How early does it start?

[Asunshine]

The first thing parents should learn is that they should teach their children to share their feelings instead of keeping it to themselves. This is the first step of dealing with stress. Although this book has great remedies for stress and anxiety, parents should guide their children on this steps.

[Kelyn]

Children's problems and concerns aren't taken seriously enough because of adults dismissing them just because they are children.

Yes, "brushing off" something that can cripple someone psychologically is a bad idea, especially at a young age. Personally, I have never seen a parent teaching kids breathing techniques or meditation to cope with stress. Maybe, that concept isn't bad.

In a perfect world, a parent would never ignore or belittle a child's fears and anxieties. Unfortunately, in reality, it happens all too often. As far as parents teaching children coping techniques like the ones in the book, I was taught breathing techniques from an early age. I can attest that using those techniques helped normalize fears and stress. Neither of them were substitutes for my parent's attention and attendance to my anxieties, but they did help.

[Kelyn]

I think it's Important that we teach kids from an early age on how to acknowledge and deal with stress. The reality is that they do experience these feelings and should be able to count on us to reassure them that it's normal to be scared or anxious, and that there are ways to handle it.

Yes, definitely. My 7 year old gets anxious and knows to sit himself down and breathe. He has herbal medicines we help him make.
He does better than I do with anxiety sometimes because he has been taught natural remedies since he was born, unlike myself.
He doesn't ever get sick either.

Mys_Trea - They do , indeed, experience these things from an early age, and it is important they they are taught how to handle them. Knowing that they can count on their parents is a powerful tool in and of itself.

houligan - That's excellent! I have to wonder if knowing the stress relief techniques (similar to the ones in the book or otherwise) has anything to do with his not getting sick. That would be interesting. We taught my son self-talk from a very early age to help counter his ADHD. It's amazing how tweaking some of the methods Kinrys mentions for use with children has amazing benefits. Thanks for dropping in and sharing your thoughts!

[Kelyn]

Being a teacher, a lot of the social-emotional curriculums do assist children to recognize how their body is responding. When they are able to notice themselves escalating or panicking, then they can use some of the techniques like deep-breathing to help return them to a state of calm. We use these methods even with our kindergarteners. Validate what they are feeling, help them figure out why, and give them tools to do this on their own. It's very powerful! Given that we are in the midst of a pandemic right now, I think it's all very timely as well. As students begin to return to school, there will definitely be additional stressors.

I'm retired, but when I taught behavior modification in Sp. Ed, teaching deep breathing, and other techniques was almost a survival skill (for them to make it through the school day) for some of the children I had. But you're right; breathing techniques are one of the simplest to teach children to help them get back to calm. Kinrys gives some good tools for that purpose. Some of them simply need to be tweaked to be useful for children. As you said, stress is higher than ever at the moment. Thanks for sharing your thoughts; I appreciate it!

[Kelyn]

The first thing parents should learn is that they should teach their children to share their feelings instead of keeping it to themselves. This is the first step of dealing with stress. Although this book has great remedies for stress and anxiety, parents should guide their children on this steps.

Absolutely. Without guidance from the parents or other adults in their lives, the techniques given in the book (or others as well) are useless. The children, at least the younger ones, can't learn them on their own. Children should, indeed, be taught that sharing their feelings is accepted and encouraged. That will lead to healthy communication between parent and child. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!

[Joseph_ngaruiya]

The ultimate personality of a being develops from what he learnt in his childhood. Those details become the basic behaviour of a person. I believe parents too play a great role in how their child becomes. The book talks about several remedies, and theses remedies should be followed as a parent too.

Child support strengthens the parent to child bond. It is this strong relationship that allows a child to freely talk to their parents about stress and anxiety.

[Joseph_ngaruiya]

Anxiety can only start when someone starts the interpretation of thoughts in terms of what to expect out of a situation (Anxiety is intense worry and fear about future events and occurring events)

So, if a child is experiencing Anxiety it means the natural methods can work even better than in adults because it is easier to manipulate a child's thought than the adult's thought.

