EDITING THE ‘SCARY MOVIE’
… IN YOUR HEAD!

Are you scared of something that you wish you weren’t? When we are scared of something, our brain goes into overdrive and makes our heart beat faster, the muscles in our body go tense, and we stop being able to think clearly.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could retrain our brain so we can respond differently when we face something we were scared of?

This technique is like editing a movie. Let’s say you were really scared of spiders. Play a movie clip in your head of a time when you saw a spider and felt scared.

Now edit this movie, playing it over and over again making new changes each time.

Edit The Scary Movies In Your Head
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Try putting in a funny soundtrack behind the movie clip – perhaps like the music you would find in a cartoon.

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Now try adjusting the colour – either turn it black and white or make it bright and crazy colours!

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How about giving the spider a funny voice — and making it say something really silly?

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You could turn it into a cartoon character, or make it really big or really small so it looks ridiculous in your movie.

Health and wellbeing mental exercise for kids

Try playing this version of the mind-movie clip regularly to yourself and, over time, your brain will start to react very differently to spiders.  You will have retrained your brain to stop seeing spiders as scary.

You could use this “Editing The Scary Movie In Your Head” technique for anything you are scared of!