Power in the Mind

Remember when you use to lay out on the grass and guess what the clouds looked like?
Or that any ol' stick would become a rifle for a wild game of cowboys and Indians?
And how about what fantastic food we were making while doing mud pies?

Yes, a child's imagination can be a wondrous place. There dwells the closet monster and the space heroes of this world. But in a child's imagination lies a great tool. One that can help transform stress and anxiety into joy and success. That is what Charlotte Reznick, PhD is showing us how to do with her book "The Power of Your Child's Imagination".

Here we learn what tools to use and how to use them to help guide our children into a world without phobias, social anxiety and how to cope with losses and hurt, frustration and anger. I know that College Girl had many sleepless nights when she could not stop bed-wetting. The worry and fear would become overwhelming to her. Here Charlotte gives us tools to help our child with this all too common issue.

I am glad to see more and more literature coming out to help today's parents. Life is becoming more stressful and going faster every day. That means our children are dealing with life's lil problems at earlier ages. How we help them cope during these times form their skills as adults. I would suggest that you might also want to read "The Power of Your Child's Imagination" as a guide for your family.

Back-to-School-itis

Today we have a guest post by Charlotte Reznick PhD. Charlotte Reznick is a child educational psychologist, an associate clinical professor of psychology at UCLA, and author of a new book, The Power of Your Child's Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success (Perigee, 2009, $14.95).

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

Six Tools to Relieve Your Child's "Back-to-School-itis"

By Charlotte Reznick PhD

For some kids, going back to school at the end of summer can be traumatic. Anticipating a new teacher, classmates, grade, or school can trigger fear, anxiety, and depression--not to mention very real physical symptoms such as stomachaches, headaches, and insomnia.

Fortunately, your child has a whole toolbox to draw from--in her own imagination. Here are six imagination tools parents can use with young children to relieve "back-to-school-itis."

Teach her to balloon breathe. With her hands around her navel, have her breathe slowly and deeply into her lower belly so it presses into her hands like an inflating balloon. The Balloon Breath has dramatic calming effects and facilitates a waking state of focused concentration and receptivity to positive suggestions. This one tool makes all the other ones easier.

Visit his special place. This is a safe private place within your child's inner world where he can work out problems or take a mini-vacation from stress and worry. He can invite a wise Animal Friend into his special place to talk to and help him, or he can even dig for a treasure box there that contains the antidote to his fear.

Draw the fear. Putting an image on paper: (1) makes her fear of separation realer and less frightening than keeping it inside, and (2) makes her fear less likely to grow because there is a concrete picture to work with. Once she has a picture, she can talk to it, find out why it's trying to scare her, strike a bargain with it, surround it with a soothing color bubble, and so on.

Talk to his symptom. When a child suffers from a worry headache or stomachache, these three questions can help eliminate the pain. Have him do deep balloon breathing (diaphragmatic breathing), then ask: (1) What color is it? (2) What shape is it? (3) How heavy is it? After more breaths, ask him again. Continue to breathe and question in rounds. His pain will likely change or disappear. If it doesn't completely go away, ask the ache what it wants him to know, do, or understand to release any more bits of pain.

Picture the future. Artwork is also an effective starting point when you're working with clear end-goals, like getting a good night's sleep or reducing a fear. Have your child draw two drawings--how things are now and how she'd like them to be. Hang the picture in her bedroom; this is a great reminder of her desired goal and the first step toward getting there.

Encourage drama. For kids whose nature tends toward drama, acting out their worries and troubles is a wonderful way to release them. Let them play it out--with puppets, with their bodies, with anything their imagination suggests. It's amazing what creative solutions come up when given free reign.

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