5 relaxation techniques for children

Although many people may not believe it, relaxation techniques for children are just as necessary as for adults since they also have problems and tensions. Children have their own concerns, fears and anxieties, which can range from fear of the dark to school-related pressures.

When those negative emotions take over and persist for a long time, they can end up causing different problems, from phobias , low self-esteem , depression or anxiety . So one of the greatest gifts parents can give their children is teaching them to relax from an early age.

You can begin to practice relaxation techniques for children when they are just two and a half years old, although up to 6 years these relaxation techniques should be presented as a game. From the age of 7 is when we could begin to introduce somewhat more structured relaxation exercises, always depending on the degree of psychological maturity of the child.

There are different relaxation techniques for children , but their effectiveness will always depend on the child’s age and their personality and temperament. So to find the ideal relaxation exercise for our child, we will have to try different techniques until we find the one with which he feels most comfortable.

With this technique we will be able to lower the heart rate, lower the blood pressure and provide a very pleasant feeling of control and tranquility.

The steps are very simple:

• Inhale deeply through your nose.
• Hold your breath for a moment.
• Release slowly through the mouth.

In the case of young children, we can tell them to imagine as if they were a frog that is calm in its pond, concentrating on how the abdomen rises and falls with each breath.

This technique is the best known and most beneficial for relieving everyday stress. You just have to go tense and relax the different muscle groups of the body.

The steps, to be repeated three times each, are:

• Face: we will ask the child to pretend to smell something unpleasant, and then he should relax his face.
• Jaw: You have to clench your jaws as hard as dogs do when holding a bone. Then you need to release that imaginary bone and fully relax your jaw.
• Arms and shoulders: You should stretch your arms as far as possible in front of you and then raise them above your head. Then you should let them drop, as if they were a dead weight, completely relaxed.
• Hands and arms: we will ask the child to imagine that he is squeezing a lemon with his hand as hard as he can. Then he has to drop that lemon on the ground.
• Legs and feet: the child will press the toes against the ground, as if they were digging them in the sand on the beach. It is important that you press alternately, first with one foot and then the other, and that you spread your legs far enough. Then we will ask you to relax your legs.

This technique is wonderful since it involves the imagination with the visualization. The ideal for this technique would be to do it at bedtime.

The steps are very simple:

• Lying down, ask him to stay still and close his eyes. You should imagine that you are lying outside in an open area looking up at the sky, such as on the lawn in the garden or the sand on the beach.
• You must imagine the clouds, as they pass before your eyes. Then you can imagine how the clouds take their favorite shapes.
• Ask him to imagine a staircase made of clouds, starting precisely where he is and ending in the sky. Ask him to climb the ladder and relax with each step he takes. You can even build a secret hideout in the clouds, where you can go whenever you are angry or upset.

This children’s relaxation technique tends to be very popular with children as it invites them to let their imaginations run wild while having fun.

The steps are very simple:

• We will ask the child to imagine that he is a snowman that has frozen completely during the winter. You need to get into the snowman position and fully tense your muscles, keeping yourself still.
• Then we will ask you to imagine that little by little spring is coming, to imagine the first rays of sun that little by little are warming more. As you feel that heat, you should imagine how the muscles gradually relax as the snowman thaws, until it reaches the point where it completely thaws and turns into a pool of water.

It is a very fun breathing technique for children, it also helps them relax and empowers them to have a more positive attitude towards life.

The steps are:

• We must explain the connection between deep breathing and relaxation in a way that the child can understand. If he is young, it can be explained to him that the way he breathes can make him feel more nervous, or conversely, calmer. This is why it is so important that you pay attention to your breathing.
• With a bubble blower in hand we will explain that the idea is to form the largest bubble you can, for which you must blow deeply and slowly.
• To further enhance the feeling of tranquility and relaxation, we can tell you that every time you blow and a bubble comes out, think something positive or something that you like a lot.