The Dragon of Anxiety and Aquatic Education
As I said in the last episode, anxiety must be faced to be cured. Basically, as we see the Dragon, we must face it. Not run away from it. We must always explain this to the child and support him to be brave and overcome that moment of confronting imaginary fear.
Aquatic education and its role in child well-being
Aquatic education is the best exercise for training courage.
Fear, uncertainty, discomfort, worry… all are part of life and are steps in the child’s development towards the adult they will become. But anxiety contradicts normality and says “stop!” and “run!” Back to the Dragon’s prison. It’s safe there. And then the child gets stuck. He’s trapped. How does he escape from there?
Learning through action! If you want to learn to swim, the child will need to enter the water at some point. You can't let him lie on the carpet at home and move his arms and legs, pretend to sink and float and expect that when he jumps into the water he will know how to swim. He needs to face the water, have water enter his nose and mouth, feel the discomfort of the impact with the water, splash, feel the pressure of the water when he dives, face the fear, feel the joy and curiosity, the adrenaline, when he comes to the surface or when he goes to the bottom. The child needs to go from the fear that he doesn't know how to do something to the competence of becoming a master of that skill. This means overcoming fear, knowing how to face the Dragon.
Aquatic education gives him this precious skill that will be useful to him for the rest of his life: that of knowing how to recognize and overcome his anxieties that will always be present throughout his life. The dragon will say: "Don't try! It will end badly! You can't do this!", and the child will learn to respond by stepping into the unknown with great courage. Aquatic education is the best training in this regard, precisely through the extraordinary combination of attitude and action, helping the brain to learn and fix new experiences and create responses, to build self-esteem, independence, courage.
"The world is too much for us”. Here is the title of a poem written by William Wordsworth more than 200 years ago. Prophetically we could say, as we pile up in traffic, eat on the run and forget to enjoy nature. We are stressed. We work too much, we want to do too much, we go through pandemics and wars. And our children see us, they feel us. And we, for them, must be balanced. Let us know how to protect them from external stressors, those felt by us adults, but let us give them the necessary tools so that, when they are faced with them, they know how to manage them so that they do not reach anxiety. So that they do not become prisoners of the Dragon. Children must explore and experience the emotional states of new situations, of emotional and physical discomfort. Through aquatic education we give them the opportunity to experiment, becoming independent and discovering that ”"Here I am! I can do it without mommy and daddy! I can do it alone! I can!"
We know how difficult it is to be a parent of a child with anxiety. You are not alone. Anxiety is the number one reason parents take their children to psychologist. It is, on the other hand, also the easiest to treat. Anxiety, nerves, worries, are a normal part of life, with all its challenges and uncertainties. Helping your child manage their anxiety, befriending the Dragon, telling him "I'm not afraid of you. I respect you, but I won't let you control me anymore!"With every jump he makes in the water during our aquatic education classes, it is one of the most precious gifts you can give him."
Bibliography
- https://www.scribd.com/book/264131850/The-Anxiety-Cure-for-Kids-A-Guide-for-Parents-and-Children-Second-Edition
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- https://www.scribd.com/book/470110313/Anxiety-Workbook-For-Kids-Proven-Tools-To-Cure-Your-Kids-Paralyzing-Fear
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