Relax with Your Child (or Inner Child)
Here is a guided relaxation exercise I recorded for you in MP3 format. Feel free to download and listen with your child. Written for younger children, this exercise takes less than 10 minutes. It incorporates breathing and muscle relaxation with fun imagery to help you both learn to relax your body and breath deeply. Relaxation becomes easier with practice and a great time to practice is bedtime.
Let me know what you think!
Give Your Stress a REST!
And let your courage flourish: Confident, Self-assured, Thoughtful, Strong
This 4-week, 8-session retreat is for girls ages 9-13 who worry, have fears, or avoid nerve-wracking situations.
When we feel worried or scared, we imagine all kinds of frightening situations, think up new ways to worry, and create more stress for ourselves. These worries and fears can get in the way of having fun, hanging out with friends, doing things with our family, and even going to school.
At the Summer Retreat for Girls, we will learn how our thinking is connected to our feelings. We will discover new ways of thinking, relaxing, and building confidence so that our worries and fears can stop getting in our way.
- Tuesdays and Thursdays
- 10 am to Noon
Pick your dates!
- June 15-July 8
- July 13-August 5
- August 10-August 26
Register today!
612-719-5422
How can therapy reduce my stress?
We’ve all felt stress…the tense shoulders, clinched jaw, scrunched face, headache, tight muscles, sick stomach. But how does it get there? How does stress, fear, and anxiety get inside our bodies? Through our minds, of course.
Figure 1: The Relationship Between Thoughts, Feelings, and Actions
For any given situation, whether it’s a surprise birthday party, a phone call delivering bad news, facing a pile of overwhelming work, or relaxing in the sun on a beach, we form thoughts, have ideas, and gain impressions. Perhaps we see images in our mind’s eye, or flashes of what could be. Whatever our perception, it affects how we feel—just as how we feel affects our perception of a situation. And both our thoughts and feelings influence our actions. In turn, the actions we take affect the situation, creating cycle of situation-thoughts-feelings-actions-situation-thoughts-feelings-actions…
Sometimes our perceptions about a situation are accurate, but sometimes our perceptions a skewed towards the negative. When our perceptions about a truly dangerous situation are accurate, we experience a “real alarm.” For example, out on a nature walk you see a snake on the path and hear a telltale rattling sound. You perceive danger! Your body experiences an alarm reaction that can include rapid heart rate, shallow breathing, tense muscles—all of which are preparing your body to either fight or flee the situation so you stay safe.
Our “real alarm” reaction to truly dangerous situations prepares our bodies to do what is necessary to avoid harm. However, not all alarm reactions are “real.” When we perceive danger in situations in which the risk of harm is minimal, our bodies experience the same alarm reaction. Such repeated exposure to “false alarms” can take its toll on our bodies and can interfere with our everyday lives by preventing us from doing things we might enjoy if we didn’t feel so afraid.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) teaches you strategies that can help you think more positively, feel more relaxed and confident, and do things differently so that your anxieties and fears no longer limit your life.
Stress Buster
This is a great stress-reliever! First, sit-up straight. Pretend you have a hot-air balloon tied to the top of your head and its gently lifting you off your seat. Let your shoulders fall. Do you feel that? Do you feel the tension you didn’t even know you were carrying start to drain away? Very nice.
Now, I want you to pretend your nose is at your bellybutton. Go ahead, breath right into your belly-button. Do you see how different that feels? Practice that for a few breaths. Good.
OK, now think about the number 4. Your going to breathe in through your bellybutton nose for 4 seconds, breathe out for 4 seconds, wait for 4 seconds (its OK if you can’t wait the full 4–just breathe slowly and comfortable). Repeat 4 times.
Doesn’t that feel great? Well done!
