Clinical Therapist Offers Tips for a Stress-free Summer
June 18, 2009 CONTACT: Maria Seyrig (313) 874-4039 mseyrig1@hfhs.org
Henry Ford Clinical Therapist Offers Tips for a Stress-free Summer Break
DETROIT - Now that your kids are home for summer break, how can you avoid the bedlam and boredom that can make it a stressful time for the whole family?
Henry Ford Health System clinical therapist, Christy Luna, LMSW, suggests that parents keep children active with maintaining routines.
It can be helpful to transition children from the school year to the summer months by maintaining routine schedules with meal times, sleep times, daily chores and new learning experiences. This gives both children and their parents the comfort of knowing what they will be doing each day.
Making realistic goals for the day will help keep the summer break from becoming so filled with expectations that everyone ends up with stress overload, and also allows for the fun of spontaneity, says Luna.
For parents who work at home, Luna recommends working during early morning hours, through naptimes or having kids do chores or other quiet activities while parents get their work done.
To help ease the stress summer breaks can bring, Luna advises parents to remember to focus extra attention on self-care or taking breaks for anything that helps them recharge their batteries.
Self-care can be a time-out for lunch with friends or if you re-charge better with a little peace and quiet, it might mean sitting solo at a coffee shop or spending time reading or gardening, says Luna. Anything that you identify as calming and relaxing is a perfect time-out.
Considering that we can't always walk away in the midst of stressful events, parents can diffuse those moments by trying one of these simple relaxation tips:
Take a breath. With a relaxed abdomen, simply concentrate and follow the movement of your breath in and out of your nose. If your mind strays, gently bring it back to your breathing. You will notice that your breath will become slower as you relax.
Drink a glass of water! This is a simple yet effective technique for handling stress: Drink eight full ounces of water. The cool water will lower your temperature, drinking the full eight ounces will slow down your breathing, and the taste and feel of water will center your focus.
Repeat a calming word. As you inhale, mentally repeat "calm," "relax" or a word that might have special meaning to you.
Flex your hands. Clench your fists tightly and count to ten. Do not hold your breath. Release your hands and allow your entire body to let go and become completely limp. Repeat this exercise three times.
Lift your shoulders. Inhale and lift your right shoulder toward your ear, holding it for a few seconds. As you exhale, allow your shoulder to drop back down. Repeat on the left side. Then do both shoulders together by rotating your shoulders three times toward the front then three times backwards.
Roll your neck. Close your eyes, exhale and allow your head to drop forward. Inhale and allow your head to begin rotating slowly to the right. Continue to inhale as your head drops back, with your chin pointed toward the ceiling. As your head rolls over to your left side, begin exhaling so that when your chin is again resting on your chest, all the air is out of your lungs. Do not force the rotation of your head, but allow it to happen slowly and naturally.
