Coping with Your Anxiety Outside of Therapy

Adult therapy can help you cope with a wide variety of negative feelings and emotions. One of the most common, as well as one of the most debilitating negative feelings, is anxiety. You can feel anxious in just about any type of environment, from a college classroom to a corporate boardroom. Although feeling anxious is one of life’s many obstacles, developing acute anxiety can destroy relationships, as well as inhibit professional growth.

Once you leave an adult therapy appointment, how do you cope with your anxiety outside of therapy?

What Are the Symptoms of Anxiety?

Anxiety does not produce the same symptoms for every client. However, feeling nervous represents one of the most common types of anxiety symptoms. You might feel nervous before taking a final examination or when the time comes to undergo a complex medical procedure. A distinct sense of pending doom is one of the more destructive symptoms of anxiety, as the negative outlook can make it difficult to complete the most mundane tasks. You might feel helpless, which is a common symptom that develops after going through a natural disaster. Physical symptoms of anxiety include sweating, trembling, and hyperventilating.

If your anxiety symptoms are considered serious, your therapist might recommend completing EMDR therapy.

Tips for Coping with Anxiety Outside of Therapy

When you exercise the body, you also exercise the brain, which is perhaps the most helpful tip for coping with anxiety outside of therapy. Developing an exercise routine reduces stress, which in turn enhances your mood. Make sure to start an exercise program slowly at first to develop both strength and stamina.

Say No to Drugs and Alcohol

Drugs and alcohol often exacerbate the symptoms of anxiety by triggering certain neurons in the brain. Controlled substances can generate negative emotions such as acute fear and paranoia. Drinking away anxiety only sweeps the negative feeling away for just a few hours. Once you sober up, the symptoms of anxiety return with a vengeance. If you cannot quit drinking or using drugs on your own, consult with a therapist to discover the best option for getting clean.

Significantly Reduce Caffeine Consumption

A couple of cups of coffee in the morning and a few glasses of tea at lunch keep you energized throughout the day. However, caffeine represents one of the most powerful triggers of anxiety symptoms, especially the symptom of feeling constantly nervous. Because caffeine can worsen anxiety symptoms, slowly wean yourself off caffeinated beverages before going cold turkey.

Get More Sleep

You cannot snap your fingers three times and automatically extend sleep time by a few hours. It is more about the quality of sleep than the quantity of sleep. To improve your sleep pattern, do not eat large meals at least four hours before bedtime. Because exercise makes you feel energized, do not perform rigorous, structured exercises at least six hours before you want to fall asleep. If you have trouble sleeping, discuss the issue with your healthcare provider.

The Bottom Line

You cannot expect to cope with anxiety outside of therapy unless you learn more about why you have developed anxiety symptoms. Discussing your anxiety with one of our experienced therapists can help you cope with stress and negative emotions.

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5 Simple Steps to Help Your Kindergarten Child Read at Home

Reading is an important academic development for private kindergarten students. But reading is not limited to school studies. The steps that parents take to assist children in achieving a fondness for reading are a continuation of the educational process that will pay off in the years to come.

1. Adequate Access

Providing a prepared environment for children is just as important at home as in the Montessori kindergarten. Even if you aren't able to provide a separate space, you can still do things such as putting a selection of appropriate reading material on the lower levels of a bookshelf, hanging pictures and artwork at your child's eye level and providing an area where everything is built to the scale of a child.

2. Practice Everywhere

The opportunity to read is all around us. Box labels, TV screens, and billboards are all opportunities for a child to practice reading, build a stronger vocabulary, and learn how language is entwined with everything they do. Practice helps children refine their skills, and often encourages them to read more.

3. Role Modeling

When your children observe you reading a book, they infer that reading is an appropriate activity. In fact, you may notice children imitating you by pretending to read books or magazines that are far above their reading ability solely because they have witnessed you reading the same material. When parents spend a little time each day reading with their kids it shows them that they are excited by reading as well.

4. Word Play

Reading begins with individual words, not full sentences. Play word games with your young children that introduce them to new words, and explore how the words are spelled, pronounced, and used in sentences. Simple games like Word of the Day are a good place to start and help children develop a strong vocabulary.

5. Let's Find Out

Children have a myriad of questions about everything from animals to why it rains, and each question is an opportunity to engage them in reading. Help your child look up the answers to their questions, and go over the answers with them. Once a child understands that books and words hold the answers to some of their most pressing questions, they will become more interested in using books and developing a larger vocabulary.

Childhood development is a long-term investment in children's futures-- and the communities in which they live. When parents take steps to assist the ability to read, the results are children who are more engaged in their own education and more interested in the magic and mystery found in books.

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5 Signs it's Time to Hire a Laundry Service

Whether to spend money or not to spend money on residential laundry services, that is the question that you face every month when the time comes to create a budget for the next 30 days. Saving money is the prudent goal, but what is the cost of washing and drying your clothes instead of allowing a team of professionals to do the job for you?

The answer is the five signs it’s time to hire a business that specializes in providing the highest quality of residential laundry services.

Damaged Clothes

The first time it happened, you chalked it up to bad luck. One of your favorite apparel came out of the wash cycle looking frayed around the edges. The second time it happened you started to wonder if washing and drying your clothes at home caused irreparable damage such as discoloration and the creation of permanent stains.

Despite following washing and drying instructions closely, doing your own laundry has left you with fewer apparel options because of the damage caused by your apparel-cleaning appliances.

Out of Time

Because of the time it takes to clean your clothes properly, you notice that you either consolidate loads into one cycle or do not wash and dry certain apparel to avoid putting your clothes through more than one wash and dry cycle. Doing your own laundry does not require developing a set of specialized skills, but it does require you to set aside a significant amount of time to complete the chore.

