Day 12 Make your own sensory tool box

Foreign welcome to day 12 sensory heroes. So today we're going to talk about making your sensory toolbox. Because this is all about, this whole week is all about you. So it's about how we can keep ourselves calm, which is going to help the child stay more calm. Right? So your toolbox is going to be a list of things and you could literally have some items in a little box somewhere, like go to items. But it's going to have some things that you know will help bring your nervous system back to that green zone, back to being more calm if you feel it going up, like into that yellow zone. So you might have things in all of these areas or just some. But some areas to think about are things for your mouth. The oral things that we do are, are actually, they're things that last our whole lifetime. So we are always doing things with our mouth, whether we're chewing on things or using a straw or you know, like gum, straw, ice. I'm like an ice bad for my teeth, but I always like chomping on ice. That's always something I've done. Obviously I need like proprioception, chewing gum, maybe a hard candy, but just things that will just have you use that oral input that can be very centering and very calming. You can even just do things like have a reminder to put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth. That's very calming and very centering. So you also want to include things that consider things that are movement oriented, especially if it gets the oxygen going back up to your brain because that will help you expend the, the stress out of your body and help you get back into a more calm state. So even just a quick couple of yoga poses, like a downward dog or a, a warrior pose or just stand on one foot, just something that kind of requires you to get into your body and out of your head. Will really help a lot if you can go for whatever makes you feel good. Like if you're, if you like going for a walk or a run or swim. Personally, I like to go kaying as much as I can. But if I'm, if I'm just like in the middle of my day and I have nowhere to go and I'm just like feeling that stress, I, I will actually like stop and do some sit ups or push ups real quick. Just something to like pump the oxygen through my body and then I, it resets me. Another thing to consider are tactile things. So I know for me for the longest time I always had to have like A shower in my face to wake me up in the morning. Not so well. I didn't know I had sleep apnea like all my life, but now I don't need that. But before, like I did not wake up unless I had like a pounding shower in my face. Might be something like a soft blanket that you wrap around or a weighted blanket. You something that you like to fidget with. So any kind of fidget toy. Just adults really enjoy all these things too. One of my friends has like a little piece of putty that she always just has nearby. I realize I've always fid. Fidgeted. I'll fidget with the seams on my clothing and my zippers and, you know, my hair. Or I've always touched everything and fidgeted all the time. I can just hear my mom saying, stop touching everything because I just have touch everything. So the next area is things to look at. Using your visual system to calm. A really easy one I do all the time is even if I'm inside, I'll look up at the sky and just kind of watch the clouds. Because the clouds are always kind of moving and changing really slowly. And it just kind of always makes my body feel really relaxed. Even. Even better if I step outside. But I'll do that especially if I'm getting disregulated in the middle of my workday. I'll take a minute and I'll just kind of go look at the sky. And that always works for me. And of course, lowering the lights helps a lot. We do that with the kids all the time. But it helps for us grownups too if you have something calming to look at, like a fish tank that's really great. Or. Or just those little oil and water type toys or lava lamp or just anything that just kind of has that slow moving. Even bubbles. Bubbles are great there. There's something just so calming about looking at a bubble. And then of course you have your auditory system that you can do things to help reset your nervous system. Playing. Sometimes it's playing like a loud rock song is what's gonna like, you know, rock it out a little bit and then you're gonna feel better. Or maybe it's that you need to listen to something super calming, some classical music. I always thought it was funny. One of my past receptionists that worked for me, she had a lot of auditory sensitivity. But oddly enough, like her way of resetting was just to go crank up the tunes really loud and just head banging music like loud rock. And that somehow reset her. But I think it was just like the random noise at the clinic where just that heavy drum beat is what kind of like, reset her nervous system. There's no right or wrong. It's like, what. What works for you. But as you're tuning into yourself and what works for you, make yourself a little. If there are items that can be put in, like, a little bag or a box or something, do that. Or even if what we do a lot with the kids is we'll make a little, like, a little sheet that has pictures on it of. So that they just have a visual aid. Like, oh, yeah, I can take my deep breaths, or I can go get a fidget, or I can go get my weighted blanket. But especially if you can kind of find your top three or four and then have. Have some kind of visual things so that when you're in that yellow zone, you have that trigger like, oh, I can do this. And it helps me feel more relaxed. So that's how you make your own little sensory toolkit. And I'll be interested in. In hearing a little bit about what you have in your. In your kit, all right?