Helping children turn anxiety into resilience with parenting expert Michael Grose

Tracey Challenor

 

Welcome to the Life Education Parent Podcast. Life Education is Australia’s largest children’s health promotion charity, empowering kids to make safe and healthy choices. In this podcast, we speak to experts about the big issues facing parents today, seeking answers and advice to help you deal with some of the challenges of parenting in the 21st century.

 

Tracey Challenor

Hi and welcome to another episode. I’m Tracey Challenor. Well, today we’re talking about anxiety, a topic a lot of people can relate to. Even before the global pandemic and lockdowns, we were hearing that anxiety is on the rise in children and adults. Why is that? And how can we help kids deal with their worries? Well, today’s guest has some great insights and strategies. A former primary school teacher, Michael Grose is now an award-winning speaker and the bestselling author of 12 parenting books.

 

Tracey Challenor

You’ve probably heard of his famous book Why First Borns Rule the World and Later-Borns Want to Change It. And more recently, Michael co-wrote Anxious Kids: How Children Can Turn Their Anxiety Into Resilience with Dr. Jodi Richardson. Michael, it’s great that you could join us today. Welcome to the Life Education Parent Podcast.

 

Michael Grose

It’s a pretty important topic as you said. So, probably let’s get started.

 

Tracey Challenor

It’s a very big topic, and I know you give advice on a range of parenting issues. But anxiety, I thought we’ll just hone in on that because there’s enough to talk about. We know that experts around the country are saying that the on and off school closures and lockdowns due to COVID are worsening children’s mental health, not surprisingly. It’s been a crazy couple of years. But even pre-COVID, it seems that anxiety levels were on the rise. We kept hearing that. It’s a big question, but why more kids than ever before experiencing anxiety?

 

Michael Grose

There’s a number of answers to that question. Firstly, I guess it’s the good news is that part of it is the fact that we’re getting better at recognising it. And if I go back many years, I was an anxious child myself. And I think back now, the knowledge I’ve got and I realised that I had anxiety as a child. Didn’t stop me doing things, but I still experienced it. But there was really no knowledge about that. So, I was known as a worrier. Stop overthinking things. And a lot of people in my generation, that’s the way we recognise anxiety. And I go to 1998 and there was a large mental health study in Australia and anxiety wasn’t even on the question so to speak.

 

Michael Grose

That same study, 2015, we looked at it again, anxiety was the second biggest issue that young people were facing then. So, the question was in those 17, 18 years, did anxiety go from nothing through to we’re going through the roof? No, not exactly. We’re getting better at recognising it. And it is something now that we do recognise that it’s there, so that’s partly the issue. And partly that we are in an environment which promotes more anxiety as well, so those sorts of things. Maybe we’ll explore some of those, but it’s a faster-paced world that we live in. Digital media and social media has an impact as well. So, lots of little things impact and make us more anxious as adults but also as kids. There’s even lifestyle factors as well. So, it’s been fascinating looking at that simple question of why anxiety now. And again, it’s a whole bunch of issues. Smaller issues which are combining to impact on our mental health.

 

Tracey Challenor

It certainly is a noisier and faster world that we live in now. We’ve got so much stimulation coming at us too in terms of the amount of information that we’re trying to absorb. But you mentioned just before, we used to say he or she is a worrier and now we label it anxiety. What are some of the factors, apart from the external factors, what are some of the other factors that contribute to a more anxious personality?

 

Michael Grose

You are born more likely to be anxious. Kids have a predisposition for anxiety or we all do. We have a predisposition for anxiety. So, it runs in families and about 40% of that runs in the family. So, if you got an anxious parent yourself, there’s a reasonable chance that you may be anxious, or if you’re anxious, there’s a reasonable chance that your child may be. So, it’s partly learned, but also it’s partly genetic as well. You may have a predisposition for anxiety, but it doesn’t mean you’ll be anxious. You need to be placed in an environment which will invoke that.

