Activities

Here are some coping activities you can try on your own or with others who care about you. These videos were made for adults to help support children in processing thoughts and feelings. However, from young to old; children to grown-ups, these activities can be useful for people of all ages. Hope you find them helpful.

Bubble Breaths
In this activity, we make bubbles in our hands with soap and water and take big belly breaths to blow the bubbles. This activity can be helpful to do on a daily basis at home as a way to have our bodies relax so when difficult moments happen during the day we are more able to get through with increased hopefully patience.

Belly Breathing
We will lay on the floor, put our favourite toy on our bellies and take deep belly breaths. As we breathe in, we will expand our stomach; filling it full or air (not just pushing out our stomachs), which will make our toys rise.  Then as we exhale, we get rid of all the air in our bellies and let the toy fall back down. 

The purpose of this activity is to try a healthy way to reduce anxiety and feel more grounded. Slow belly breathing can reduce our heart rate and help us more easily access the front part of our brain which is sometimes harder to access when we are feeling overwhelmed.

Coping Catcher
In this craft, we use paper to decorate, fill it in various coping activities that help us feel better and then fold up the paper to create a hopefully fun tool to decide on what coping activity we could try.

Super Muscles Exercise
This is a super fun Progressive Muscle Relaxation for both young and old. Get silly! Get goofy! Make it your own 🙂 This exercise can help relax our bodies which can help relax our brains.

Feelings Mask
There are some feelings we feel safe to share with everyone and some feelings we only share with people we trust. Try this fun art activity and think of the people in your life that you can trust to talk to about your thoughts and feelings. If you cannot think of 1 person, you can call Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868. They are always there to listen

Beach-Ball-Of-Emotions
This fun and interactive game can be played together with friends, family, or anyone else that supports you in your life. Sometimes it can be lots of fun to talk about our feelings together.

Thoughts Box
Sometimes the worst part about struggling with a problem is the super unhelpful thoughts that can get in our way. One way to train your brain to problem solve faster, simpler, and calmer, is by getting rid of your stinking thinking and replacing unhelpful thoughts with helpful thoughts. Remember: PRACTICE MAKES… MUCH MUCH BETTER. Every time you replace an unhelpful thought with a helpful thought, you train your brain and reprogram it to become a much better buddy for you as you tackle the tough stuff.

The Best Place EVER!!! Painting
Think of a place that you feel safe… a magical place… a place you feel completely at peace with pure joy.

What does it look like? A forest? A beach? A lavender lake?

What would you want it to sound like? Ocean waves? Soft piano? Horses trotting?

What would you want it to smell like there? Tangerines? Peppermint?

What are the most comfortable things that you can think of to touch that would be awesome if they were there? Soft pillows? Cozy sweatpants? Cuddly animals?

What tastes would you hope would be there? Giggles (that grow on trees)? Salad? Mint chocolate chip ice cream on top of a fresh chocolate-dipped waffle cone?

Sounds good to me! And so does painting. Try this fun painting activity to focus on the wonderful things that bring you joy.