4 Steps to Move through BIG feelings with your Kids

I was in the middle of making dinner the other night when my daughter came up to me and said, “Mom, I’m so stressed. I have so much homework. I’m just so overwhelmed!” We had a BIG feeling in the house.

Right then I was able to stop what I was doing and listen to understand.
I didn't try to fix the problem. We made space for her feeling and I empathized with her. Then we were able to

problem solve.
"What quick mindfulness exercise should we do to help you calm down?"
She chose butterfly tap. We tapped for 1 minute and then decided to set a timer for homework. For six minutes she would work and then take a break, then six more minutes

(depending on your child’s age, you could change

the time frame).
By the time she sat down to work she was smiling and everything felt doable to her again. PHEW!

This was a win for us! She wasn't swept away in an emotional rip tide and the process took about 5 minutes, allowing me to get dinner on the table without skipping a beat.

I know it can feel exhausting at times trying to put out emotional fires. Every parent needs emotional wellness tools to pull out of their back pocket in times of stress.

Below are my tips to get through those moments of BIG Feelings!

To sum it up, you can teach your kids to feel and deal with their feelings. Sometimes just talking about it helps, but in my daughter’s case she needed a brain break or mindfulness skill to bring the level of her feeling down. If you don’t know where to start check out our freebies page for 5 quick mindfulness activities you can teach your kids in less than 5 minutes. It’s okay to break tasks into chunks, to empathize and respond with things like, “That must feel really crummy, I’m sorry you are stressed out”.

How do you help your kids and teens move through their feelings? Comment below!