Page 29 - North State Parent April 2020

How to Make A “Five Senses” Stress-Busting Toolkit for Your Kids
We can teach our kids how to do this by using mindfulness, teach them how to be fully present in the moment. Mindfulness allows our children to un- derstand their mind-body connection better and to stop being so reactive to thoughts, emotions and physical sensations no matter what is happening in their environment.
A commonly used mindfulness tactic is to have tools that trigger all our five senses. To make it easy for your children to calm down when they get panicky, consider putting together a Five Senses Stress-Busting Toolkit based on these ideas:
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Smell
As the adage “stop and smell the roses” reminds us, fragrances can help us to relax and be in the moment. There is no scent more relaxing than lav- ender. The antioxidant components found in lavender can lower the level of stress hormones in our body. There are many methods to use lavender to soothe stress and anxiety. Here a few that you can throw in your stress-bust- ing toolkit:
• Lavender spray
• Lavender lotion for kids
• Aromatherapy diffuser bracelets and necklaces for children
Other soothing scents include ginger, jasmine, pine, rosemary and citruses like lemons, oranges and grapefruit.
Touch
Feeling different textures can be an effective distraction tool. One trick is to have your child touch and feel one texture at a time. Have them tell themselves what it feels like so that their full attention is on what they are touching. It is helpful to have several different types of textures to rotate through, such a smooth, rough, slimy, squishy, fuzzy and hard items. Ideas include:
• Touch and feel books like Pat the Bunny
• Touch and feel cards
• Stress balls
• Buy a sensory toy kit or put together a bag of items with multiple tex-
tures such as tissue, sandpaper, a cotton ball, a squishy ball and a piece of felt. 30
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