Stress for Kids
STRESS
Is your heart beating fast? Does your throat feel tight? Are you gritting your teeth? Does your stomach feel like there are butterflies in it? Do you feel you need to stretch your legs? Are you tapping your fingers or shaking your leg?If so, this means that you have stress!Everyone has stress. It’s a part of life, like laughter or anger or friends.
It helps you in some ways, but it’s bad if you have too much of it. It’s easier for you to get sick when you have too much stress. Your body becomes weaker and more easily tired, and you might become easily bored and uncomfortable.
When you are afraid, angry, confused, or excited, you are stressed. Stress is your reaction to those kinds of situations. Stress is physical, or affects your body, and mental, or has to do with your brain.You need stress. Stress helps your body act quickly to a situation that might be dangerous or somehow important, and be ready to do something about it. When your body prepares you like this, your muscles tighten, your heart pounds, and you breathe faster. This preparation is called the ‘fight or flight response.’ Thousands of years ago, the ‘fight or flight response’ helped people to get ready to fight or run when they met danger, like a tiger. People still have the ‘fight or flight response.’ It probably happens to you when you meet a growling dog or when someone yells at you.
WHEN ARE YOU STRESSED?
Something that makes you have stress is a stressor. An example of a stressor would be fighting with a friend. Some other examples are when:
- You have homework when you want to play
- You don’t have enough money to buy what you want
- Your mom makes you wear something stupid that you know your friends will laugh at
- Your friends leave you out of their games or their conversation
- You can’t dribble or shoot or run fast
- Adults want you to do more than you can
- You make new friends
- You have to go in front of the class and make a speech
- A big bully keeps bothering you
- You move house
- You go to a new school
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE STRESS
Stress can be positive or negative. Positive stress gives you strength to solve a problem, and makes you want to solve it more. Negative stress makes you feel bad a lot of the time. When you have too much stress or you don’t solve what makes you stressed for a long time, you have negative stress.When you think about a stressor as a challenge, like a hard level on a game, you feel like you want to solve the problem and you feel like you can do it. That kind of stress that gives you determination to get something done is positive stress.
When you can’t solve a problem or when you think you can’t solve it, the stress turns into negative stress. Negative stress causes problems like:
- Feeling nervous or upset often
- Headaches
- Having a hard time sleeping
- Worrying all the time
- Eating too much
And you might find yourself:
- Crying often
- Always bored or tired
- Not able to concentrate
- Easily angry
HOW DO YOU KEEP STRESS DOWN?
The important thing to remember is that you can feel less stress when you look at stressors in a happier way.
If you have homework, don’t think you will never finish. Think that you can finish it all very quickly and then play before you have to sleep.
You can also feel less negative stress when you think of ways you can do something about the problems you have.
For example, if you cannot find the answer to a question, you can go ask your teacher to ask about it. If someone teases you, you can stop talking to them or looking to them until they stop teasing you.
It helps to talk about how you feel, or write it down. Singing, laughing, making something, resting awhile, exercising, or having a hobby are all good methods for keeping down the negative stress and helping yourself to stay healthier and happier. :)
posted by 미카 @ 5:24 AM
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