The National Institute of Mental Health has some great resources on managing stress.  They report that stress affects everyone, all ages, genders and races.  Stress is defined as a state of mental or emotional strain as a result of demands or difficult circumstances.    This could be homework, pressures from work, money issues, etc.  Your stress can impact your child's stress and your child's worries can impact your stress level.

Not all stress is bad.  Sometimes stress can motivate you to prepare or improve.  Examples include someone who gets bad news about their health, their way to coping with this stress is to make changes to their eating habits or their exercise habits.   That stress motivated them to make a change.  If your child is stressed about a test or an assignment, helping them prepare or finish will help them manage the stress.

It is important to know when you are feeling stressed, what does it feel like to you?  Problems sleeping, not eating, eating without thinking, getting frustrated easily, low energy, etc.  These are all signs of stress.  

Check in with your doctor, are these things caused by a medical issue or is it stress?  

What can you do when feeling stressed?  Start with the basics: get the right amount of sleep, get exercise (walking 30 minutes a day, yoga, playing outside (like tag, etc)), eat healthy.  Learn and use relaxation: learn how to take deep breaths, be creative (write down your stress, paint, draw, even the adult color pages, ), talk to a friend, maybe even host a family dance party for 30 minutes.  Take a pause from the stress, laughter and breathing do make a difference.

Could it be more than stress?  If it seems like the triggers are low and the feelings continue, this could be symptoms of depression or anxiety.  Use any of the referrals to get the help you or your student deserves.  

​For more information on conditions that affect mental health, resources, and research, visit www.mentalhealth.gov, or the NIMH website at www.nimh.nih.gov. In addition, the National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus  service has information on a wide variety of health topics, including conditions that affect mental health.

​Emotional Regulation is the ability to manage your emotions no matter the stress or the circumstances.  

We are not born with this skill!  We need to develop how to handle our emotions similar to all of our other learned skills, for example, how to walk, how to talk and even how to read.   We need role models, support, time, encouragement and practice.   This means parents, siblings, teachers, social workers, and even community members can take a part in helping us learn how to manage our emotions.  

School can be frustrating, we don't want to upset children, but learning can be frustrating.  Research says that working through problems is a powerful skill.   We can never avoid problems, but we can learn to work through them.  

We can learn to express ourselves safely, with our words. But we have to start with the basics, sleep, nutrition and safety.  

How are you feeling today?  

Your child's best resource is you, not Suri, not Alexa, not youtube, you.

Need help with this critical issue: check out these resources

https://childmind.org/article/can-help-kids-self-regulation/

http://www.drdansiegel.com/blog/2014/10/29/you-said-what-about-time-outs/


​How can we help you today?



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