Relaxation Skills for High School Students: How to Cope with Stress & Anxiety | Child Mind Institute

 Hey i'm your host —Ƭᑌᗷᗩ KHANーin this Article  we're going to be talking about self-care and relaxation skills listen sometimes anxiety can sneak up in really intense ways like when you're presenting in front of class or when you're waiting for a person you like to text you back the problem is our alarm system can go off even if there isn't really any danger present i noticed that many things set me off like the temperature might be too hot don't touch my food i know it could literally be the slightest thing like doing my makeup and i smudge it all over my face and i have to restart like with the way people chew oh my goodness tests i think i'm a really bad test taker i had like a gov test on thursday or yeah on thursday and then a mathis on friday along with the english test on friday along with an s i also had to write for english on friday because i had missed it earlier be trying to navigate all of my classes in time management and to get enough time to work on college applications and work on narrowing down my college list which i've been doing for like a month because it's just like i'm i'm a high schooler i'm in high school then you get to senior year deadlines to do this oh this is this day is due and it's like i don't know how to apply to college so it's definitely difficult it can be intense and that's because our bodies are hardwired to respond to dangerous situations with three responses freeze fight for my personal favorite flight i love to run away it's the way our bodies have evolved to keep us safe and alive and it's no joke i start hyperventilating i feel like i can't breathe like i literally can't breathe i usually blank mid-test about where this accent is supposed to go or how to spell this word i get very very panicky and i can feel it coming on a mile away because it'll start my stomach and just keep rapid firing all the way up until i'm like having a panic attack it always gets better but it definitely sucks in the moment for decades psychologists have been studying what we can do when our body starts to hit us with really intense feelings and the answer breathing helps me like calm down from anything usually i'll just take a breath take the biggest breath i can just in and then take a really deep breath out just like slow deep breaths inhale and exhale just slowly a few times i see like the breath coming into my body and then exiting my body i know what you're thinking i breathe all the time i know how to breathe i'm breathing right now but breathing much like running with a backpack is more complicated than you might think it turns out some breathing is more helpful than others i just kind of do it maybe like three or four at a time i like slowly catch my breath and like breathe like slowly and it definitely helps it calms all the way down it can be helpful to practice these relaxation strategies even when you're feeling calm put one hand on your stomach and one hand on your chest slowly breathe in andexpand your belly like a balloon and then slowly breathe out and feel the balloon deflate you'll feel your body begin to relax as you continue to take slow paced breaths make sure to breathe into your belly not your chest and go slow try to breathe in your nose for four seconds and out your mouth for six and if you have a calm place you like to

imagine
just go there in your mind you have this place in your mind and you memorize it and you're able to just go there like right now i'm sitting here and i can like see it i start in my grandmother's apartment it smells like cookies the duplex ones where it's like one vanilla cookie and  one chocolate cookie and the cream in the middle got my bookcase over here one of those like deer heads i don't know i don't even like  that but it kind of just was there when i got here but it's vegan definitely it's vegan in the garage there's like a door it sounds like the swish of like swishy pants because there's like a plastic thing underneath it to keep bugs and stuff out and then you have this beautiful green matter outside of this window and this like really edgy gothic castle is over here living its life and that's it so if you're ever feeling completely overwhelmed by your anxiety or any strong emotion.