A mum has shared the calming relaxation technique she used when her daughter had a post-school outburst.
The mother, who is also a teacher and runs Facebook page ‘Relax Kids Tamworth’, explained the reason why kids may often be emotionally exhausted after school.
“It takes a great deal of energy, mental motivation, emotional containment and physical control to hold it together all day at school,” she wrote on 7 December.
“So, when they get home, they sometimes just let it all out.”
The mum explained how she used this breathing technique to successfully calm down her daughter, who “lost it” after school one day.
Explaining what happened, the mother wrote: “I made the mistake of asking my daughter if she’d had a good day: ‘Yessss’, she hissed at me.
“I then asked her another question about her day and she just lost it: ‘Stop asking me a million questions’ (just for the record, I asked two) and then threw herself on the floor recalling all the things that had made her feel sad.
“Nothing I could say or do was helping. She didn’t want dinner, she did want dinner. She wanted a drink, she didn’t want a drink. You get the picture.”
The mother said she used a Hoberman sphere (like these on Amazon) as a breathing ball, to guide her daughter as she was breathing in and out.
Having used the techniques before with her kids in class, she explained: “As I expand the ball we breathe in deeply through the nose; filling our lungs with air.
“As the ball closes we breathe out slowly through the mouth, relaxing our whole body. It’s a really great visual for the children to relate to.”
She set one up in her daughter’s bedroom that hangs from the ceiling so she can lie down and take deep breaths whenever she needs to.
“Her breathing was really fast at first and I could see her body was super tense,” the mum explained.
“After a few deep breaths I really noticed her whole body (and brain) relax. Her voice got calmer and her legs relaxed. I managed to sneak in and film the end.
“She was a totally different (relaxed) child after this and she even wanted to tell me about her day afterwards.
“This is an easy way to empower children to manage their feelings and emotions.”
The video was viewed nearly 70,000 times in five days. It was also reposted on Love What Matters Facebook page, where it garnered an impressive one million views and 8,000 shares.