 

Michael Grose

Similar thing is you may have a predisposition to put on muscle mass, but you won’t put on muscle unless you go to a gym or you engage in physical work. So, you can be in a very laid-back, relaxed environment and you have less school, no dramas. Anxious? Not me. But suddenly you’re put into the stressful situations, the faster pace of things which make you anxious, then suddenly you become more anxious. But as I say… And I put people into two groups, those who understand anxiety and those who say, “Not me. Got no idea what it’s about.” And that tends to be the group who actually says to kids, “Come on, get on with it,” or, “What’s the problem?” And so, it’s important to actually understand that anxiety is real for those people who’ve got that predisposition, if that makes sense.

 

Tracey Challenor

Yeah. And for anyone who’s ever experienced anxiety, it’s not just a mental thing. There are often those physical reactions too that can make the anxiety episodes feel even worse. Talk us through some of those common reactions or manifestations of anxiety. What does it feel like for someone?

 

Michael Grose

Yeah. That’s a good point. Firstly, the difference between anxiety and being a worrier is simply we worry or we ruminate a lot and that’s a mental thing. I spend sometimes lie awake and think about work things, et cetera, but they don’t make me anxious. But sometimes I sit at night and think and worry about things in the same way as certain things, and I feel anxious and that’s very much a physiological thing. So, we can separate the notion of worry and separate the notion of anxiety. So, we worry, that’s a mental thing. But anxiety is something which has a very physical or physiological thing.

 

Michael Grose

So, I always work my way from the top of the body right down to the bottom. For some people, we get headaches. Others they’ll start to talk fast. Others will get very tense in their shoulders because their breath is very high and we start to breathe very high. So, if you can imagine sitting there watching a scary movie or watching a close event in the Olympic games or your sports, you’ll be sitting on the edge of your seat and your breath will be really high but you don’t know that. You’ll have a physiological response. And suddenly you find out there’s been a win or whatever and you tend to relax and your shoulders will drop. So, if we move our way down the body, our heart will pump and some people will feel it within their heart. A lot of people feel in their stomach. And that’s how I know that I’m anxious because I’ll get that knot in my gut so to speak. Some kids will feel nauseous.

 

Michael Grose

And what that’s about is that the body is responding to a threat. The whole notion of anxiety is it’s the old brain keeping you safe. So, the old brain that thinks that can differentiate between a tiger about to attack, or a snake about to get you, or that test coming up. So, the body responds in the same way. And what it does, it actually fires us up. That’s what anxiety is. Actually, it’s the fight flight response in the brain, the old brain, where it actually fires you up, ready to chase whatever it is that’s a threat or to run. Your heart pumps more, your digestion stops and the heart pumps more to pump all the body or the blood out through to your arms and legs, so you can run, so you can get away, or you can fight. It’s there to power us up. So, that nauseous feeling is about your body has stopped digesting, and that’s what that knot in the gut is that many people experience is their body will stop digesting.

 

Michael Grose

 

What happens with the shortness of breath or the tenseness is that your body has actually changed the breathing pattern to enable you to fight-or-flight. Also, you start looking at your hands. Some people, they will fidget, they will pick their nails, they will continue drawing, they’ll do things because they can’t keep still. And if we go down to our legs, some people and some kids, you can see that in many ways with some kids, they can’t sit still. They keep moving all the time, and what that is about is that’s that fight flight, which is actually powered us up to move. We’re not actually moving. We’re worried about something and it’s making us very anxious. And how do I get rid of all that built-up cortisol in my body? I’ll keep moving. That’s why exercise is really important.

 

Michael Grose

So, the best map that you can have for anxiety is your body. And if we can actually look at anxiety as a physiological thing, not so much a mental thing, but more of a physiological thing, well, a lot of the tools which we use to help kids manage their anxiety are very much around physiology as well. So again, go through the body, start at the body. But I think every child, every adult as well, anxiety will manifest it in different ways. And it’s really useful to know how if it’s for you. For me, for example I’ll wake up in the morning and I got that knot in the gut. I also can’t keep still. So, when I give a presentation, I might be a little bit nervous or anxious about, I’m really moving around all the time. I’ve got to do things. Whereas other people and some children don’t respond in the same way. So, it’s important to understand the triggers your child… How it shows for your child and also help your kids understand how it shows for them.

