The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by a SOVA Ambassador. SOVA Ambassadors help create meaningful blog posts for us to share.
There are days when anxiety can’t be overlooked or ignored. Often times it’s understood that if you have anxiety then you can’t sit still or think “straight” for more than a few minutes at a time. Anxiety also has the tendency to surface and show itself in more ways than one. You might feel more anxious and upset one day while feeling more sad and isolated the next. Either way, it’s important for you to know that you are not alone and there are ways to distract yourself when feeling overly anxious.
Personally, one of my favorite things to do when I’m feeling more anxious than usual is to engage in game-play. I’m a huge fan of video games and have since come to enjoy downloading and playing different games on my smartphone.
Did you know there are many games in the “app store” that are great for reducing anxiety and stress? One anxiety-reducing game that I’m fond of playing is “Polyforge.”
This game was created through Unity Technologies (a major game development company) and uses 3-D game technology to give players an amazing experience. While playing through level 1, you’ll notice that there’s a 3-D shape spinning around in a circle. Your job is to highlight the edges and sides of this shape with the small triangle that flows around the spinning shape. Piano music is also played in as background music and to add emphasis when the player hits the edges of each shape with their triangle marker. I am currently on level 60 (and am enjoying the soothing music as well)!
Every day we experience emotions and sometimes they take our bodies and minds into directions we hadn’t planned to go. But they are part of being a human. So what can we do? Luckily there are some tools you can show your child and together, you can use these tools to help regulate these emotions.
![IMG_6624[1]](https://wisesova.pitt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_66241-300x114.png)
