Author: Danielle Relax-Kids

Valentines Day is the perfect excuse to celebrate love.

Valentine’s Day is around the corner! Time to share some time with the ones you love!

Valentine’s Day may be a time to appreciate one another and celebrate your love, but this does not necessarily mean that we have to lavish each other in expensive gifts, where the price tag may have been raised because of the holiday associated with the time of year.

Why not celebrate Valentine’s Day this year with a lovely duvet day for all the family, grab some comfy cushions, put your pyjamas on and pad out the living room in front of the fire. All decide on some favourite DVDs, snacks and treats and spend some quality time as a family. Just relax! You could even try some relaxation exercises together, so that you all experience being calm and serene in this manic world together.

Make your family’s heart smile with this exercise:

Close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nose (slowly), and then out through your mouth. Put your hand on your chest and spend a few moments feeling calm and relaxed. Now, imagine that you have a smile in your heart. Watch how you start to have loving feelings. Can you send that smile up to your face? Let your mouth smile gently. Breathe in, and out and rest there for a few moments. Now open your eyes and see how different you all feel.

Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to remind the ones that you love, that you respect and appreciate them. Focus on the things that make the people in your life special and encourage their dreams.

You really need to try this…

Have you ever heard of the term ‘Shinrin-yoku’? It means ‘absorbing nature’ or ‘forest bathing’. The term originates from Japan during the 1980’s and has become the foundation of preventive health care and healing within Japanese medicine.

The idea behind it is simple: if one simply takes in and appreciates nature in a relaxed state of mind, there will be calming, rejuvenating and restorative benefits to be achieved.

There is even scientific proof that ‘forest bathing’ is beneficial for your health, from reduced stress, improved mood, an increase in energy levels and improved sleep. No matter who you are, male or female, adult or child, this is really going to benefit your happiness and well-being.

Getting in touch with nature is something we should all try to commit more time to. Sometimes the pressures of work or school can inhibit us from doing so, but absorbing nature really isn’t as difficult as you think it may be.

Go for a walk on the weekend, or in the evening. Feel the crunch of the ground beneath your feet, listen to the birds chirp and admire the beautiful colours of nature. Even if you can’t make it to a quiet, picturesque setting, you can spend time in your garden. Plant some vegetables or even just breathe in the fresh air.

It’s important to get children outside as much as possible, to stimulate their brains away from all the technology distractions they face in today’s world. Try and encourage them to notice the small things in nature, such as the shapes of a leaf, the direction a stream is flowing or the sounds they can hear.

Getting in touch with nature is more important than you think, and we can’t encourage you enough to submerge yourself in it as much as you can.

We all experience good and bad days, no matter who we are, we are all prone to those mornings where we wake up in a bad mood, not ready to face the day. Sometimes it can feel like a bird tapping and pecking away in your brain, each peck is another negative thought, filling your head with negativity and bad feelings. This can make it feel as if your head may explode.

Daisy wrote us a letter saying: ‘when I have to do something I really don’t want to do – like going to school or doing homework, or being asked to do something when I already have been asked, I get really frustrated straight away. I become yucky with my family and I just can’t think positively about anything when I feel like this. Please can you give me some ideas to help me in these situations?’

Luckily Marneta has a solution for this!

Marneta says when we have lots of negative thoughts, we have to be like a ninja warrior, using special ninja breathing to stop all these negative thoughts. She says we need to use a big ‘HUH’ breath, like a ninja would, five times. We can also use the ninja chops too. Carry on with another five ‘HUH’ breaths, you can even use affirmations with each breath, saying ‘I am great, I am confident’.

This will help you fight away the bird pecking in your head – you’ll feel a heat in your belly and feel the positive ninja energy. Each breath can be like building a forcefield up to fight away the bad thoughts.

Marneta also told us the story about two seeds in the ground during winter. One seed was saying how they couldn’t wait to grow up strong and powerful, feeling the warmth of the sun on their leaves, being excited to flourish into a beautiful flower. All while the second seed felt scared about what could happen next, ‘what if someone picks my petals’, fearing the worst! At the end of it, the seed who was full of positivity blossomed into a beautiful sunflower, all while the sad seed got left behind because they didn’t allow themselves to grow.

This story tells us to let ourselves grow and that it is fine to make a mistake on the way, there is nothing wrong with it. Pick yourself up and learn from what happened, this is how you grow into a strong and brilliant person.

This leaves us with the question, are you going to choose to be positive or negative today?

Relaxation can help child stress

Children can experience nightmares on average once a week. The distress that they cause can lead to restless nights because of awkward body contractions in their sleep, fevers or stresses from daily life.

Relaxation can really help child stress and in turn, can help children sleep better.

There are so many contributory factors to child stress ‚ new technologies, the recent recession, school and peer pressures. And whilst we cannot prevent these things from being created‚ we can do our best to ease the atmosphere.

Create a more relaxing atmosphere at home. Make sure that your TV and music are switched off or at least to a low volume after a certain time. Dim the lights.

Try some simple relaxation exercises to de-stress your child:

Clenching Hands: Ask your child to clench their hands for 5 seconds and then release. Ask them to complete this for different muscles and body parts.

Roll down the spine: Ask your child to as slowly as possible put their chin to their chest, leaving their arms heavy and slowly roll down until they are bending over. At this point ask them to slowly bend their legs into a crouching position and then crawl forward so they are on their hands and knees. Here ask them to bring their bottom backwards towards their feet and then they will be able to rest in form of prayer position. Take a few moments rest, before reversing the process to standing.

Shake it out: Ask your child to frantically shake their body for a few seconds to get their pulses racing and then stop. Placing hands on their stomachs, they will be able to observe what it is like to feel how their breathing changes to help them relax.

The Relax Kids https://relaxkids.com/store/product-category/cds/ fairytale range of CDs are a perfect antidote to stress and anxiety. Order today for restful nights!

Please pass it on and tell all your friends

If you have found this blog helpful please pass it on to your friends, colleagues, schools and nurseries and help us help more families and schools.