Thank you to Seamus Ruane of iThrive (https://ithrive.ie/) for coming to speak to the parents about the important issue of Anxiety in Children.
Anxiety affects as many as 1 in 8 children with symptoms ranging from mild to debilitating. It is true to say that most parents would do almost anything to relieve their child’s stress, anxiety and worry.
We discussed how all emotions both positive and negative are important, and only become problematic when they become too intense or we get stuck in them.
We talked about a 3 step approach to deal with anxiety;
1. Reverse the anxiety alarm with deep breathing techniques. The breath can be compared to a fire extinguisher for anxiety, and can dampen down the stress response.
2. Bring the energy back to the body. When we are anxious our focus can become mental and we disassociate from our body. As a result we need to increase body awareness.
3. Kick the logical brain back in to gear. When we are anxious the emotional part of our brain takes over and we can fall into thinking traps. Being able to identify these traps and having the agility to remove ourselves from them is an important life skill.
