The Huge Bag of Worries

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As well as this worry bag activity, there are lots of other ways you can help your children to think and talk about their worries and emotions. We've got these brilliant teacher-made resources for you to try: Choose 10-15 minutes a day after school or after supper (but not right before bed) and write down when worry time is on the worry jar (e.g., 4 PM to 4:15 PM). You may want to set a timer or alarm to notify your child that worry time has begun. Once worry time starts, your child can open the worry jar, look inside, and proceed to worry all he or she wants. Your child can choose to review all the worries or focus on one or two each day. Depending on the child and your child’s developmental age, worry time can be spent alone or with you. To end worry time, have a timer or alarm sound to indicate that worry time is over for the day. Your child should close the jar to put his or her worries away. You may have read about this very same concept described as a Feelings Box, Acceptance Box, or Anxiety Box.

Worry boxes are containers into which children can post their anxious thoughts. Children can find them soothing because they: There are numerous ways people have found to contain worries. It is often a matter of naming the worry and then putting the worry somewhere in time and space. Some of the most successful methods include journal writing, drawing. imagining shrinking the worry, setting up a specific "worry time" and using a worry box. In my professional work, I used all of these techniques, both together and separately. I often combined the worry box with worry time, which is described below. How to make a worry box Park feelings or emotions that they may not be able to cope with at the present moment until they are ready to deal with them. Incorporating worry time into your child’s routine begins by establishing a specific time when you can both focus on their worries. Allocate a dedicated period, e.g. 6pm for 15 minutes, which provides you both with the mental space you need to process the thoughts and feelings. Setting a timer during your worry time may help keep you both focused. The objective is “light touch”. You don’t want to spend hours dwelling on a worry or problem-solving it. Reviewing Worries With Your Child As parents we need to recognise when they have taken on an adult worry. We need to remove this burden from them. For example, we can say: “this is something that I am dealing with, so you don’t have to”.

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Place a dab of glue on the top of the box. Place one of the curled pipe cleaners on top. Continue to make a cluster of curled pipe cleaner “hair” on top of the box. This worry bag activity is a great one to use with your class to help them think about and discuss their emotions. It can be used as a morning starter activity to set them up for their day, or even as a standalone lesson alongside this Emotions PowerPoint. What do you think about the worry jar technique? In my experience, anxious kids really get into this technique and find it very helpful. Will you try it? Please let me know how it goes.

You can learn to manage your mind effectively to minimise stress and anxiety. You do not need to let your worries control or define you. Using your worry box:The next time your child feels worried or anxious, encourage them to write the worry down on a piece of paper and slip it into the worry box’s opening. It can take a couple of weeks to establish this as a habit, so persistence is key. P.P.S. Sometime ago I wrote the foreword and collaborated with author Elaheh Bos on A Spot of Blue, a story for young children about anxiety, in which this coping technique and others are shared. You may want to take a look! Older children will also benefit from using a worry box to make sense of what’s on their mind, and this will help prevent rumination. There’s something about physically writing or drawing your thoughts that helps is process them in a much more helpful way, than if they stay in our heads. As a child psychologist who specialized in work with anxious children, I often had kids write down their worries and put the paper in a worry box. The relief for most children was immediate because they could name their worry, write it down and then put the paper into a closed container. The worry was contained and therefore felt more manageable. Initially, I used a simple box with a lid and named it the Worry Box. With the writing of my children’s book on worry, the worry box was enhanced to be a child-created monster that can be as unique, ugly, crazy or silly as the child wants.Decorate the exterior:Your child will use the craft supplies to decorate the exterior of the box in any way they like. They can paint it, draw on it with markers, or even add decorative tape for a unique and personalised touch. Let their creativity shine through in this step.

This Worry Poster is a great one to use for your classroom displays or at home. It gives practical advice for children if they’re unsure how to approach their concerns. Using the box and writing down your problems on paper also helps to turn something intangible into something they can actually touch, work with, and control. Some kids may find it difficult to use visualization techniques and will benefit from using an actual box. Now imagine that the mature dandelion seeds are worries. With the slightest provocation and without a container, worries can scatter everywhere. The worries can spread to bother a person at night, in school, at work and with friends — really, anywhere and anytime. If you were able to hold the worries in a container, they would feel manageable. You know you cannot contain mature dandelion seeds, but you can contain worries! How to contain worriesSometimes when we feel worried, frustrated, or overwhelmed it may help us to store our problems away. If you are looking for mindfulness crafts to do some work with your kids or students this can be a great project.