I learned a trick to comfort my super-anxious, super-sensitive 6yo! The Tomorrow Box. It actually helps her remember to breathe deeply and slowly to calm down.

I posted this earlier tonight on my Facebook:Parents: I'd like to tell you about the Tomorrow Box.Tonight, I tried something that actually worked to chill out my hyper-sensitive, anxious child who struggles to remember to stop and breathe deeply when she's frustrated/upset/worried. Sometimes I can tell her she needs to take a deep breath and she'll do it, but she ends up huffing and puffing quickly instead of taking slow, deep breaths because she gets angry/impatient when it comes to trying to calm down. She knows she needs to calm down, she just can't.Tonight, she would not stop worrying about what she was going to have for lunch at school tomorrow. I won't go into details because they're boring, but briefly, my kid has a new lunch anxiety that consumes her. It doesn't matter how many times you answer her questions. She a.) forgets what you told her, or b.) wants some kind of definitive proof of what you said, even if you can't offer it to her. At best, she just wants the worry to go away.So, tonight, I told her this:"You're really worried about lunch tomorrow and you want answers now, but you're upset because you have to be quiet and go to sleep. It also sounds like those worries are really important to you and you're afraid of losing them.Sometimes when I have worries at night, but I know I have to go to sleep to be healthy, it helps me to put them in my Tomorrow Box. I know my worries are safe in my Tomorrow box! I won't lose them there, and if I want to check on them, they'll be there tomorrow, so I can sleep tonight.Here, I'll show you how to put your worries in your Tomorrow Box—where do you feel your worries in your body? Some people feel them in their tummies, others feel them in their shoulders or necks or eyes or their head."She tells me she feels them in her head"Okay, so here's what you do...you use your hands to scoooooop them out of your head, and then you blow your worries into the Tomorrow Box.To get them scooped up though, you have to loosen them up...so to do that, you breeeeeeathe in while you scoop...then you cup your hands in front of your mouth like this, holding your worries, and you blow your worries into the Tomorrow Box."She's anxious, so she starts trying to scoop and breathe/blow hard and fast because she wants to feel better RIGHT NOW."Oh no, no! You have to be careful! Worries are fragile. If you breathe and scoop and blow too hard, they'll break, and then you won't have them anymore. You have to be gentle and careful with them if you want to be able to come back to them tomorrow and check on them." [Trying to honor her worries here, because they're real to her and she just needs to know that they matter, as opposed to feeling ashamed/crazy/stupid for having such big feelings over something so small.]We breathe in while we gently and slowly scoop the worries out, and we breathe out while we gently and slowly blow the worries into the Tomorrow Box.The exercise is over when your Tomorrow Box feels full! (After a few times breathing in and breathing out, she felt much calmer and more at ease/her Tomorrow Box felt full. (And if a new worry pops up, you can always repeat the ritual, just scoop it out and add it to the Tomorrow Box.)Then, when you feel like you're all done, you just put the top on your Tomorrow Box (pretend!) and slide it to the side.Now, your worries are safe and you can sleep. Which is good—tomorrow, when you open your Tomorrow Box and check on your worries, being well-rested will help you sort through them, decide which ones to think about, and solve problems. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2ioR2Ps