Body Awareness Activity

Body Awareness

This is one of three lessons in the Understanding Feelings section of EASE. It raises awareness of how anxiety shows up in the body.

Why teach this?

Physical symptoms of anxiety are more manageable and less distressing when they are understood.

Lesson outcome

Students will recognize that their bodies automatically react in ways meant to protect them when they feel anxiety. 

Lesson activator

Read a story or watch a video about the way anxiety feels in the body. Encourage students to make personal connections with the story. 

Suggested materials

• Grades K–3: Wilma Jean the Worry Machine, by Julia Cook; Listening to My Body, by Gabi Garcia; or a related book of your choice
• Grades 4–7: Video: Fight, Flight, Freeze: Anxiety Explained for Teens; Article: “How Your Body Protects You”

Hands-on learning

Ask students to create posters—individually or in small groups—that show where anxiety shows up in their bodies. Draw or paint a body outline and cut and paste words or pictures from magazines to show where and how they feel anxiety in their body. (A template is provided in the EASE lesson, which you can download when you complete EASE Online.)

Invite students to share their posters with the group, making note of the similarities and differences between them. Encourage older students to consider the reason for the sensation, thinking back to the fight-flight-freeze response described in the video and in the article.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash