For a quick way to alleviate tension, try this Tense / Relax sequence for children & adults …
As children are often little bundles of energy its always helpful to move through a tense & relax muscle releasing sequence if you want to read them a guided relaxation or to just help them sleep. It’s fantastic for kids with ADHD, active teenagers & adults who find it hard to shut off their minds as it helps us get back in touch with our bodies. It is a bit like giving yourself a massage from within.
Method –
Firstly, lie down on the floor on your back. Make sure you are comfortable & warm. As you inhale & exhale, tense & release muscles in different areas in your body, working from the feet all the way up to the head. You can also act as a facilitator & guide someone through this process, for example :
”As you ‘breathe in’ tighten all the muscles in your legs .. make them strong & hard .. hold your breath as you squeeze them & then as you ‘breath out’ let them relax & soften into the floor / mattress / support below”.
This should only take a few minutes as you go through each major body part, including the facial muscles, & then finish with one big squeeze as every single muscle in the body is activated at once. For very restless children, you can go through this again moving in the opposite direction from the head back down to the feet. At the end of this, you or your child will be relaxed enough to move into the next stage of relaxation hopefully even sleep…