Strategies and activities for parents and children at home

Strategies and activities to reduce stress and anxiety

Below are some ideas that may help to reduce any anxieties or stress, help prevent them from building up and help to stop unwanted behaviour whilst at home.

· Put on a private VIP concert. Practice singing and performing your favourite songs. When you are ready (this can take a day or two to practice), sing and dance for your family. If you have siblings, put on a show together for your adults. This can be a serious show or make up a funny one. Britain’s Got Talent. The Voice. The X Factor are a few well-known shows to get ideas from. Your adults can be the audience or judges. Don’t make it competitive, have fun.

· Remember a happy memory. Absorb yourself in that memory – was it a sunny day (imagine the sun on you), was it having a cuddle with your favourite person (close your eyes and imagine the feel of that cuddle).

· Stand outside or open a window. Feel the sun or wind on your face. Close your eyes. What can you smell, feel, and hear? Take some deep breathes and inhale the fresh air.

· Happy/smile/memory jar. This can be done alone or with the whole family. Find a box or jar. On pieces of paper write a happy memory, something that makes you feel happy or something that makes you laugh or smile. Or you can draw pictures. Put them all in the box/jar. Next time you feel anxious, sad, stressed take out on of the memories. Keep doing this until you feel the negative feelings have passed. Add new memories, happy thoughts, jokes, pictures as they happen. If you do this as a family, don’t share what you put in so it is a surprise for others when they pick each other’s notes. You could add things you like about one of the others in your family as a nice surprise.

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