Helping Your Child With Anxiety (Mini-Course)

Separation anxiety... Test anxiety... Fear of bees.... Refusing to try new things... Panic Attacks. Anxiety can manifest in many different ways. When is it normal and age appropriate, and when is it a problem? What can you do to support your child?

The goal isn't to raise a child who doesn't get anxious (which would be impossible). The goal is to raise a child who has experienced the discomfort of not knowing and being a bit worried, and who knows that that's normal, and that whatever happens, he or she can handle it. The goal is to help your child develop the inner resources -- and to teach them how to find the external resources -- that will enable them to face, and to manage, whatever life throws at them.

This Self-Paced Parenting Mini-Course gives you two audios (with transcripts) and three printables that guide you through the steps to teach your child (and yourself!) how to manage anxiety.

Step #1 - Audio: Understanding Anxiety

Let's begin by understanding what anxiety is, how it manifests in the mind and body, and how you and your child can grow a calmer nervous system.

In this 32 minute audio, you'll learn:

• What exactly IS anxiety?
• How to notice the feedback loop between the mind and body, that gets activated when we're anxious.
  
• How we can use that feedback loop to calm ourselves down.
• How to train the mind and body to become less anxious over time.

Download the Transcript for this audio if you want to follow along.

Step #2 - Printable: 50 Ways To Calm Your Nervous System

50 Ways To Calm Your Nervous System is a list of strategies to calm down when you get upset or worried, and it works for kids and parents! Post this list in your home and consciously demonstrate for your child how well these strategies work for self management in the face of anxious moments. Over time, you will see your child begin to use these strategies as well.

You might think the suggestions on 50 Ways To Calm Your Nervous System are too quick and simple to be effective. But they have all been shown by research to calm the nervous system when it is dysregulated. Even better, most of the things you do to calm your body in the moment also work to help your nervous system learn to calm down more quickly in the future. That's the job of your vagus nerve, which sends messages throughout the body to help you calm down once it feels safe.

So over time as you use this list, you retrain your vagus nerve to be able to return you to calm more quickly.

You're human, so you won't be able to stay calm at all times. But being able to notice when you get upset, and return yourself to calm quickly, is transformational. And you're modeling for your child, so you're giving them strategies to build a calmer nervous system starting in childhood!

Download this printable: 50 Ways To Calm Your Nervous System.

Step #3 - Audio: Helping Your Child with Anxiety

The audio Helping Your Child with Anxiety gives you tips for how to talk with your child about anxiety, and what to say to help your child learn to manage anxious feelings. In this 39 minute audio, you'll learn:

• How to talk with your child about anxiety.
• How to support your child when they're feeling anxious.
• How to teach your child skills to manage their worries.

Download the Transcript for this audio if you want to follow along.

Step #4 - Printable: Retraining Your Worry Monster

Use this fun printable to talk with your child about how we can all learn to handle our worries in ways that make us happier! Teach your child the NED strategy and work together to brainstorm skills and strategies to calm their body and retrain their Worry Monster.

Download this printable: Retraining Your Worry Monster.

Step #5 - Printable: Coaching Words for Courage

• "I can't do it!"
• "I'm not good at this!"
• "I never do it right!"

When our children doubt themselves, we often feel helpless and don't know what to say. So to wrap up our mini-course on anxiety, we have a printable to help you coach your child when they feel worried, anxious or afraid. This printable gives you the words to say to build confidence, resilience and courage. Since your voice will become your child's inner voice, using these phrases regularly will give your child the words to help themself through tough moments for the rest of their life.

Download this printable: Coaching Words for Courage.