When you feel the need for something to calm your child’s (or your own!) body and mind, then trying these few poses, or even just one, can help you to relax and unwind. They are also a great way to calm your children in certain times of the day, such as bedtime, when a gentle way to lower their levels of physical and emotional arousal is greatly beneficial. 

The mental health of children is becoming an increasingly worrying topic which although being spoken about, I am evermore concerned with what is actually being done to support these children, or prevent them from developing these issues in the first place.  

In this revealing and emotional BBC Panorama, ‘Kids In Crisis’ takes us through the process that many children and families are having to go through.

We love Yoga Pretzels as a mindful activity for children. Research shows that yoga benefits children greatly when it comes to easing stress, anxiety and pressure. It’s also a great activity they can do with friends and parents! Don’t take it from us, hear about it from them!

Mindfulness activity for kids: We love this activity that Greg Graber, Director of SEL and Mindfulness at Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis provided to us called, "Teddy Bear Belly Breathing."

The aim of the tool is simple, it is about the way you use certain language which instantly takes blame away from your child and allows you model calm emotional responses through talking about how you feel.

I wrote this letter to my son on 8 February, 2017, before our journey from Seattle to London. I wanted to write down how I was feeling, as well as have something to look back on and remember. Our time here has been and is absolutely amazing and I'm so happy we did it! Who knows what the future holds, but in the meantime, I thought this would be a good time to post this.

It doesn’t matter if you didn’t complete your tasks for the day, it’s more about reminding yourself what was good about your day, no matter how small a detail, and also what else you could have done to make that day better. The one thing that’s also great about this diary is that you fill in the date yourself, so even if you don’t pick it up for 2 months (or two years!) you can continue exactly where you left off.

This may seem like a crazy idea, giving a sense of power to your infant child, however there is method in the madness! This is a method by which your child will feel a sense of control and power in a situation which requires a choice, or discipline, but it remains in your control. This is because you are just giving the illusion of choice, when really both choices are ones you will have already picked and are happy with.

As a parent, if you want your child to develop a healthy sense of emotional resilience to all the various, mounting pressures there are on children each day, model mindful behaviour yourself. Your child will observe the way you deal with stress, anger, happiness, etc., all of which you have the ability to positively model.

This school’s ‘mindful moment room ’ has served to replace detentions, and by teaching the students that when they feel they can’t concentrate, or they are getting themselves riled up and into trouble, they can go and calm themselves down in a safe quiet space.  Someone is always there to support them and help them with techniques if necessary.

Positive thoughts and interactions with others are so easy to come by.  Make them your reality. As the more positive thoughts you have about yourself, the more you will build a positive self-concept, and reverse any prior negative self-concept and identity you may have believed about yourself.

'Positivity breeds positivity'