 

Tracey Challenor

And those responses you have described, they’re really normal and understandable reactions, but they’re not very pleasant feelings are they? What are some of the strategies that you have found helpful to control anxious responses and what are some things that parents can do? Some practical things to help kids that might be really anxious about having to stand up in front of the class or whatever it might be. Go away on a school camp by themselves for the first time.

 

Michael Grose

Yeah. Good point. Okay. Firstly, it’s good to understand that… What we want to do is to help kids self-regulate. So, we’re not going to make anxiety go away. What we do for anxiety is we… it’s a little bit like the old-fashioned radio, we want to turn down the dial a little bit, so it’s operating in the background. Where anxiety is difficult for kids is it makes us focus on the things which make us anxious. So, if there’s a talk at school, it’s often hard to focus on anything else and concentrate on anything else because all we’re worried about is that talk. And so, it’s good to help kids understand that. What’s happening to them, so that notion focus is important.

 

Michael Grose

Kids will be divided into two groups, and it’s good to understand this as well if you’re a parent that you’ll either be a controller or an avoider. Let’s start with the second group. Avoiders are the kids who don’t want to go to school camp, who don’t want to give that speech at school, who don’t want to go into that new social situation because it makes them feel very nervous, it makes them feel very anxious. And as soon as we say as parents, “Sweetheart, you don’t have to go.” The child will feel, “Oh, that’s great.”

 

Tracey Challenor

Relief.

 

Michael Grose

They will suddenly feel safe. They go, “Relief. Thank goodness.” The only trouble is next time the same situation comes up, that child had no experience of that and we’ll have that same response, so avoidance becomes a pattern. And that’s why we see with adults in life, often that avoidance of situations which make you feel anxious becomes a pattern, so we avoid. A simple strategy for parents is to rather than avoid, see if you can find a way to expose your child to whatever that situation is.

 

Michael Grose

So, if it’s a four-day school camp and your child’s never been at school camp, maybe look at going to school camp one day. Maybe we can look at doing some camping activities outside, and so they start to feel comfortable. Find out what it might be that makes them anxious and see if we can take some steps towards that rather than avoidance. So, there’s some clues to help parents, I guess, with the avoiders. And for the controllers, the one thing about controllers… What I mean by controller is that a lot of those kids don’t like to take risks, and they will do things but they’ll have a plan A, plan B, plan C. They’ll overplan things. Perfectionists are often very anxious. And so, they’ll overplan, they’ll have a plan A, plan B. They’ll want to know, ‘Who’s picking me up at the end of the day, Mum?’ I need lots of information. So, I don’t like that aspect of not being in control.

 

Michael Grose

As a parent, you need to give them that information. You need to assist them in that way. Don’t give them too many surprises because they like to feel that they’re in control. Routine is really important for that group. So, you may find some kids who are those controllers who suddenly, when they go on holidays, they feel very uncomfortable and anxious again because my school routine’s gone. And they won’t feel comfortable until the new holiday routine kicks in after two or three days. So, that notion of routine is important for them. And the other aspect for them is that they wear themselves out, so don’t overload them. One of the strategies that I think is important for kids is if you know that you’re that anxious controlling and you’re going to give that talk at school and you work your self up and you give that talk, well, maybe you’ve got to make sure after that talk’s given, that child’s got a chance to relax, and play, and mess around and just let it all go. And even beforehand as well, so that balance.

