Tips For Alleviating Anxiety In Children

Vacation is the one time in the year you get to chill out and relax, right? Well, maybe not for everyone, especially if you are a mom who has an anxious child. An anxious child can make vacations quite a challenging time. But with a little knowledge about the condition and a few suggestions for activities, you can have a restful and enjoyable vacation.

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What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a condition that causes a fear reaction. It can be in response to certain stimuli such as spiders, or new social situations, or it can just arise for no reason. It's rather unpleasant for the person suffering from it, as they are likely to have a raised heart rate, feel sick and dizzy, get sweaty and feel the need to go to the toilet. Not much fun, especially if this happens at multiple points in the day.

However, if you have a child with anxieties, there's no need to despair. There are things to do to help alleviate anxiety, including visiting a pediatrician for advice as well as the suggestions below.

Exercise

Exercise is great for anxiety. It moves all the chemicals and hormones that our bodies produce around our systems quicker. It also helps to relieve some of the physical discomfort of fear and produces endorphins (a.k.a. happy hormones) that help to counter the ones causing the anxiety, making anxiety easier to deal with.

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It can also be particularly beneficial to combine exercise with heading outdoors. As you get the double whammy of sunlight and fresh oxygen in the body too. To get some ideas on this check out the best outdoor workouts from mobilityguardian.com, and similar sites like it. You'll find suggestions on fun things to do outdoors, as well as advice on how to work out safely and effectively. 

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Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is very helpful when dealing with anxiety. It has roots in the eastern spiritual traditions and is an activity that directs the practicing persons focus on whatever is happening that moment in time. You can read more about it at franticworld.com, as well as plenty of other sites online.

How can this help with a child's anxiety when their body alarm system is going off the deep end? Essentially it's all about accepting what is happening right at the moment and not fighting it. When doing so, the experience often clears more quickly. Also as your child develops skills in this area, he or she will learn that they can continue to function, even when they are feeling anxious. Working through anxiety means it will have less of a limiting effect on their lives.