Grounding Relaxation for Self Regulation

Description

Self-regulation strategies are essential skills to impart to our children. The world in which we live can be busy, loud, overwhelming, and overstimulating. Often our children get swept up in this and suffer from anxious and uncertain feelings, and don’t know how to self-regulate.

Self-regulation strategies – What are they?

The term self-regulation as defined by the Childmind Institute “is the ability to manage your emotions and behaviour in accordance with the demands of the situation. It includes being able to resist highly emotional reactions to upsetting stimuli, to calm yourself down when you get upset, to adjust to a change in expectations, and to handle frustration without an outburst. It is a set of skills that enables children, as they mature, to direct their own behavior towards a goal, despite the unpredictability of the world and our own feelings”.

Self-regulation can be further broken down into three distinct areas:

• Sensory regulation refers to the ability of a child to alter their alertness and arousal in response to a certain environment,
• Emotional regulation is the child’s ability to respond to an ever-changing environment with socially acceptable behaviour, and
• Cognitive regulation refers to a child’s attention and persistence in directing their mental processes toward the attainment of goals.

For a child to develop self-regulation, they must be allowed to practice through exposure to challenging situations. If parents step in too early to “fix” an uncomfortable situation or feeling, the child won’t learn how to manage their emotions and behave appropriately. In effect, this type of behaviour is robbing the child of a learning opportunity.

As well as giving your primary-aged children opportunities to develop self-regulation through exposure to challenging situations and “scaffolding” behaviours and responses, use this meditation to help support them on their journey of learning self-regulation strategies. This grounding relaxation supports the child in the present moment, giving them the safe space to learn this vital skill.

If you enjoy this grounding relaxation, be sure to check out our shop for more guided meditations, mindfulness scripts, and mantras!

Enjoy!