There he is.  One of the saddest, maddest seven year old boys I’ve ever seen, standing in the middle of the playground, screaming “go to hell!” to every child and adult who walks by him.  A teacher approaches him and instructs him to “calm down!”  She also orders him to “take a deep breath!”  

This story is a blending of the many (so many!) times I've observed adults demand that kids “calm down.”  And I get it.  We feel worried, frustrated, and baffled when we see our kids out of control. We want to make it better.  

Bottomline - kids would calm down, if they could, if they knew how, if someone had taught them how to get their body back to neutral.  They don’t LIKE experiencing all those complicated, distressing feelings.   

So it’s up to us to teach them!  To me, the best way to introduce this is to teach kids how to take a deep, restorative, diaphragmatic breath. There are so many awesomely creative ways to introduce deep breathing to kids. 

Download this PDF for a few ideas to help you get started.