Children can easily adjust to situations if they are rightfully guided. It's the responsibility of a parent to keep observing their children for signs of stress and anxiety.

[Joseph_ngaruiya]

I think we are taught from early childhood to internalize our psychological difficulties and anxieties. Phrases such as "Oh, you're just a born worrier." heard from family, dismisses the child's anxiety as overreaction. Thus, this teaches children that being worried or anxious is supposed to be no big deal, and talking about it brings scorn (or dismissiveness at the very least), so they learn to keep it to themselves...increasing stress steadily. How does/would this play into what the author has to say about relieving our stress as adults? Are these also practices that could help children?

The stress needn't rise steadily when told something is of less importance. The parents shouldn't dismiss the topic but 'show' them that these psychological difficulties were undergone by themselves at a young age.

I've observed that giving personal experience as an example to young ones is relatively functional than using an analytical approach. Children will relate more to what their parents have undergone and easily learn lessons from it.

[Nelson Reviews]

Anxiety can only start when someone starts the interpretation of thoughts in terms of what to expect out of a situation (Anxiety is intense worry and fear about future events and occurring events)

So, if a child is experiencing Anxiety it means the natural methods can work even better than in adults because it is easier to manipulate a child's thought than the adult's thought.

Interesting point. I don't know that I'd go so far as to say that teaching them techniques to deal with stress is "manipulating their thoughts." To me, it's more akin to teaching them (i.e. adding to their knowledge). I've never considered teaching to be manipulative although I suppose there are teachers and parents out there that might try to take advantage of a child by being manipulative. That would be subverting the techniques taught in the book, though, not encouraging their use. Your point is definitely something to think about. Thanks for sharing it with us!

I really like your anticipation towards this book, the authors did a wonderful job I believe , additionally your topic is thought challenging,Thank you.

[Joseph_ngaruiya]

I definitely think these practices can help children. Because learning them from an earlier age will make it easier for them to find what works for them. Plus it reduces the stigma associated with anxiety and stress.

I agree, If parents could teach their children the methods provided by Gustavo, then those children could be in a position to prevent and deal with stress and anxiety.

[Joseph_ngaruiya]

This is an excellent question and I agree with you that, just because the person anxious is a child, his/her fears should not be dismissed. Rather, childhood is the time to learn tools on how to handle stress and anxiety, so yes. I think many of these practices can be adapted for helping children.

In my own experience as a mother, I can say that the largest red flag that a child is anxious or under stress is if he/she squabbles and bickers with siblings. Children don't always have the outlets (or the tools) adults have for dealing with stress. Taking it out on a sibling is a "safe" outlet. If your kids are constantly bickering and squabbling, it's NOT normal. Try to find the source of their stress. Take care of THAT, and sibling bickering goes away.

This shows us that children are not in the best position to deal with their stress and anxiety. The remedies that have been given in this book are practical and can be gradually taught to the young ones as they grow.

[Joseph_ngaruiya]

As with all behavior I believe we can help children learn how to correctly handle stress and anxiety. If not taught how to handle it, the stresses have the potential to build up until it is too much to handle. More natural approaches are definitely preferable and doable.

Advocating and habituating natural remedies is preferable. At an early age, children can easily start following these practices.

[Joseph_ngaruiya]

That's a great question. I believe that this book helps everyone, especially children. It's important not to let anxiety build up in a child. They need to be able to talk to someone.

It is also of importance to clarify, that the only way children can be able to open up on the issues they are facing is if, the parent to child relationship is positive.

[Joseph_ngaruiya]

Yes, children should be taught how to coup with stress from a tender age. But we should be good listeners to young kids and know when they're stressed this will help them open up and share their feelings. As they grow older they will learn how to share difficult situations with their close ones rather than keeping to themselves which can turn out to a depression.

The issue you pointed out can be a major influence in dealing with stress and anxiety at a later age. Children that are taught how to deal with stressors at an early age are likely not to be highly affected by those factors in the future.

[Joseph_ngaruiya]

Children's problems and concerns aren't taken seriously enough because of adults dismissing them just because they are children.

It's a notion that parents need to change. Children are also prone to stress and anxiety.