Sponge Squeezer

SPONGE-SQUEEZING THOUGHT BUSTER

Have your child imagine their body is a sponge, and that their body can absorb thoughts and feelings that are helpful as well as ones that aren’t.
Help them recall an unhelpful thought and the uncomfortable feeling they often battle. For example, “This is a horrible day. I feel so sad” or “My sister always gets me in trouble. I feel really mad.”
Take a big sponge and place it in a water bucket. Encourage your child to squeeze all of the water out of their sponge by using both hands. Let them know that as they’re squeezing out all that water from the sponge, they’re also squeezing all of the unhelpful thoughts and uncomfortable feelings out of their body and mind.
Invite them to fill the sponge with water and squeeze it out again (and again, if needed) until they’ve got all the water out of the sponge and the entire thought (and the sad, mad, scared or anxious feelings that went with it) is out of their body. It’s okay if it’s not completely gone.
Help your child imagine a helpful thought and a more comfortable feeling they’d like to bring into their mind and body instead.
Have your child imagine the thought and feeling as a colour, then use natural food colouring to magically turn a glass of water into drinkable thoughts and feelings for that colour.