Helping your Child be Emotionally Resilient
Emotional resilience is your ability to cope with stress, deal with difficult situations, and life experience. Helping your child be successful at the ability to regulate responses and reactions to situations can make a big difference. While some may come by emotional resilience more naturally, there are still different ways to help build emotional resilience.
Some great ways to work on building emotional resilience include: acknowledging stress, breaking down tasks into smaller parts, embracing change, finding coping strategies, working on self love, and positive thinking.
from: UVM Health
Acknowledging Stress
Teach your child to notice what stress is and signs of when they are feeling stressed. Have your child come to you when they recognize stress and talk through what they are feeling and why. Let your child know it is okay to feel upset, frustrated, or stressed, then discuss how using positive emotions can help them deal with their problem.
from: Parent First Cry
Breaking Down Tasks into Smaller Parts
Big stressors can be extremely daunting and difficult to face, especially as a child. When your child is feeling overwhelmed, sit down with them and write down what is bothering them. Then, talk about ways they can manage the particular problem by breaking it down. Making a checklist, and even putting the list in ordered steps, can make solving their problems so much easier.
from: New York Post
Embracing Change
Being flexible is a key factor in being emotionally resilient. This can be a hard concept for a child. Start by picking a skill your child is excellent at being flexible with. This could start out as simple as the type of utensil they color with. Talk to them about how they can easily change how they approach the skill, in this case coloring. Once they seem to begin to understand, you can work on other skills they are less flexible with, like trying new food.
from: Empowered Parent
Finding Coping Strategies
Some people find they have many coping skills to self-soothe when they are stressed or upset. Others may find they have a very particular coping strategy for dealing with stress. Watch your child when you know they are feeling stressed or upset and see what activities they usually do and build from there.
from: Healthy Sense of Self
Working on Self Love
Confidence is a key factor in emotional resilience. Teaching your child to love themselves for who they are is vital to them holding to those beliefs when they are struggling. Write a list of things you love about your child, then sit down with them and read your list. Then ask your child what they love about themselves. Using daily affirmations can be extremely beneficial to practicing self love.
from: FreePik
Positive Thinking
While you can’t see into your child’s mind, as helpful as that would be. You can talk to your child about what they are thinking and feeling. This goes hand in hand with self love. Help your child recognize that positive thoughts and calm thinking can assist them in continuous positive thinking and transform into positive actions.
Whether you or your child are more naturally inclined to “roll with the punches” or you struggle to cope with life’s stresses, know that there is always more to learn and change. Everyday is a new day to start fresh and try again!
If you are feeling overwhelmed and are not sure where to start, this website has a list of some great activities to help your child practice emotional resilience. You can join in too!