Stress Management Skills For All Ages

In a recent FAC post, we explored what stress is and how it differs from anxiety, with specific mindfulness-based approaches for managing food allergy-related stress. But there's no one perfect way to manage stress! It's important for everyone to find strategies that work specifically for them - and this takes trial and error to determine.

Therefore, in an effort to help you better understand your own stress and decide which stress management tools to put in your toolbox, this post offers a variety of videos with different strategies for you to consider. Additionally, it includes skills to teach your kiddos and share with your teens so they also learn how to cope with stress, too!

(While these aren't allergy-specific, they will help with allergy-related stress...and are useful in other areas of life as well).

Stress Management Skills for Kids

• 2-minute story: Little Monkey Calms Down [early childhood age]

• Read-Aloud Video: "Keep Calm: My Stress Busting Tips" by Gina Bellisario [best for elementary age and older]

• 7-minute video explaining stress, physical and emotional responses to it, and simple strategies for coping with it  [best for upper elementary and older]
  

Stress Management Skills for Teens

• 5-minute video with quick tips to unwind and help manage stress 

• 3-minute video with practical stress management tips [especially helpful for older teens and young adults]

• Ted-X Youth Talks - Stress & its impacts on teens [especially helpful for older teens and young adults]

• Ted-X Youth Talks - Stress at school [especially helpful for older teens and young adults]
  

Stress Management Skills for Adults

• Quick Stress Release: Anxiety Reduction Skill

• 6 Daily Habits to Reduce Stress & Anxiety [useful for young adults, too]

• 7 Simple Science-Backed Tips for Reducing Your Stress 

• Ted Talk: How to Make Stress Your Friend (a similar approach to Tamara Hubbard's "Befriend Your Allergy Anxiety" approach - free webinar here)
  

Stress Management For Parents & Families

• When a Child Has a Chronic Illness: Tips for Managing Family Stress

• Ted-X Talk: Compassion Fatigue & Caregiver Stress [easily applies to parenting kids with chronic allergic conditions]
  

Want more empowering allergy life tips like this emailed directly to you? Subscribe to receive "food allergy counselor corner" emails!

And don't forget about ALL of the FAC resources there to support you!

• Allergy counseling information for patients, therapists, allergists

• Find an allergy-informed therapy provider - most offering telehealth

• Listen to podcast episodes offering practical and relatable guidance

• Watch (and listen to) webinars and podcast interviews

• Explore allergy-focused behavioral health resources

• Learn mindset strategies from allergy-specific therapeutic worksheets

• Connect with other allergy-informed therapy providers!