 

Michael Grose

That’s why it’s an interesting one when I look at one of the questions I’m often asked by parents is after school activities, how much is too much? Well, one of the things I think you really got to look at is what is your child like? Can they cope? Are they an anxious type? With my two girls, for example, they’re in their 30s now. But when they’re in primary and secondary school, one of them was an anxious and the other one was very easy-going personality. That easy-going personality kept herself as busy as anything after school with a million activities but she could cope. The anxious personality, as she moved into secondary school, she dropped off a lot of the sports and the things she used to do and enjoy because she needed to create some spaces and downtime for herself so she could actually cope. Those bigger coping mechanisms are really important for kids.

 

Michael Grose

So as far as what happens with anxiety, and you’ve got that how do we get kids to regulate their states? There’s a number of simple tools and I guess there’s tools we know about, and some of them we’ve used to put into practice in the past, but we don’t so much anymore because our lifestyle has changed. First one I always look at is deep breathing. Got an anxious child, let’s take some deep breaths and do it with them. And what deep breathing does… and that’s belly breaths. People can’t see me now but I’ve got my hand firmly on my tummy at the moment and taking some deep breaths in through my nose and letting them out.

 

Michael Grose

And there’s a reason for that. And what that does, it is the quickest way to calm yourself down. So, anxiety is about high arousal. Kids are highly aroused. And so, deep breathing engages the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is the part of us which calms us down. So, teaching kids to take some deep breaths when they’re nervous or anxious is important. Even if they’re going to just before doing an activity, whether that’s that presentation or that speech, teach them to take some… remind them to take some deep breaths just to calm themselves down. I think we need to go further than that. I think that you have a lot of fun within your family and make it more of a lifestyle thing. Come on, let’s take some deep breaths before we watch this TV show. And so, it becomes more of a lifestyle.

 

Michael Grose

From a personal perspective, what I often do as I’m standing at a queue in a supermarket, I’ll just stand there and take some deep breaths through my nose just to relax so that it becomes part of my lifestyle. Deep breathing’s important. Movement is really important as well. So, one of the reasons why we have more anxious kids is they often don’t move around as much. So, it needs to be big-limbed movement. Big limb movement is arms and legs flying around everywhere. Because what that does is it gets rid of the built-up cortisol, which is the anxious brain will send out, and it gets rid of it, it dissipates it. It also gives that runner’s high, which releases endorphins which makes us feel better. You can cheat and you can have a cold shower and that will release some endorphins as well and make you feel better. That’s the cheating way.

 

Michael Grose

But make sure there’s plenty of movement. So, if your child is going somewhere where he’s going to be anxious that day, or he’s got a big event on, or she’s got a big event on, go for a walk, do things like that just to get rid of that cortisol and make yourself feel better. Another tool or strategy which we can employ for kids is mindfulness. And mindfulness is very powerful because it’s about shutting down that mind that we’ve got the mental clutter which keeps going 24/7, which will talk kids in and out of things, you can’t do this, et cetera. And so, that notion of mindfulness is the ability to bring yourself into the moment. So, it can be as simple as going for a little walk outside and just looking at what’s around through to colouring in, and that just closes the brain down.

 

Michael Grose

Mindfulness is the ability to bring yourself in through to the present moment, but it’s always using the senses. So, it will be looking at something. It will be touching or feeling. That’s why colouring in is so good. That’s why the old squeezy balls, those balls that some people have, just squeeze them. That brings you into the present, gets rid of tension. And it can be sitting and listening to music as well. So, mindfulness is almost a lifestyle. So much has been written about it. But you can actually start by just making sure that whatever you’re doing, you’re focusing on. So, if a child’s eating a chocolate, just focus on that chocolate. Don’t talk or anything else. Mindfulness is a terrific strategy which we can teach kids, which takes a little bit more effort.

 

Michael Grose

One of the things which we write about in our book, Anxious Kids, was the ability for kids to check in. And you might say, “Gee, how do you do that?” And it’s just basically standing still, closing your eyes, taking a few deep breaths and thinking how do I feel at the moment? It’s getting your attention away from your head and down into your tummy. And it might be I feel nervous or I feel a bit toe about this. It doesn’t matter what language they use. Just got to get their head down to their tummy so to speak, and just checking in is a useful tool and a useful strategy, so it’s about that habit. So, checking in as a very powerful tool. I mentioned that one last because it’s probably the one that takes a little bit more work to get used to.

