Coping Exercises
Episode Description
Many people find themselves dealing with high levels of stress and anxiety in their daily lives. However, there are plenty of simple strategies to help regulate these emotions. In this episode of Mind Your Mind, host Tim Unsinn talks with therapist Sandy Richter about various coping exercises to help you regulate and calm yourself, including breathing and movement exercises for both children and adults.What to Expect
- Breathing exercises
- Movement exercises
- Coping exercises for kids vs adults
Resources: Learn More
- “A Little SPOT of Feelings” series by Diane Alber
- “Breathing Exercises: 4-7-8 Breath” by Dr. Weil
Things to Think About
- There are many creative ways to make coping exercises fun for children.
- What coping exercises work best for you?
Transcript
Coping Exercises
Featuring Sandy Richter, LCSW, Therapist
Host Tim Unsinn:
Welcome to Mind Your Mind, a podcast presented by Dakota Family Services, an outpatient behavioral health clinic, located in Minot, Bismarck, and Fargo, North Dakota. In this podcast, I will talk with our experts about understanding and nurturing our mental health and wellness. I'm your host, Tim Unsinn. Join me each episode as we explore the intricacies of our minds, decrease the stigma of mental illness, learn practical tips for managing our mental health and wellbeing, and recognize when it's time to ask for help. Join me now to Mind Your Mind.
Tim Unsinn:
Welcome to this episode of Mind Your Mind. Our guest is Sandy Richter. Sandy is a therapist in Minot. Sandy, it is great to have you on Mind Your Mind. Our topic is coping exercises. However, before we get to that awesome topic, there's a question I ask all of our guests, and that is, why do you do what you do?
Sandy Richter:
I just love helping people in general. I'm just very passionate about anyone that is struggling with mental health, life changes. Sometimes we all just need a little helping hand.
Tim Unsinn:
Thanks, Sandy that's great. So our topic is coping exercises, and it seems like we've got a few things to cover, a few bases, if you will, to cover on this topic. First, deep breathing for children.
Sandy Richter:
So a lot of people don't know that children do not automatically know how to calm and self-regulate. So deep breathing exercises are things that you can teach your children, and they learn through having fun. So oftentimes we call it animal breathing. When we're teaching them how to breathe like an animal, they get to select an animal of their choice. So if they are selecting perhaps a lion, we're teaching them to take a deep breath in through their nose, hold it. We will count to three or four, and then we will have them exhale with a big loud roar. And we'll practice that several times. And they are having fun and they are also learning a very important skill to help regulate their emotions.
Tim Unsinn:
And it seems like kids have wide and varied emotions, but maybe not, like you say, know how to deal with that.
Sandy Richter:
Yeah, and so there's very creative ways, maybe if they're not interested in roaring like animals. Blowing bubbles, taking a deep breath in through your nose, and then encouraging them to make that bubble as big as possible and blowing out really slow to grow that bubble. And so another way that you could teach them is pinwheel breathing, or you could also call it cupcake breathing. You just take a deep breath in through your nose and then you were blowing either a pinwheel or you were blowing out like a candle.
Tim Unsinn:
So of all the, all the fun deep breathing exercises for kids, which, which of those is the most favorite?
Sandy Richter:
It depends on the child, really. Some of them really get into playing animals. Some of them just really enjoy blowing the bubbles.
Tim Unsinn:
I can just see the lion one. I can just see that being a hit, you know, breathing and then roaring out and, and not get in trouble for it. I love that one.
Sandy Richter:
And believe it or not, with the Jurassic Park movies that have just been coming out recently, dinosaur breathing is another really popular one. It's done the same way as an animal. But in that particular one we combine putting your hands out in front of you and then opening your hands, your palms, apart as you breathe in, and then snapping them down as they are exhaling and roaring.
Tim Unsinn:
Love that one too. Fun, fun stuff. Okay. So deep breathing for kids. What about deep breathing for adolescence and adults?
Sandy Richter:
Yeah, so with them, they really understand the process pretty easily. So we have what we call square or box breathing, and that is where you can either trace a square or imagine a square. You breathe in counting to four on one side. On the second side, you're holding counting to four. On the bottom of the box you are exhaling counting to four. And the last side is really just a rest of four. And then you can complete that box several times until you start to feel yourself calm.
Tim Unsinn:
What about word breathing?
Sandy Richter:
Yeah. Word breathing is another very simple type of breathing. They can pick a word of their choice. This type of breathing, word breathing, is common. It comes from what we call an illness management and recovery model. And an example would be, you could use the word calm. You would breathe in through your nose, quietly spelling the word in your mind, c a l m, and then as you breathe out, you are going to exhale that word out as long as possible.
Tim Unsinn:
I love that one too. These are all fun. These are all really, really good. Our guest on Mind Your Mind is Sandy Richter. Sandy is a therapist on our Minot campus, and our topic is coping exercises: breathing, and movement. We've talked about breathing. Now let's talk about movement exercises for children and adolescents.
Sandy Richter:
So with children just giving them a way to exert that energy that comes maybe with anxiety and where they're having trouble regulating emotions. Plus also, if you distract them and get them doing something, then they start to let their worried thoughts, they let them go. We do animal walking, pretending we're an animal and, you know, walking like an elephant walking like a crab. Different things like that just to get movement. Remember when we were children and we were in kindergarten, perhaps first grade, and we played hokey pokey. Getting those, you know, muscles moving, that is really a favorite one. It's helpful when kids can't sit still. Maybe they have some adhd, maybe they just are moving a lot because they're very anxious. So we will dance and play and do hokey pokey.
Tim Unsinn:
Lot of fun, fun ones for the kids. How about movement exercises for adolescents and adults? And as, as I kind of look at that, I'm thinking I'm jealous of the kids ones.
Sandy Richter:
You know, really any kind of movement that you can do to exert that energy that you're feeling internally, can be therapeutic. Teenagers, you know, shooting hoops. Or just going for a walk and talk, you know, as part of a therapy session. Or if you're a parent, you know, walking and hit the mall with your teenager that might want to shop and pick up maybe an item at one of their favorite novelty stores. Dancing is another really popular one. I encourage clients all the time to put some music on at home and just move. Others like yoga, some other kinds of mindfulness, meditation, tai chi, that just kind of helps give them some movement, as well as centering.
Tim Unsinn:
Seems like the key is just movement.
Sandy Richter:
Yep.
Tim Unsinn:
I guess that's why it's a movement exercise, right?
Sandy Richter:
Right.
Tim Unsinn:
And sitting is not a movement. All right. Awesome. Thank you, Sandy. I appreciate you being on Mind Your Mind. Before we wrap up and finish, I do have a final question for you, and that is, what do you do personally to mind your mind?
Sandy Richter:
When I'm at work and the day is busy and things like that, I'm very mindful just to take a few minutes for myself to breathe between appointments. I will also just get up and take a short little walk down the hallway and walk back before I go out to see the next person that is coming to visit with me. When I'm at home, I'm another one. I like movement and our daily tasks can be movement as well, but I also make sure that I have time to spend with quality time with family and doing things that I enjoy, like baking or I like to relax with a hot bath or read a good book.
Tim Unsinn:
Awesome. Thank you. Thank you for your time and your talent and thank you for joining us on Mind Your Mind. Thank you.
Tim Unsinn:
Thank you for joining us for Mind Your Mind a podcast presented by Dakota Family Services. For more information, links to additional resources, contact information, and much more, go to dakotafamilyservices.org.
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