Children's Mental Health Week-Mindful Monday
We start the week with ‘Mindful Monday.’
Mindfulness is a technique you can learn which involves making a special effort to notice what's happening in the present moment (in your mind, body and surroundings) – without judging anything. It has roots in Buddhism and meditation, but you don't have to be spiritual, or have any particular beliefs, to try it. It aims to help you:
• become more self-aware
• feel calmer and less stressed
• feel more able to choose how to respond to your thoughts and feelings
• cope with difficult or unhelpful thoughts
• be kinder towards yourself.
Many people find practising mindfulness helps them manage their day-to-day wellbeing/
What exercises can I try today?
- Mindful eating. This involves paying attention to the taste, sight and textures of what you eat. For example, when drinking a cup of tea or coffee you could focus on how hot and liquid it feels on your tongue, how sweet it tastes or watch the steam that it gives off
- Mindful moving, walking or running. Notice the feeling of your body moving. You might notice the breeze against your skin, the feeling of your feet or hands against different textures on the ground or nearby surfaces, and the different smells that are around you.
- Body scan. This is where you move your attention slowly through different parts of the body, starting from the top of your head moving all the way down to the end of your toes. You could focus on feelings of warmth, tension, tingling or relaxation of different parts of your body.
- Mindful colouring and drawing. Focus on the colours and the sensation of your pencil against the paper, rather than trying to draw something in particular. You © Mind 2018 4 could use a mindfulness colouring book or download mindfulness colouring images.
- Mindful meditation. This involves sitting quietly and focusing on your breathing, your thoughts, sensations in your body and the things you can hear around you. Try to bring your focus back to the present if your mind starts to wander. Many people also find that yoga helps them to concentrate on their breathing and focus on the present moment. See our page on types of alternative and complementary therapy for more information meditation and yoga. Different things work for different people, so if you don’t find one exercise useful, try another. You can also try adapting them so that they suit you and are easier to fit in with your daily life.
Some more resources for Mindful Monday.
https://www.mind.org.uk/media-a/2891/mindfulness-2018.pdf - This has a wonderful range of activities and ideas for ‘Mindful Monday’
https://www.oxfordmindfulness.org/learn-mindfulness/resources/ - Provides fantastic meditation and mindfulness breathing videos
https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/a-z-mental-health/- An essential A-Z resource for Mental Health
https://www.mind.org.uk/media-a/2891/mindfulness-2018.pdf - This has some wonderful ideas for ‘Mindful Monday’
https://www.justcolor.net/ - Discover our 1,500+ Free Colouring pages to download in PDF or to print : various themes, artists, difficulty levels and styles
Email your daily pictures and completed activity sheets to your Heads of House:
Churchill (Mr Darby)- MDA@northbromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk
Attenborough (Miss Shipman)- FSH@northbromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk
Rowling (Mr Kimberlin)- AKI@northbromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk
Earhart (Miss Travers)- KTR@northbromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk
Follow NBHS Wellbeing on our Twitter page @nbhswellbeing for daily support and information about positive mental health and wellbeing.