 

Tracey Challenor

They are fabulous strategies. And you’re saying parents and teachers can work with children from a very young age to start adopting some of those strategies. Certainly our Life Education educators do focus a lot on that social and emotional learning as well. I just want to touch on screen time. There’s always a lot of discussion about too much screen time. You mentioned in your book some researchers say that the more time children and teens spend on screens, the lower their psychological well-being. And I guess that’s because it does leave less time for those other positive activities like outdoor play, or even just time to imagine and dream, time with friends, even just time to be bored. In your experience, Michael, why are these non-digital pursuits so important for fostering positive mental health?

 

Michael Grose

Okay. We use the term less screen time, more green time. And you hit the nail on the head when you said one of the issues around screens. And that’s the place we’re using screens as part of our life. But of course, if we spend too much time in screen time, like everything else, there’s a cost. I guess the opportunity cost is that we’re starting to see sometimes with real life relationships, but also in the fact that we can feel always either fatigued or aroused, which doesn’t help. Spending time outside is really important. So, if you’re spending all your time in front of the screen, then you’re not relaxing in a way which gets rid of the cortisol. You’re not outside playing, you’re not outside doing this, you’re not also in a green environment.

 

Michael Grose

Our brain feels safe and green, our brain feels safe outside. So, we need to get kids outside into outside environments as much as we possibly can – either playing or not even doing much at all, just hanging. And we know that’s good for their mental health purely because the brain feels safe. It’s designed to be outside and it feels safe in those green outdoor environments. And I guess we always know that as well. We know that because anyone who’s gone out to the beach or gone into a forest and suddenly you walked through and you just relax. You go, “Wow. This is where I’m meant to be. This is fantastic.”

 

Tracey Challenor

And the Japanese have a term for it, don’t they? They call it forest bath.

 

Michael Grose

They do. It’s forest bathing. And the reason for that is that you can’t overturn 10,000 years of evolution in 100 years or 200 years. We’ve always lived outside. Our brains are designed to be outside. We actually feel safe around green. And so, just being outside and spending time outside is good for your mental health and well-being just in that very aspect. Don’t have to do too much. We also know that play is really important for kids’ mental health. And then again, sometimes the opportunity cost for spending too much time in front of screen is not having that opportunity to play. And when I say play, I don’t actually mean it doesn’t have to be a game, it doesn’t have to be a sport. It could actually be performance, it could actually be art, it could be anything which takes you away from yourself. It can be listening to music.

 

Michael Grose

And there’s three Ps to that aspect of play which I always keep in mind. And the first is it’s free. I chose it or a child chose it. No one made do it. So, for some kids, going to sports practise might not be play because their parents want them to go. It’s free, I choose to do it. I get lost in it. It’s all about flow. I’m involved in this game or I’m involved in this art work. I’m involved in whatever it is. And suddenly, mum’s turned around and said, “Come in for dinner.” And I go, “No, I’m having too much fun.” Which is the other F, it’s fun. We enjoy it. It’s enjoyable.

 

Michael Grose

Those three Fs about play: fun, free, and flow are really important for mental health. We all need it. We all need something in our lives, and we know that the opposite of play is depression. So, when you don’t have something like that in your life, you don’t have play in your life, often you’ve got problems. People often say, “Well, if the 3 Fs you just said, well, that describes lots of games on screens.” I guess so be it if that’s the case, but I think it’s really healthy to do things away from screens as well.

 

Tracey Challenor

Cos, as you’ve said, nature just has such a calming effect. It can really soothe those anxious feelings that the children and adults might be experiencing.