Delegating the responsibility of washing and drying clothes frees up more of your time to take care of more important responsibilities.

Higher Utility Bills

You did not notice the increase at first, but after a few months, your monthly utility bills started to increase because of the demand for water and electricity. Although you have considered outsourcing your laundry needs to be cost-prohibitive in the past, the fact remains that you save money by decreasing the number of times you use the washer and dryer. The result of outsourcing your laundry is a substantial decrease in the cost of utility bills.

Specialized Services

Doing your own laundry made sense when you did not need to dry clean clothes that require a more delicate approach to washing and drying more formal apparel. Whether it is a new job or the purchase of apparel for special occasions, you now need to treat some of your clothes with a much more delicate washing and drying approach.

Residential laundry services that include dry cleaning ensure you treat apparel such as silk shirts and blouses with the utmost care.

Appliances Start to Break Down

Despite the best intentions, your apparel has a limited lifespan. The same principle applies to the appliances you use to clean your clothes. From the first rumble heard from a washing machine to the dryer declining in efficiency, the time to turn to the professionals that provide residential laundry services has arrived.

The less you run your laundry appliances, the longer you have to use the appliances.
The Bottom LineYou can wait until you notice the five signs it’s time to hire a laundry service or be proactive by taking your clothes to a business that keeps your clothes smelling fresh and looking in mint condition. Take action today by outsourcing your laundry needs to Laundry Care Express.

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5 Ways to Reduce the Stress of Dropping Off Your Preschooler at School

Since birth, preschool children have spent the majority of their time with a parent or guardian. When they are dropped off at preschool, new and unfamiliar people are added to their daily calendar, and many children react by crying or clinging to their parents. If you are having problems of this sort, try a couple of these methods of reducing stress and promoting a peaceful transfer from one role model to another.

1. Establish a Morning Routine

Montessori preschool children perform better in all aspects of development when they have consistent routines. Morning routines include things like getting dressed, having breakfast, brushing teeth, and preparing a book bag. Following these routines accomplishes several tasks, from encouraging wakefulness to helping children become more organized.

2. An Apple For Teacher

A daily or weekly gift for the teacher gives your child a reason to look forward to arriving at school. It doesn't have to be an apple, and a small bit of artwork is often a better choice. After all, if every child brought an apple a day, the school would be full of apples before the first month was done.

3. Avoid Lingering and Rushing Off

Two common mistakes when dropping children off at school are to either wait around trying to alleviate the stress or rushing away without a proper-- and considerate-- send-off. The best method is to arrive early enough to share some encouraging conversation, then say your farewells and leave the child in competent hands.

4. Create Excitement Before You Arrive

Instilling a sense of excitement and anticipation helps divert a child's attention away from being left alone in a relatively unfamiliar environment. Talk about the way she enjoys doing things with her school friends. Remind her of the fun she has had on previous days. The more her thoughts are centered around the positive aspects of being at school, the less she will rebel against the idea of not having her parents nearby.

5. From One Role Model To Another

For shy children, the best solution to being dropped off may be the actual act of transferring trust from yourself to the school staff. Take your son by the hand and walk him through offering his teacher a morning greeting. His teacher has a busy schedule early in the morning, so make your conversation brief, but be sociable enough that your child understands his teacher is a trusted adult that is on your side and his.

In most situations, the stress of parental separation is a fleeting response. Within a couple of minutes of the parent leaving, those children have found something to interest them, or become engaged with other children in some playful activity. Keeping the stress of being dropped off limited in duration helps them acclimate more quickly, and that benefits everyone involved.

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5 Ways That Gross Motor Skills Affect Middle School Classroom Success

There are two skill sets involved in the proper development of young bodies and minds. The first is the category of fine motor skills necessary for manipulating objects and begins at birth. The second is the area of gross motor skills, an area that is developing continuously from preschool through elementary school and beyond. It may surprise you, but developing gross motor skills goes even further, promoting a healthier, more capable child who is able to consider possibilities and consequences as well as the absorption of a myriad of academic information in the process.

1. Connecting Health and Learning

In Montessori middle school, gross motor skills are necessary for running, jumping, climbing, and throwing. They are also necessary for the proper development of bones and muscles. Research has shown that the exercise needed to develop these skills also promotes better health in general and cardiovascular functions in particular. Consequently, promoting better health results in children who are better able to concentrate, have a higher retention rate.

2. Social Skills

Since most methods of developing gross motor skills involve playing of one sort or another, the process also develops the skill sets necessary for interacting with their peers. From learning the art of sharing to developing diplomatic skills, the practice of developing gross motor skills has a tremendous impact on social skills as well.

3. Emotional Reinforcement

Becoming more adept at performing tasks like catching or kicking a ball builds a sense of self-esteem that children must have to become confident students. Physical activity is also a great way for children to learn to do tasks independently, and that sort of self-reliance is a primary goal of the Montessori Method.

4. Academic Enthusiasm

As mentioned, physically exerting themselves is beneficial for classroom retention and focus, but activity can be used to teach academic skills as well. Math, vocabulary, and science can all be easily incorporated into physical activities, for example. This is a major reason why Maria Montessori considered hands-on activity to be a critical part of childhood education.

5. Critical Thinking Through Activity

Hands-on activities help children develop the skills to make effective decisions, compare options, and solve problems. Montessori education is devoted to total child development, so building important intellectual skills while developing physically and emotionally is an appropriate course of action.

With properly developed gross motor skills, children work on almost every aspect of their development. Physical exercise is necessary for kids to be well-coordinated, build stamina, and teach children to perform practical actions to achieve desired goals.

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