Healthy Mind For A Happy Child

A child's well-being and mental health are now becoming a worldwide concern, as a healthy mind will help you find your way through life, from birth through childhood, through teenage years, adulthood, and into older age.

Stress Management:

People of any age can experience stress. Children can be stressed out from schoolwork, exams, changing schools, family environment, death in the family, problems with friends, bullying, illness, inactive video games, and many other factors.

While it's not always easy to recognize when children are stressed out, some behavioral or physical changes can be noticed, trouble concentrating, nervous habits, withdrawing from family and friends, moodiness, headaches, stomach aches, sleep problems, and decreased appetite.

Younger children may pick up new habits like thumb-sucking, hair twirling, or nose-picking; older children may have nightmares or have drastic changes in academic performance.

How can you help your child with stress?

To have a stress-free child, you should do the following:

1. Exercise body and mind :

One of the most important life lessons for children to learn for the health of their bodies and minds is the necessity of regular exercise. Exercise improves physical activity and helps the body to fight infection. It is also vital for maintaining mental fitness by improving mood, reducing stress, and improving cognitive functioning.

2. Breathing techniques :

If your child is feeling stressed, anxious, angry, hyper, over-stimulated, or busy then breathing techniques are their new bestie.

Have you ever told a child to take a deep breath, and then they start hyperventilating? Or they breathe in, but don’t breathe out?

Sometimes, children may need a little help to figure out how to properly take a deep breath, so below are some fun and easy breathing exercises for your child.

Five fingers –breathing: Numbers are a great idea to teach children how to breathe.
Mountain Breathing: This breath can be done sitting or standing.

3. Mindfulness

All parents want their children to be healthy and happy, not just now but for the rest of their lives. Meditation will help us to ensure that.

Mindfulness is the ability to pay intentional attention to present moment experience with an open, curious and non-judgmental attitude, and not worry about the future or dwelling on the past.

In mindfulness your child is fully present in the present moment, this will help your child to succeed in school and at home or on the playground or playing field.

4. Social skills

Teaching children social skills is vital in enabling positive interaction, having healthy relationships, communicating effectively, being successful in school and work settings, and developing pro-social behaviors that support mental well-being. Social skills include things like sharing, cooperating, listening, following directions, making eye contact, respecting boundaries, and taking turns.

5. Healthy food

Eating healthy and staying hydrated is important for brain function.

These foods can help children stay sharp and affect how their brains develop well into the future:

Eggs
Yogurt
Green vegetables and fruits
Fish
Nuts and seeds

A child’s behavior, thinking, and all in childhood will remain for the rest of their life, therefore it is our responsibility as parents to ensure a healthy environment for our children and support them physically and emotionally to develop a healthy mind.

_References:

_{https://raisingchildren.net.au/pre-teens/mental-health-physical-health/about-mental-health/teen-mental-health, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9367782/, https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/physical-activity-its-important, https://copingskillsforkids.com/deep-breathing-exercises-for-kids, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4894866/, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6681026/, https://www.healthxchange.sg/children/food-nutrition/top-ten-foods-childs-brain-development}