"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose on thought over another."
-William James
If you live in the United States, stress is an everyday part of life. Unfortunately, stress does not discriminate against age, gender, or socioeconomic status. Oddly enough, for many families, it has become a badge of honor. Being over scheduled, rushed, and impatient is some how positively correlated with social status. This attitude is counter culture relative to the rest of the western world, yet a point of pride for many Americans. It comes at a cost: loss of childhood, obesity, illness, and anxiety.
Types of Stress
Positive stress results from short lived, unpleasant experiences such as getting a shot, meeting new people, getting a toy taken away, or separating from a caregiver. While child may experience temporary discomfort, with proper support, they can learn to cope with these experiences.
Tolerable Stress results from more adverse experiences, but continues to be relatively short lived. Examples include the death of a loved one, natural disaster, an accident, or divorce. Again, with proper adult support, children can typically cope and adapt. Eventually this may become positive stress, and benefit a child's development.
Toxic stress results from prolonged adverse experiences lasting weeks, months, or years. This includes abuse and neglect. Children cannot manage this type of stress, and permanent changes to brain development can ensue.
Stress, Learning, and Health
Prolonged stress can have a significant impact on learning. The adrenal gland activates adrenaline, and cortisol, which increases heart rate, muscle, and memory power. It's like a naturally occurring steroid! Sounds great, right? Wrong! Years ago, this "fight or flight" response was activated due to an immediate threat, and then shortly after, the body regained homeostasis. Now, our threats are long term (academic demands, athletics, family discord, etc), with no end in sight; thus, children experience prolonged periods of increased adrenaline and cortisol. High levels of cortisol literally break down connectivity in the brain, making learning new things more challenging. In school, this manifests itself as deficits with executive functioning, like planning, memory, impulse control, and attention.
Stress impacts the immune system. As previously noted, when children are stressed, they produce increased levels of cortisol. This is necessary under acute conditions, such as taking a test, competing, or going to the doctor. When children are under more chronic stress, excess of this hormone is released, which changes the functioning of the immune system, leaving children susceptible to illness. Examples of more chronic stress include over scheduling of extracurricular activities, unimaginable amounts of homework, familial conflict, and bullying.
Mental health is significantly impacted by the presence of stress. While positive stress promotes healthy child development, ongoing stress involving family discord, learning differences, and natural disasters can have devastating consequences. Children under tolerable stress without support, or toxic stress, are at increased risk for the development of anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. In children, an all too common first sign of distress is psychosomatic complaints. These are physical symptoms, like headaches, stomachaches, nausea, loss of appetite, rapid heart beat, and chest pain, which upon further investigation, are psychological in origin. While children can physically experience these symptoms, their bodies are perfectly healthy. These physical symptoms are a manifestation of psychological stressors. If your child is complaining about his health, remember that its origin may be stress related, and be sure to investigate further.
Interventions: Help Minimize Stress
Conscious breathing allows us to feel calmer, more relaxed, and alert. When children focus on their breathing, they can move out of the sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight) to the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation/receptivity). There are four types of breathing activities to help calm children. Flower breath is a method of breathing in which you inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth, stopping to smell the roses, daisies, or tulips. Another form of breathing is hissing breath, in which you inhale through your nose, and exhale through your mouth, making a hissing sound. Extending the hissing sound allows children to slow down. Bear breath requires you to inhale through your nose, pause, and exhale through the nose. Breathe in for 3-4 seconds, pause for 2 seconds, and exhale. Finally, bunny breath involves taking three quick sniffs in the nose, and one long exhale through the nose. Children can do this while pretending to search for carrots. This is great for children who are upset, and can't find their breath.
Mindfulness has its roots in buddhism, and is defined as "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally." Basic mindfulness begins with paying attention to your breath, in order to focus on the here and now. It can lower blood pressure, decrease anxiety, improve sleep, and alleviate gastrointestinal difficulties. To engage in basic mindfulness, first sit on a straight back chair, or cross legged on the floor. Next, focus on an aspect of your breathing (air flow, belly rising, exhale, etc.), Once your concentration has narrowed, begin to notice the sounds and sensations around you. Finally, embrace each thought or sensation without judgement. If your mind races, refocus on breathing, and then expand awareness.
Muscle relaxation provides children an opportunity to differentiate between how their bodies feel when they experience stress, anxiety, or anger, opposed to what it feels like in a relaxed state. Here are three progressive muscle relaxation activities for children. For your hands and feet, pretend to squeeze a lemon really hard, then relax! Try this two additional times, progressively squeezing harder. Notice the difference in your muscles when squeezing versus relaxing. Arms and shoulders carry a lot of tension. Pretend you are a lazy cat, put your arms in front of you, and reach over your head. Drop your arms. Do this again, but this time reach even further back and drop your arms. Then, raise your arms, and push them as far as you possibly can, then drop them quickly. Notice the difference in tension when your arms are pushed back, and when at rest. Finally, to relax your legs/feet, pretend you are standing on a pile of sand. Try to get your toes down into the sand. You might need your legs to help you. As you press down, spread your toes. Step out of the sand, and relax your feet, toes, and legs. Repeat these actions, and this time, try and pick up the sand with your toes. Then, relax your toes, feet, and legs.
