Calm zones can help children to de-stress in their own way

As we mark Mental Health Awareness week, it’s important to take time to help children work out what resources they can use to help them manage their wellbeing.

A child calls Childline every 25 seconds, and last year more than 70,000 counselling sessions were delivered, discussing mental and emotional difficulties.

That’s why I want to talk about Childline’s calm zone resources, which can be accessed to help kids de-stress in their own way whenever they need to.

Calming down isn’t just useful for when children feel anxious; they might feel angry and aggressive, frustrated, confused, or trapped.

That’s why the calm zone can be useful to show children different ways that they can calm themselves, ranging from physical activities and free yoga tutorials to art or sensory ideas and online games.

When we are emotionally overwhelmed, it can feel like we are out of control of our bodies. This is especially the case for children.

During panic attacks for example, it’s common to feel dizziness, butterflies in your tummy, and weak legs, though it does affect everyone differently.

That’s why some of the activities in the calm zone focus on engaging the senses. By engaging taste, smell, and touch, it can help us draw back to the present moment and regain control.

One activity, which you could try with a child, is making a space in a cupboard or drawer for things that will help them. Choose things with a noticeable smell, taste, feel, colour or that make a noise.

Lots of children also like doing art and creating visual resources.

Encourage them to draw the outline of a gingerbread person and add where they feel stress and anxiety in their body. Then, teach them to let go of any tension by unclenching their hands, dropping their shoulders, stretching, doing yoga or dancing and draw or write any changes on the picture.

Childline has received thousands of calls from children who are overwhelmed by coronavirus, and we’re still here, on the phone, online and via our message boards and calm zone. And we’re urging the public to donate £10 to help us support young people who need us.