Stress has remained a scourge in our daily lives today, affecting everything from our health to our relationships and our family. But this is now more an active issue that needs to be tackled head-on given now that our kids are taking it on from us. Several reports are on the media showing that kids are now suffering from stress. Severe stress. From school, that is. Kids at age 15, 13 years and younger are getting bombarded with so much activities, they just break down and cry. Its hurtful.
Stress among children is often common in developed nations, affecting as much as one in every five children. These kids are stressed out and having difficulties sleeping owing to several factors, ranging from their ability to get into good colleges, maintaining good grades and their family’s finances. According to the same report by American Psychological Association, children between the ages 8 to 17 say they worry about doing well in school. Yet, very few parents are able to diagnose the level of their children’s stress as extreme.
If parents are not adequately aware of the stress levels or the seriousness of the stress and anxiety their children are going through, it’ll take a harder effort to help bring a solution to this scourge. Ayodeji Onibalusi, digital PR and online publicist for Dance Warrior, introducing his client, a NJ based dance studio said in a call that “the first stage to combating anxiety and stress in kids is to listen for tell-tale signs such as headache, distraction and fatigue,” he said. “Our client has helped kids who are experiencing panic-level type of stress, autism spectrum disorder and focus deficiency through dance and music to regain their focus and integrate with other kids successfully,” said Onibalusi.
Yoga activities would be extremely helpful in managing stress, but it’ll be an ideal exercise for adults. Kids will have to possess a certain degree of focus to be able to practice yoga. Especially without the guidance of a supervising adult.
Getting a 13 year old to practice therapeutic exercises like yoga on their own is like a whack a mole game. They are either getting distracted or letting the hyperactive side of them take over. This is where the New Jersey Dance Studio, Dance Warrior, brings in dancing and music to help kids manage anxiety. To the uninitiated, it’d be hard to imagine how dancing classes can help kids with anxiety and stress much less kids with autism. But several findings have backed the effectiveness of the exercise in helping kids manage a plethora of stressors, which are often by-effects of academic overburden. It’s more effective when it’s combined with music lessons, such as the practice with Dance Warrior.
Of all the activities often recommended to help kids deal with stress and burnout, dancing is the safest, according to Health and Wellness website, LiveStrong.com. That said, the biggest hurdle to effectively manage burnout and stress in kids is the inability of we parents to admit that our kids are also stressed out.
How can we help kids learn to use dance and music lessons to manage stress and burnout if parents don’t know that their kids are experiencing burnout? The answer to that question lies in learning to listen to our little babies. We need that to help us help them.