Have you ever been in the grocery store and you turn down the cereal aisle to see a child in full breakdown mode? They want that box of cereal instead of the one their mom just picked out.

All you feel is sympathy for the mom, and you kinda just wish the child would calm down. Well, you are not alone in that. The mom is dying inside and thinking of everything they could do to calm their child down without giving into their demands.

With today's technology it seems our children are being constantly bombarded with information and stressors. It's no wonder that so many of our children are suffering anxiety.

I'm always on a lookout for ways to calm children down. I think that if they can learn coping exercises when they are young, they will be able to get through life with much less anxiety, allowing them to accomplish anything they put their minds to.

Recently I stumbled across a website that gave great advice for calming children down.

The teddy bear trick

For this trick you don't necessarily have to use a teddy bear - really any object will do, but most children like stuffed animals.

1. Have your child lie down and put the bear on their tummy. If you are in public, they can do it standing. Make sure you are eye level so your child knows you care that they are doing their breathing exercise.

2. While you count to three, have them breathe in through their nose and watch the bear rise as they inhale.

3. Then count to three while they exhale. Let them watch the bear lower as the air leaves their lungs.

4. Repeat at least five times. Keep repeating until you feel like they have really calmed down.

You can call this stuffed animal their breathing buddy, and the next time they get upset, simply ask them if they need their breathing buddy to calm down before you continue the conversation.

There are health benefits to breathing deeply

They will now have a great way to calm down when they are getting stressed. And it's something they can do for the rest of their life. There are great benefits to breathing deeply that anyone at any age could use.

In fact, you can do it alongside them if you are getting too stressed - that way you are both getting the benefits of breathing deeply. According to The Nourished Life, there are five benefits of breathing deeply - your muscles relax, oxygen delivery improves, blood pressure lowers, endorphins are released and detoxification improves.

The best part about using a breathing buddy is that you and your child can see what breathing deeply looks like. You can watch your body get more oxygen. Getting more oxygen to your body will give you so many health benefits, which in turn helps you to be able to cope with stress better.