Tips for Kid-Friendly Stress Busters

Mara Martin made headlines around the world after breast-feeding her then new-born daughter, Aria, on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit runway back in 2018. Since then, Mara has been using her voice and platform to be an advocate for women and moms around the world. 

Mara is taking over our Instagram as a part of her many collaborative efforts with Save the Children, an organization very near and dear to her heart. Mara acknowledges how deeply stressful and challenging the COVID-19 outbreak has been for all of us, and that practicing social distancing and self-quarantining might fall especially hard on parents with small children at home. That’s why Mara chose to share a stress-busting, super relaxing, little-ones-friendly exercise from Save the Children’s Health, Education through the Arts program (HEART). 

Mara’s exercise called “The Lemon” is perfect for all ages to enjoy and help relax! If you missed Mara’s explanation on our Instagram, don’t worry! Check out how you can practice “The Lemon” with your little ones below. 

HOW TO DO THE LEMON

Step 1: Start standing up or sitting on the floor. Ground yourself. Take a deep breath in, and let it all out. 

Step 2: Reach up to your pretend lemon tree and pick a lemon with each hand. Can you feel the lemons in your hands? Ask your kiddos to describe what their lemons look like. 

Step 3: Pretend you’re going to make a glass of lemonade – lemons can be hard to get all the juice out of! Make your hands into fists and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze! 

Step 4: Once you get all the juice out, throw your lemons on the floor! Relax your hands. 

Step 5: Repeat until you have enough “lemon juice” for a tall, cool glass of lemonade. 

Step 6: Notice how you feel! 

Be sure to capture you and your family doing “The Lemon!” Post your videos using the hashtag #StressBusters, and make sure to follow and tag @BlogHer and @SavetheChildren – we want to see you turn lemons into lemonade! 

Check out Save the Children’s site for even more stress-busters you can do with your family, as well as COVID-19 resources you can trust. Don’t miss Mara’s talk at #BlogHer20 Parenting on April 24th! Register for your free ticket to our first-ever digital event right here.