No matter your age, it is common for most people to experience periods of poor mental health. It can happen to children, especially as they grow up and go through education.
Don’t worry if your child has poor mental health experiences as it is possible to help them regain their happiness and sense of positive well-being.
Whether you wish to support a child with anxiety or help a child improve their overall mental health, use these tips to help enhance your child’s well-being.
Try youth counselling
Using youth counselling can help to improve a child’s mental health. Being able to talk to like-minded youths and understand that others go through similar issues will help them seek comfort and feel the need to talk about their experience.
Although they might want to reject the offer to use counselling, it is important to encourage them to go so they can seek the good in the experience.
Practice and encourage “being yourself”
Another great way to help your child enhance their well-being is to be and practice the art of “being yourself”. First, this will begin with you showing them your true colors and proving it is good to be who you are and want to be. It is important that people, especially children, do not fall into a trap of being someone that others want them to be. If they lose the sense of who they are as a child, it can be a vicious cycle as they get older.
Therefore, it is essential to encourage them to be who they truly are are they grow up. Showing that everyone has good and bad characteristics will help a child feel comfortable in their skin and understand they cannot be perfect.
They will understand and respect how they can bring uniqueness to the world.
Help them be more mindful
Everyone can benefit from being mindful. It allows us to practice gratitude and find more joy in life’s simple pleasures. The more grateful your child is, the better their well-being can be.
They might not understand what it means to be mindful. They might not know the art of mindfulness or know how to practice it. Hence, it is good to show them.
Seeing as a child’s mind can get busy and over-excited quickly, it might be more difficult showing them how to be mindful than an adult. Yet, it is possible with patience and perseverance.
There are various ways you can show and teach a child to be mindful. The best way is to practice mindfulness techniques yourself and get involved. For example, you might enjoy walks in nature and morning meditations as it resets and focuses your mind. Hence, you can ask them to join in and in time, they might enjoy the art of mindfulness and appreciate the benefits it offers to their well-being.
Practicing mindfulness with a child will allow them to practice and maintain calmness, which is wonderful for their physical and mental health.
Teach them that it is ok to fail
Nobody is perfect and everyone will experience failure in their lifetime. It is important to teach a child that it is ok to fail from a young age so that they maintain pride and do not hinder their mental health when they make mistakes. Teaching them that mistakes happen for a reason – as it helps us learn – will encourage them not to be afraid to make mistakes.
The less guilt and self-doubt a child feels, the more confident they can be, which is great for enhancing well-being.
Reduce technology time
Although children are growing up surrounded by technology (and it can sometimes be a great way to keep them happy and quiet), it will not do much good for their well-being and mental health. The more reliant they become on technology, the worse they will feel without it. Hence, by reducing their technology time and increasing their physical socializing and playful time, the more they will feel more calm and confident in real-life situations.
All it can take is reducing TV time in the evening to one hour instead of two and asking everyone to put their phones away one hour before bed. The fewer time people spend on technology, the better their physical and mental health can be. It can reduce eye strain, encourage better sleep, and reduce stress. Hence, ensuring children spend the least time on technology at a young age will help to improve and maintain a good sense of well-being.