St James Church
School
Emotional Support
ELSA support
Here are some useful links to support with mindfulness and relaxation. There are lots of free resources available on the ELSA support website:
https://www.elsa-support.co.uk/category/free-resources/
Some relaxing/grounding mindful activities:
1. Anchoring
Direct your attention to something eg. Your feet! Notice how your feet feel touching your socks, notice how they feel when you wiggle them; can you feel each toe individually? This helps divert attention away from anxious thoughts and calms body and mind.
2. TLC
Direct your attention to all the textures you can see in the room, all the lines and then all the colours. This helps to distract the mind and helps calm you down.
3. Breath Counting
Count in slowly for 4 and out for 8. This helps focus your attention and calms you down by slowing the breathing. The longer out breath helps to release more CO2 and the slower breathing helps to slow heart rate and calm body and mind.
4. Belly Breathing
This helps to get much more oxygen into the body, slows the breathing and calm the body and mind. It also helps focus the attention away from any anxious thoughts.
5. Finger Breathing
Use one of your fingers on one hand to trace around each finger on the other hand, breathing in and out slowly as you do so. Concentrate your attention on the sensation as this will distract the mind and the breathing will calm your body and mind.
6. Visualisation
Imagine blowing your worries away in bubbles or them floating away on leaves in the stream. You could picture putting all your worries into a balloon, blowing the balloon up, tying it up and watch it float away.
7. Positive affirmations
Practice saying a positive phrase to yourself such as ‘I am focused, I am calm, I can do it’. This will help with a positive mindset.
8. Body Scan
Start at the top of your body and tune into and notice how each part of your body is feeling. This is a really good grounding and calming activity.
Remember the more you practice relaxing and focusing the mind the easier it will be.☺
5 Point Scale
In school we use the 5 point scale to help support children understand and control their strong emotions. This can be used at home as well. See the link below for an explanation on how to use it.