This is a very quick relaxation and only takes a few moments to do. Take 5 minutes to teach this to your child and you are giving her a lifelong strategy to use when faced with a stressful or scary situation.
Step 1 Ask her to lie down, close her eyes and make herself comfortable.
Step 2 Ask her to think of a special place that makes her feel happy and relaxed. Give her a couple of moments to find the memory. It could be an actual place you have visited, or she can create it in her mind. Usually kids recall a favourite holiday destination.
Step 3 Encourage her to really connect with this place with all of her senses:
* see everything,
* hear everything,
* smell, taste everything
* and feel a wonderful sense of calm and relaxation.
Step 4 Ask her to think of a word to sum up this place.
Step5 Suggest to her that whenever she thinks of that word in the future, she will feel happy and relaxed.
Step 6 Ask her to open her eyes and bring all the lovely relaxed feeling back with her.
Have a discussion later with her about the different times that she might find it useful to use her magic word. Remind her of her magic word in the future when she is facing a stressful situation.