 

Michael Grose

Yes, that’s right. And that’s why when you said earlier on in the podcast what are some of the reasons that we’re more anxious? One of them is that we tend to spend less time in green environments and outdoor environments. My son and his family have lived in Sweden for a long time, and they’re a big believer in the green notion, the green time. And they have some fantastic strategies for mental health because they spend a lot of time inside. So, one of the strategies for Swedes and a lot of people in that part of the world I’ve noticed as well is they bring green inside. So, there’s lots of plants inside. They can’t have the garden outside as well, they have it inside, so they tend to green up their places as well. So, we don’t underestimate the fact.

 

Michael Grose

And I’ll let you in a little secret. I’ve started working from home two years ago, and the first thing I did when I moved into my office was to cut a window in front of me. And I’m looking at a beautiful tree now. I spend most of my working day when I’m inside my office, if I’m not in front of the screen, I just got to look up and I see this beautiful tree which just sits about two metres in front of me at the moment, beautiful trees, et cetera, beautiful leaves. But that’s a purposeful thing, that’s how much I believe about this notion of green. It makes us feel safe and it makes us feel, as I say, serene.

 

Tracey Challenor

Wow. How lovely. It sounds like a beautiful soothing view.

 

Michael Grose

 

It’s not bad, it’s not bad.

 

Tracey Challenor

Michael, what about the role of diet with anxiety? Our Life Education educators right around the country teach kids about how to have a healthy mind and body. What do we know about the link between poor nutrition or eating the wrong foods and anxiety and mental health problems?

 

Michael Grose

Yeah. I’m really pleased Tracey that Life Education really does focus on diet or one of the aspects is diet because it is so important when we look at anxiety. 90% of serotonin is produced in the gut. If you don’t have good gut health, you won’t produce serotonin which calms you down. So, part of the whole menu of helping kids. I call it not so much managing, but minimising the likelihood of anxiety is the fact that you got to eat well and make sure you have good gut health. Again, good gut health is around real foods. Less processed foods, low sugar.

 

Michael Grose

One of the reasons we got more anxiety around, and then one of the factors I mentioned earlier on is if you’re on a high sugar diet, your body doesn’t produce serotonin. Less sugar, more real foods. You even might look at the bread you give your kids. Wholemeal bread rather than white bread. So, it does really impact. Again, less processed foods, more real foods. Keep the water up because if your water isn’t up, then your body will go into distress. Again, anxiety is a little bit about stress. Your body will go into stress. So, plenty of water before kids need it and keep away from those sugar foods.

 

Tracey Challenor

Well, we’ve been talking about anxiety today. I read recently that something like two million Australians grapple with anxiety every year. You’ve described it as the common cold, I think, in your book. And obviously we’ve been living through extraordinary times on top of that. It is pretty hard when you’ve got to tell a child they can’t have a birthday party or their catch up with their friends is cancelled because of COVID, and lockdowns, and all the things we’ve been experiencing. What can parents do to help kids manage those disappointments? Particularly in the world that we’re living in at the moment?

 

Michael Grose

 

Yeah. That’s a really good point. We use the word resilience a lot and I’m hearing it again. We talked about resilience a lot for about 10 years. I mean, it drifted away a little bit, now it’s back. What do you mean by resilience? Resilience is the ability to bounce back from large difficulties. It is to put up with some of life’s difficulties, and also I think it’s to almost grow from some of the difficulties which we have. And resilience is made up of many different things, but one of them is that you need to have experienced some disappointments and some of the lesser aspects of life as well. So, I think in some ways, as a parent, we all want our kids to have everything that they want. But in some ways, if they get everything that I want all the time, then when the really difficult things happen like now, it doesn’t stand you in good stead.

 

Michael Grose

Lots of smaller hardships. I call them HFDs. Hardships, frustrations, and difficulties. The little hardships, and frustrations, and difficulties that kids face on a daily basis can stand them in good stead when the bigger things happen. So, I’d suggest we’re experiencing a big thing right now, and I also would suggest that missing out… and you’ve got to get across to your child that missing out on that important birthday party, in the big scheme of things, is not massive. And I think you’ve got to help your child get some perspective and see the bigger picture. Perhaps if you can make it up for them. But I’ve got to say that’s very much that part of life.

