Reader Wisdom: Stress Relief For Children

Children face quite a bit of stress these days, and stress management is as important for children as it is for adults--at least. What are the most effective ways to manage stress in children? Read proven strategies for stress relief for children (and for your inner child), and share your own best strategies for stress relief.

Share Your Best Strategies For Children's Stress Relief.

Here are some more resources for children's stress relief:

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The Power Of Gratitude

I love celebrating Thanksgiving, and I think it's a vastly underrated holiday! I understand that it's only an American holiday, so it doesn't have the momentum of worldwide celebration, and it's not traditionally a gift-giving holiday, so it doesn't have the push of consumerism behind it, like Christmas and, to a lesser extent, Hanukah. (I roll my eyes when I'm shopping for Halloween supplies in October and I invariably find them alongside a smattering of Christmas supplies from overzealous merchants.) Still, for everything we can gain from giving thanks, I'd really like to see more celebration of this wonderful holiday, in the form of increased acts of kindness and greater gratitude from people in their daily lives.

What we gain from gratitude is more than just warm fuzzies from people who appreciate what we do for them--gratitude is like love, where the person giving it gains even more than the recipient. Gratitude leads to a sense of wellbeing that's good for physical and emotional health. And, while some people are born with a greater propensity toward feeling grateful, and some people develop it as a by-product of their upbringing or certain life experiences, gratitude can also be cultivated by anyone who wants to experience more of it in their daily lives, with some simple exercises.

The following gratitude resources can help you to understand the benefits of gratitude, and develop more gratitude in your life. Be truly thankful this Thanksgiving--and let these feelings stay with you throughout the holiday season and into the new year!

What are you most grateful for? How do you cultivate a sense of gratitude? Share your thoughts in the comments or on Facebook--we'd love to hear!

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Make Up or Break Up -- With Less Stress!

Have you noticed how many high-profile couples have broken up recently? Last week I saw that both Christina Aguilera and Courtney Cox were seeing their marriages end, and it's been difficult to go a few days in a row without seeing Jenny McCarthy in the media talking about her break-up with Jim Carrey. Susan Sarandon is also doing quite a bit of talking about her 2009 split from Tim Robbins, her partner of 23 years, and last week I learned that two stars of one of my favorite shows, The Big Bang Theory, had been secretly dating for about two years, but have now broken up. People break up all the time, but it seems that there are many high-profile breakups in the news lately.

I suppose that this shouldn't come as a surprise -- maintaining a healthy, lasting relationship can be a challenge! It requires more than love, and more than commitment; it requires a set of skills (which need to be developed early on, or later learned by those who weren't born into families that could readily teach them), and a little luck. Fortunately, I can point you to both! Certain relationship skills have been shown to be very important in maintaining healthy, lasting relationships. For example, being able to handle conflict without tearing your partner down is a skill; communicating your needs and really listening to your partner's needs constitutes another important skill. Being able to laugh and have fun through life's difficulties is another very important skill. Below, you'll find resources you can use to strengthen your romantic relationships and all of your other relationships as well. (And if need them, keep scrolling for some great resources for handling the stress of a breakup!)

Relationship Skills For Easier "Make-Ups": Listening Skills You Need To HaveHealthy Communication SkillsConflict Resolution TechniquesConflict Resolution Mistakes To AvoidQUIZ: What's Your Conflict Resolution Style?

Stress Management Tips For Handling Break-Ups: Feel Better After a Break-UpWhat Not To Do After A Break-UpEssential Comforts for the Recently Split

What are your best relationship tips and break-up tips? Share 'em below!

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Survey: Americans Need Help Properly Managing Stress

Findings from the American Psychological Association's (APA) newly released 2010 Stress in America survey raise red flags about the long-term impact that chronic stress could have on our physical and emotional health and the health of our families, psychologists said today.

The survey, which was conducted online by Harris Interactive in August 2010, showed that Americans appear to be caught in a vicious cycle where they manage stress in unhealthy ways, and lack of willpower and time constraints impede their ability to make lifestyle or behavioral changes. This is particularly true for those who believe themselves to be in fair or poor health.

Another troubling aspect of the survey findings is an apparent trend where parents are underestimating how much stress their children experience and the impact their own stress has on their children. They also don't seem to realize how much stress they themselves are under, but their children are acutely aware. (Read more about those findings here.) At the same time, children as young as eight years old are reporting that they experience physical and emotional health consequences often associated with stress. Stress management for families is of vital importance!

"America is at a critical crossroads when it comes to stress and our health," said psychologist Norman B. Anderson, PhD, APA's chief executive officer and executive vice president in a press release. "Year after year nearly three-quarters of Americans say they experience stress at levels that exceed what they define as healthy, putting themselves at risk for developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and depression. Stress is hurting our physical and emotional health and contributing to some of the leading causes of death in this country. People are also saying they have difficulty implementing the changes they know will decrease their stress and improve their health. Yet, our health care system is not adequately addressing this issue or providing the behavioral health treatments that can help Americans. All of us, including the medical community, need to take stress seriously since stress could easily become our next public health crisis."

Making healthy changes stick can be difficult for everyone, especially when under stress. When we're stressed, me often tend to crave the familiar, and have less energy for willpower and motivation. However, as we take small steps toward change, we gain momentum toward greater change; as we start doing more healthy things, we tend to crave even healthier changes; and as we start relieving stress in healthy and effective ways, we have less stress to relive, and more energy to try even more new coping strategies. Take a few steps, and begin an upward spiral of stress relief and healthy change.

The following resources can help you make healthy changes and relieve stress with your family:

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Source: www.stressinamerica.org

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