Tools 1
How I know I am feeling anxious?
One way we feel anxiety is in our bodies. When I get anxious I get butterflies in my belly, I start to breath really fast and I get tears in my eyes. When you act like a detective and find out more about anxiety, you can start to feel a bit more in charge.
What are Thinking traps?
Sometimes we get into unhelpful thinking patterns. These thinking patterns can affect how we feel and what we do. If we can catch our thoughts and spot where they are unhelpful, we can change them into helpful thoughts that work for us! Our anxious thoughts are usually inaccurate and unrealistic because we mistakenly see the situation as threatening or dangerous.
What are true and false alarms?
Anxiety is helpful for letting us know when there's danger around us. It's our body's own alarm system. But sometimes this alarm system is too sensitive and considers things that aren't really dangerous to be real dangers. This is when anxiety becomes a problem. When you label something "just anxiety", it's a way of saying something is a false alarm.
When you are in lizard brain, big emotions and impulses take over! We might feel afraid, anxious or even out of control. You may do and think things that are irrational and unhelpful.
What is Blowing things out of proportion?
This is when we make a really big deal out of something small, or making something a little bit bad seem like the worst thing ever.
For example, "I forgot to feed the dog, I am a bad kid!"
What is Go with the flow?
Change is when something different happens in your life. Many times, the change is something you didn't expect and we may have trouble adjusting.
I know that changes happen to everyone everyday. When changes happen that I don't like, I can go with the flow by letting go of an old way of doing something to try a new way. I can welcome change and go with the flow!
What is Thinking Brain?
When you are in thinking brain, you are wise and your brain is better able to solve problems
What is Flexible thinking?
Flexible thinkers can quickly switch gears to and cope with change. They can problem solve quickly without feeling overwhelmed. This means we can change our plan, try a different solution to a problem,change what we are thinking or give up what we want based on the group plan. Flexible thinking is important for learning how to problem solve and makes accepting change much easier!
What are calm down ideas?
When lizard brain takes over, these are some calm down ideas:
Breathing: Taking slower, longer, deeper breaths can help slow your body down. When your body is calm, your brain is better able to function clearly.
Other calm down ideas are:
What is Cement thinking?
Cement thinking is being unable to change what we are doing or thinking based on what is happening around us. If we are stuck in our thinking we might have only one way of seeing a problem or situation, or we might follow one rule all the time, no matter where we are or what is happening around us. Stuck thinking makes it difficult for us to solve problems and makes us feel stuck.
What is Size of a problem?
Problems come in different sizes. Small problems can be taken care of quickly and can be solved on our own or with the help of another person. Kids can help other kids solve small problems. Medium problems take more time to solve and require more help. Usually adults help solve medium problems. However, it’s expected that kids help solve medium problems with the adults. Finally, big problems take a lot of time to take care of and require a lot of help from others. When big problems happen, even adults need help from other adults.
What is Inner coach (self talk) ?
Sometimes when we are anxious or when we are doing hard things, our brains might think unhelpful things like, “I can't do this!”
Your inner coach is the voice in your head that helps you think positive thoughts, such as, "it was an accident, I can learn from this next time," "it's not the end of the world," "I'm trying my best!"
This is also called positive self talk. You can use positive self talk to help you deal with problems and manage anxiety and to help you feel calm and confident. When unhelpful thoughts start to take over our brain, you can remind yourself about your inner coach!