FREE Mindfulness Worksheet for Stress Management
It is well documented that children and adults alike can benefit from mindfulness activities. This FREE worksheet focuses on how to detect and manage stress in our bodies. Use it with your class or with individuals during one to one support sessions.
What is mindfulness?
In a nutshell, mindfulness is all about being aware and present. It’s about noticing and observing your current situation and allowing other thoughts or feelings to coexist in a non-judgmental way. Many people find that formal mindfulness meditation exercises can really help to settle the mind, reduce stress and allow us to become calmer and more rational people. However, younger children and those with additional needs may struggle to sit quietly and meditate so other exercises can sometimes be more useful.
Why is it important to teach children to self-regulate?
When children exhibit challenging behaviour, we often apply a punitive measure or sanction within an educational or home setting. However, if we punished someone for not being able to play the piano, it wouldn’t make them any more able to play it! We must teach the “how” in order to play. The same goes for emotional regulation and stress management in particular. So often, we fail to teach our children and young people strategies and techniques for managing big emotions. That’s where this worksheet comes in!
FREE mindfulness stress management worksheet
With this free downloadable worksheet from Axcis, we look at how stress feels, what causes stress and how we can use the physical sensations we experiences when stressed as an “anchor”. This in turn helps to settle the mind and bring cortisol levels back down when difficult situations arise. Children and adults can benefit equally from doing such exercises – anything that helps us to slow down and take stock when emotions run high can help us to learn to manage those situations more effectively. The trick is to practice, practice, practice! Rome wasn’t built in a day! We’d love to hear how you get on with this activity, so feel free to email us any feedback or suggestions for improvement you might have
Are you looking for SEND staff or work?
If you're looking for a SEND teaching or support job in England or Wales, why not register with Axcis, the SEND recruitment specialists? Or perhaps you need to recruit staff for your school or provision? If so, why not take a look at the Axcis Website, or get in touch today to find out how we can help?