COPING SKILLS FOR CHILDREN
MINDFULNESS AND RELAXATION
Dr Ruwani Kumari Valentine
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Mindfulness-based coping exercises for young people, people with an intellectual disability, and adults who prefer playful, concrete images. Improve wellbeing and resilience, decrease distress.<br> All these exercises help with feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and stressed. I have indicated, however, particular conditions where the exercises may be especially useful. The exercises are meant to be used preventatively, to promote resilience, as well as reactively, to help exit a state. For maximum gain, practice the exercises when calmer, so that skills can be used even when anxious |
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01 Stretch like a Cat:
A brief, playful progressive muscle relaxation to decrease tension. Especially
useful for trauma, worry, anger, sleep problems. FREE
02 Tummy Breathing:
Diaphragmatic Breathing. Useful for all conditions. An essential skill.
03 Affirmations:
Neutral and positive coping statements. Useful for worry, managing anxiety
including panic, performance fears, low mood, self-esteem.
04 Bubble Breathing:
Slow Breathing. Useful for all conditions. An essential skill. FREE
05 Sticking Attention:
and smell. Useful for: trauma/dissociation/spacing out, feeling overwhelmed,
panic, feeling out of control, social anxiety, low mood, agitation, anger,
worry.
06 My Bubble of
Protection: A visualisation exercise, developed originally for adults, where we
imagine creating a bubble of protection for the day that shields us from
negativity, and criticism. Useful for: dealing with bullies and critics, social
anxiety, self-esteem, trauma.
07 Safe Place
Visualisation: A visualisation for helping with carrying a feeling of safety
around inside. We create a safe place that can be gone to when needed. At
first, it may be difficult to imagine a safe place. Practice will help. Useful
for: trauma, social anxiety, stress.
08 Riding the Waves of
Anxiety: In this visualisation, with accompanying ocean sounds, we imagine
coping with anxious feelings. Useful for exposure and response prevention work,
trauma, panic, agitation.
09 Walking through a
Rainforest: Peaceful visualisation to promote calmness.
10 Zap Zap Automatic
Negative Thoughts (ANTs): Automatic Negative Thoughts quickly enter our head
and we believe them! They affect how we feel. In this exercise, we practice
tuning in to thoughts and then zapping them! Useful for: all conditions
including worry, stress, feeling overwhelmed.
11 Throw Worry Stones
into the Water: in this practical, mindfulness visualisation, we practice
letting our worries go. Useful for: feeling overwhelmed, stressed, worrying,
self-esteem.
12 Inviting a
Superhero to Help: we all need extra help sometimes! In this visualisation, we
increase coping and changing perspective by inviting a favourite superhero in
to help us. Useful for: nightmares, stress, worry, low mood. FREE
To Download all 12 Tracks - CLICK HERE
To learn about the fascinating work of Dr Kumari Valentine, please visit her page &
Dr. Kumari's Youtube Channel :
