Nurturing Children to Thrive

In honour of Children’s Mental Health Week, we hosted a cross company event with the  Happy Confident Company

We discussed the all important topic of the state of Children’s Mental Health and practical tools and habits to nurture happy confident children.

2000 people registered to join and the chat was overflowing.

Here is a recording

Here is a link to a summary of the chat.

It is incredibly moving to read the concerns parents shared, along with tips and key questions.

Here is a link to further resources to support your child’s emotional wellbeing.

Some key takeaways:

Children need to connect with their emotions and acknowledge them

Encourage children to feel more in control of their lives.

How you can do this?

1. Spend 2/3 minutes a day breathing, this helps connect to emotions and brings thoughts into the present. Caress palms or touch fingers which will help connect with calming systems in the body and will ground your child.
2. Start the day with positive intentions and affirmations, e.g.  ‘I choose to be confident today’ This will  train the brain to be more conscious and more likely to achieve their goals.
3. Journaling – allowing your child to write down how they feel at the end of each day, is an opportunity for self reflection and expression of emotions.
4. Acknowledge feelings by naming emotions ‘I hear you are afraid and how can I help you?’
5. Give you child agency by asking what they want to feel – this helps move into thinking about more positive feelings and thoughts and finding strategies to go from one state of mind to another.
6. Replace commands with questions e.g.‘ What are you supposed to do before you go to bed?’ If they make a mistake ‘what are you going to do about this?’  This helps children feel a sense of responsibility and control.
7. Let them feel in control by giving options.