It’s been heartening to see the focus on mental health become more prominent in the mainstream media recently. For too long there was a stigma attached to any talk of psychological wellbeing, and admitting you were struggling was seen as a weakness.
As a mum, a friend, an entrepreneur and an employer I’ve followed the discussion and noticed a shift towards a more positive conversation around mental health. Just yesterday, the subject of mental health support for children in primary schools was headline news.
Now I won’t claim to be knowledgeable enough to understand the ins and outs of the debate – and to be honest, I avoid getting into the political point scoring of it all – but I would like to share our approach, as carers to hundreds of under-fives, if only to keep the conversation going.
Last month we introduced the ‘myHappymind’ initiative into one of our centres. We’re only a few weeks in but already we’re all really excited about the impact it’s having on the children and their parents and we’re making plans to roll it out across the group.
MyHappymind is a child-friendly programme that encourages healthy wellbeing habits in kids as young as two years old.
The story-based techniques include ‘happy breathing’, ‘brain growth moments’ and the celebration of each other’s individual characteristics and help children understand themselves, build resilience and ultimately thrive as older children into adulthood.
MyHappymind’s mission chimed immediately with the Kids Allowed approach which looks at the ‘whole child’.
Yes, we feed our children really well. Of course, we invest in creating a beautiful environment for them to enjoy. Without question, we give them the care and the cuddles they need. And we give them the best introduction to early years education with our playful approach (numeracy and literacy) while we support them as they learn about team work, resilience and building relationships.
But for us, all of that should be built on the strong foundations of a healthy mind, a good understanding of your emotions and the ability to self regulate.
My generation grew up in a much simpler world. And while the developments that the internet and social media represent are, in the main, positive, there’s no denying, life is more hectic than it’s ever been for young people. We’ve got a duty as carers and parents to do all we can to arm our children with the right tools to cope.
If we can introduce these kinds of healthy habits at nursery age, I believe the knock-on impact could be game-changing. Just a quick look at statistics on mental health and the NHS shows there’s an enormous problem. Just as enormous is the opportunity to help solve it.
We all want our children’s diets to be healthier than ours were when we were kids, and we’ll all encourage physical exercise to keep them fit. Add to that the World Health Organisation’s advice that 'there is no health without mental health' and we’ll be in pretty good shape – on the whole!
