"This exercise teaches children to shift their attention out of their head and to distance themselves from their thoughts. They can lower their attention like a small spider on a thread. Lower it farther and farther, all the way down into the abdomen. There are no thoughts inside the abdomen, only the breath — the calm movement of the breath. Deep down in the abdomen all is calm. There are no worries. There are no fights. There is peace and intense quiet.
"Whenever your child is worrying, he or she need do only two things:
"1. notice that he or she is worrying;
2. move out of the head and down toward the breath in the abdomen. There are no thoughts inside the abdomen.
How to Do This at Home
Here are some more strategies for calming worries:
"For children who have difficulties doing the first aid for worries exercise and would rather do something with their hands, a nicely decorated and perhaps homemade box of worries can do the trick. Before your child turns in for the night, you can ask the child if he or she is upset about anything. Are there any worries? Things the child is getting worked up about? Thinking about these worries (instead of not thinking about them) will reveal what they are all about. These thoughts can then be put into the box. The lid comes off, the worries go in, and the lid goes back on. Your child can then look at the little box of worries somewhere on a shelf in the room — from a distance, so the child can see they are no longer in his or her head."
