Emotional Support Boxes

   I am getting ready to host a little gathering at my home for ages six to fourteen and I wanted to write about it. It will include my children and a few others and we are going to make emotional support boxes for their bedrooms. I am going to chat about our bodies and how as babies we start out with not much we can do to communicate but cry and laugh, but as the years go on we attain more capabilities. I will talk about how we all respond with fight, flight, flee or fawn when we are overwhelmed with big emotions. Those emotions are to protect us and are not negative but they can hurt us if we operate in that a lot. I will use animal examples and the children can think about themselves as a turtle or a lion or whatever it is that they turn into when they are angry or scared or overwhelmed. I will talk about our vagus nerve and how we want to activate that through our breaths and humming and how we can hug ourselves and pat our upper arms at the same time, how we can journal or speak our gratitude and how we need to always be gathering tools in our life's tool box to help ourself have awareness and emotional regulation. In the tool boxes (the emotional support boxes) they can choose to put whatever they want to inside. These will be for the purpose of soothing or distracting their senses and helping them refocus. 

Playdough

Bubbles they can blow

Juice boxes

Dye free lollypops

Essential oil roller (for some that are old enough)

Moisturizer (for those that are old enough)

Journal

Stress ball

A cue card booklet they make themselves with an idea to soothe on each page for example a hug from mom, a bath, a snack, time outside, exercise etc

A bag of epsom salts

A small stuffed animal

A baby picture of themselves

They will also have a mood thermometer page to see and gauge where they are at.

  Once, years ago, a lady did this with my three oldest children and it was such a blessing to them and so I wanted to facilitate this for my younger children. I hope it will empower them and also help them understand what is happening in their bodies when they rage or scream or run or whatever they do when they feel completely undone. Knowledge can bring such healing to someone who has maybe always thought they were 'bad' for losing control, or understanding to someone who has never understood why they could not engage in arguments etc. We shall see how it all goes but I have high hopes :)

Have a lovely rest of your week

Tansy