As teachers and parents, it’s so important for us to help our kids manage their stress. Excessive stress can affect the way young students feel, think, and behave. Children learn how to respond to stress as they grow and develop, and if we give them healthy coping strategies now, we’re setting them up for emotionally literate, healthy futures.
Three Types of Stress
We often think of stress as “bad,” but there’s more to it than that. There’s actually three different types of stress we face as humans.
- Acute Stress – This kind of stress comes as a surprise and will often trigger our fight, flight, or freeze response.
- Chronic Stress – Our body isn’t designed for chronic stress; it activates the amygdala but doesn’t give a chance to relax, meaning we’re constantly in a stressed-out state. This may result in us feeling negative physical, emotional, and psychological effects.
- Good Stress – This is often referred to as “eustress.” We experience this when we’re excited (like on a roller coaster or first date, while in competition, or before making a public presentation).
Tools to Turn Bad Stress to Good Stress
The good news is that, with the right tools, you can teach your students (and yourself) how to turn bad stress into good stress. Here are four methods to teach your Montessori students to help them manage their stress.
- Reframing your experience – This means shifting your mind and changing your perspective or experience of what the stress you’re experiencing truly is.
- Focus on things around you – What resources can you use to help you overcome your stress or reframe your mindset?
- Identify your strengths – Focus on the positives; you may not have control of of the stressful situation, but ask yourself, what can you control? What strengths do you have to help you either overcome your stress or reframe your mindset?
- Practice a growth mindset – This is another reframing technique; growth mindset means seeing challenges as opportunities to grow. How can this stressful event or situation improve your abilities or help you push yourself?
(We’ll get deeper into these types of stress management and reframing strategies in future blogs, so make sure you watch this space!)
One Quick Implementation Strategy: Quieting the Mind to Manage Stress
A very important thing to realize is that it’s very difficult to deal with stress in any situation if a child’s mind is racing. The only way to help them manage their stress is by first helping them to quiet their mind (and turn off negative or distracting chatter). Think of this like yoga or meditation, it’s something that takes practice! But this is how you help your students move from bad stress into good stress and develop a more productive, positive ways of thinking.
You can help children quiet their minds through a calming activity—such as creating and/or coloring mandalas. In Sanskrit, the word mandala actually means “circle,” or “completion.” Within its circular base, mandalas have the power to promote relaxation, balance, creativity, and healing.
We’re going to dive deeper into more ways to help students manage stress and their emotions, so make sure you sign up for our newsletter and join our Facebook group to receive more tips and be a part of a great, Montessori community!
By Spramani Elaun & Kristen Richter
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