 

Michael Grose

And if there’s a positive about this coronavirus which I’m seeing, at the moment, I’m seeing two things happen. I’m seeing far more independent kids. I’m getting the word from a lot of schools as well that the kids are developing a little bit more independence because they’re dropped off at school, they’re not being picked up, they don’t have a parent walking them and carrying their bags. They’re carrying their own bags to school and they’re doing things. They’re a little bit more independent. And the other one is that a lot of kids are developing a little bit more resilience. The fact that they’re not always getting what they want, and they realise that that party, in the long-term scheme of things, isn’t that important.

 

Michael Grose

I understand also the fact that if you’ve missed three or four parties, the cumulative effect does impact as well. And I guess that’s where we as parents, we need to… I use a model from the Harvard University School for Child Development, and they’ve got a resilience model which they use in difficult times. Good times and difficult times. And I think it’s really useful to keep in mind in these difficult times. It’s a seesaw. And if you can imagine a seesaw with a fulcrum. On one end of the Seesaw, there’s three things we do as parents. Firstly, is see what you can do to reduce stresses for kids. Maybe they don’t have to do the dishes. Maybe there’s some things they don’t have to do. So, reduce some of the things which are the negative aspects which may stress them.

 

Michael Grose

The other side of it, so it’s at the other end of the seesaw, if you can imagine the other end of the seesaw is the positive end. It’s not so much compensate, but build up some of the positive elements. So, make life happy at home, make life good at home, do some special things for your kids at home to make up for some of the things that they missed out on. Not only does that teach them that you can compensate, you can actually do things so that you can focus on other things, but there’s always different mindsets. Put some positives in place as well when the negatives are happening. So, take away the negatives, put some positives in place.

 

Michael Grose

Then, if you can imagine the seesaw is sitting on a fulcrum underneath, we’ve got to move the fulcrum a little bit by giving kids the skills to cope. This is an opportunity to give your kids some of the skills which they need to self-regulate and to cope when things don’t go so well, and that will stand them in good stead later on. So, I think parents look at this as yep, it’s not great, but what can my child learn in these particular times? What tools can I give him? And what might they learn now which might help them to be more resilient children, young people, and even looking further ahead into adulthood?

 

Tracey Challenor

Michael, you’ve given us so many practical and helpful tools to help kids and adults as well deal with anxiety. We’ve talked about mindfulness, getting out in nature, connecting with your breath, the importance of exercise, simplifying the routine, cutting back on screen time, and diet. They’re all fantastic reminders. Particularly now with what we’ve all been going through. Thank you so much for being with me on the Life Education Parent Podcast today. It’s been fantastic chatting with you.

 

Michael Grose

Thanks, Tracey. Thanks for the opportunity. It’s something I think is really important. If I’ve got a mission, it’s the simple fact that we become a little bit more literate and develop our well-being literacy. So, I’m not expecting people, when they listen to this or read a book, to suddenly go, “Oh, I’ve got it solved.” But just gradually, over a period of time, build up your well-being literacy. And part of that is the moment with looking at anxiety and how we can help kids is just becoming a little bit better every day. Because when we know better, we do better, and I think that’s really important to remember that.

 

Tracey Challenor

Yeah. Great advice. Well, you’ve been hearing from Michael Grose, founder and director of the website Parenting Ideas, author and award-winning speaker. And if you’d like to know more about helping children deal with anxiety, check out Michael’s book with co-author Dr. Jodi Richardson, Anxious Kids: How Children Can Turn Their Anxiety Into Resilience. We also have blogs and the full transcript on the Life Education website, lifeeducationqueensland.org.au/podcast. I’m Tracey Challenor. I look forward to you joining me next time for the Life Education Parent Podcast.