Chaplains Corner

Well the term is rocketing by now! Wow! Mid November. Some students may have concerns about transitioning to another grade, teacher or school. If that’s the case I encourage you to look back over the newsletters and employ some of the ideas designed to assist alleviate worry. Here’s tip 6……….

Ps my go to mindfulness activity is “5 things”. What are 5 things you can see, 4 you can hear, 3 you can you touch, 2 you can smell and 1 thing you can taste.

6. Help them go from 'what if' to 'what is'

You may not know this, but humans are capable of time travel. In fact, mentally we spend a lot of time in the future. For someone experiencing anxiety, this type of mental time travel can exacerbate the worry.

A typical time traveller asks what-if questions: “What if I can’t open my locker and I miss class?” “What if Suzy doesn’t talk to me today?”

Research shows that coming back to the present can help alleviate this tendency. One effective method of doing this is to practise mindfulness exercises. Mindfulness brings a child from what if to what is. To do this, help your child simply focus on their breath for a few minutes.

Kind regards

Katharine