My daughter often asks me about Happy Hour Effect. She knows it’s my company and what I do for work. I tried to explain to her what stress is. She didn’t get it. So I had to find a more creative way to explain that it is a condition we experience during times of change and fear that does real and severe damage to the body and mind.
One concept that she gets is the idea of germs and physical sickness. She knows that little bugs get into our bodies to make us sick. So I decided to use that same analogy to explain stress. It worked and she totally understood it. Feel free to use this when explaining it to your own kids.
Stress bugs are little critters that settle into our brains when we get upset, overwhelmed or have too much to do. Those little bugs make us feel crabby, scared and nervous and sometimes even make us cry. And when we let those stress bugs stay there for too long they start to crawl into other parts of our bodies.
The best things to do to keep those stress bugs out are:
1. Take deep breaths when you feel upset or sad. Blow the stress bugs right out.
2. Take a long nap so the stress bugs fall asleep too.
3. Eat super foods like fruits and veggies to kill those nasty stress bugs. They hate healthy foods.
4. The faster and more you run around, play and exercise, the more those stress bugs get burned up.
5. Stress bugs do not like animals so play with and take care of your pets all the time.
6. The more you smile and laugh, the more those stress bugs disappear.
The list could go on and on, but you get the drift. Reinforce good stress management habits in your kids now so they grow up into happy, healthy, less stressed adults.
