’ worked best for them. 
 
Have fun finding trinkets to add to your child’s toolkit. Let me know what you found in the comments below – be creative!