No Space at the Playdoh Table-An Analogy in Anxiety

One of the favorite activity areas in my classroom is the playdoh table, where children can squeeze, squish, roll and pinch the colored salt dough to their hearts content. However, to maintain control and reduce the amount of fighting and playdoh that ends up on the floor, only six children can be at the playdoh table at one time. When the chairs are full, they need to choose another place to play. To help them remember, there are six brightly colored letters affixed to the table, and six chairs adjacent to those letters. There is also a timer that is set and children are taught that when the timer goes off, it is time to go play in a new area.

Recently, a child was determined to play at the full table no matter what! He would drag a chair over from another table, plop down and go to town! I explained to him that there was space for 6 chairs, each child was in a chair, there was not space for another chair. I showed him the timer, showed him how it was moving closer to zero, and when it rang he would be able to play there. But until he heard the timer, he needed to choose another place to play.

I tried to get him reengaged in a variety of activities- reading books, painting, block building, etc. but the second I turned my back he was back at the table with his chair, ready to play. This was repeated multiple times during a 10 minute period. Such creativity and persistence!

How does this relate to anxiety? While he was so focused on the playdoh, he missed out on a lot of other fun opportunities during that 10 minute wait! Such can be the case with my anxiety-I get so focused on worrying about a situation that I miss out on a lot of other good things while just waiting for things to play out. Just as the timer for playdoh goes off and the situation changes, so it is with anxiety situations. I was trying to think about a situation where my anxiety benefited me- and I couldn't think of a single one!

Anxiety happens-it can't ever be completely avoided. But may we all remember the things we could be missing while we are worrying! And just waiting for the timer to go off.....