If you suspect that your child has anxiety because they exhibit a lot of fear and worry, this episode of Soaring Child will help you identify ways to alleviate that anxiety in their body and mind.

Jess Sherman is a family health educator who helps parents ease their children's anxiety and improve their learning and stress tolerance. She is a certified teacher, a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, and the author of Raising Resilience.

The latest statistics show us that we are in a national crisis when it comes to mental health. Research has shown that anxiety is directly related to the body and its nutrition. The more resilient a child's body is when stressors come, the less affected they are by anxiety.

It starts with biology and nutrition -- kids need the nutritional building blocks (whole foods) to create neurotransmitters and allow their hormones to heal. They also need to learn skills and tactics to bring their nervous system back into a calm state so that they can think rationally. It's also important to retrain neural pathways in a child's brain to help shift a nervous system back to a different state of being than anxiety.

Parents should also look at the way they attend to their own health and stress load to break those cycles of stress and anxiety that get passed down to children. When parents can center themselves and make themselves healthy, their children will benefit.

Key Takeaways:

[3:50] Why American children are suffering a mental health crisis

[6:16] Why different kids react differently to stress and anxiety

[8:34] Why having a resilient body is important

[9:25] The vicious cycle of stress and anxiety and how to break it

[11:34] Why kids need biological resources and nutrition to fight anxiety

[12:49] Why kids need skills, tools, and tactics to fight anxiety

[13:14] Retraining neural pathways to fight anxiety

[17:06] Identifying the triggers of stress

[20:00] Behavioral signals as a symptom of stress

[21:32] How to deal with picky eaters

[25:34] Importance of amino acids

[32:23] How parents' reactions to stress can affect kids' reactions

How To Connect With Jess Sherman:

https://www.jesssherman.com/

https://www.jesssherman.com/RaisingResilience

https://www.jesssherman.com/blog

Memorable Quotes:

"When I got into nutrition, that's when my mind exploded. Anxiety is about how the body is receiving stress and it makes all the difference. And so what are the factors inside the body that make or break that stressful experience?"

"There's so much we can do to improve the resilience of the body so that when the stressors come, they land differently on that more resilient body. A child can actually grow from that stress rather than getting crippled by it."

"Kids get stuck in a vicious cycle -- their biological stress leads to their psychological stress, which is affecting the environment around them, which is affecting their biology, which is affecting their social skills. They're just stuck in this cyclone."

"When a nervous system is really primed to be in an anxious state, then a child will get stuck in that stress response. Retraining neural pathways can really help shift a nervous system back to a different state of being. So the three elements are the biological piece, the skills and tools and tactics, and retraining pathways."

"When the body is in a state of inflammation, these other tactics can't work as well as they should."

"If you want to ease anxiety, ADHD, mood disorders and depression, your child needs to be eating, sleeping, and pooping."

"Pandemic research has shown that a child's response to anxiety is tied to their caregivers' response. So the more calm, cool and collected their caregivers have been, the better the kids are faring."

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