Types of Stress
Positive stress results from short lived, unpleasant experiences such as getting a shot, meeting new people, getting a toy taken away, or separating from a caregiver. While child may experience temporary discomfort, with proper support, they can learn to cope with these experiences.
Tolerable Stress results from more adverse experiences, but continues to be relatively short lived. Examples include the death of a loved one, natural disaster, an accident, or divorce. Again, with proper adult support, children can typically cope and adapt. Eventually this may become positive stress, and benefit a child's development.
Toxic stress results from prolonged adverse experiences lasting weeks, months, or years. This includes abuse and neglect. Children cannot manage this type of stress, and permanent changes to brain development can ensue.
Stress, Learning, and Health
Prolonged stress can have a significant impact on learning. The adrenal gland activates adrenaline, and cortisol, which increases heart rate, muscle, and memory power. It's like a naturally occurring steroid! Sounds great, right? Wrong! Years ago, this "fight or flight" response was activated due to an immediate threat, and then shortly after, the body regained homeostasis. Now, our threats are long term (academic demands, athletics, family discord, etc), with no end in sight; thus, children experience prolonged periods of increased adrenaline and cortisol. High levels of cortisol literally break down connectivity in the brain, making learning new things more challenging. In school, this manifests itself as deficits with executive functioning, like planning, memory, impulse control, and attention.
Stress impacts the immune system. As previously noted, when children are stressed, they produce increased levels of cortisol. This is necessary under acute conditions, such as taking a test, competing, or going to the doctor. When children are under more chronic stress, excess of this hormone is released, which changes the functioning of the immune system, leaving children susceptible to illness. Examples of more chronic stress include over scheduling of extracurricular activities, unimaginable amounts of homework, familial conflict, and bullying.
Mental health is significantly impacted by the presence of stress. While positive stress promotes healthy child development, ongoing stress involving family discord, learning differences, and natural disasters can have devastating consequences. Children under tolerable stress without support, or toxic stress, are at increased risk for the development of anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. In children, an all too common first sign of distress is psychosomatic complaints. These are physical symptoms, like headaches, stomachaches, nausea, loss of appetite, rapid heart beat, and chest pain, which upon further investigation, are psychological in origin. While children can physically experience these symptoms, their bodies are perfectly healthy. These physical symptoms are a manifestation of psychological stressors. If your child is complaining about his health, remember that its origin may be stress related, and be sure to investigate further.
Interventions: Help Minimize Stress
Conscious breathing allows us to feel calmer, more relaxed, and alert. When children focus on their breathing, they can move out of the sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight) to the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation/receptivity). There are four types of breathing activities to help calm children. Flower breath is a method of breathing in which you inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth, stopping to smell the roses, daisies, or tulips. Another form of breathing is hissing breath, in which you inhale through your nose, and exhale through your mouth, making a hissing sound. Extending the hissing sound allows children to slow down. Bear breath requires you to inhale through your nose, pause, and exhale through the nose. Breathe in for 3-4 seconds, pause for 2 seconds, and exhale. Finally, bunny breath involves taking three quick sniffs in the nose, and one long exhale through the nose. Children can do this while pretending to search for carrots. This is great for children who are upset, and can't find their breath.
Mindfulness has its roots in buddhism, and is defined as "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally." Basic mindfulness begins with paying attention to your breath, in order to focus on the here and now. It can lower blood pressure, decrease anxiety, improve sleep, and alleviate gastrointestinal difficulties. To engage in basic mindfulness, first sit on a straight back chair, or cross legged on the floor. Next, focus on an aspect of your breathing (air flow, belly rising, exhale, etc.), Once your concentration has narrowed, begin to notice the sounds and sensations around you. Finally, embrace each thought or sensation without judgement. If your mind races, refocus on breathing, and then expand awareness.
Muscle relaxation provides children an opportunity to differentiate between how their bodies feel when they experience stress, anxiety, or anger, opposed to what it feels like in a relaxed state. Here are three progressive muscle relaxation activities for children. For your hands and feet, pretend to squeeze a lemon really hard, then relax! Try this two additional times, progressively squeezing harder. Notice the difference in your muscles when squeezing versus relaxing. Arms and shoulders carry a lot of tension. Pretend you are a lazy cat, put your arms in front of you, and reach over your head. Drop your arms. Do this again, but this time reach even further back and drop your arms. Then, raise your arms, and push them as far as you possibly can, then drop them quickly. Notice the difference in tension when your arms are pushed back, and when at rest. Finally, to relax your legs/feet, pretend you are standing on a pile of sand. Try to get your toes down into the sand. You might need your legs to help you. As you press down, spread your toes. Step out of the sand, and relax your feet, toes, and legs. Repeat these actions, and this time, try and pick up the sand with your toes. Then, relax your toes, feet, and legs.
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