Why: The Importance of Building your own Toolkit
Building your MOOD Kit (aka a mental health toolkit) involves equipping yourself with resources, strategies, and techniques to help manage stress, anxiety, and other mental health challenges. It is SO important to prioritize our mental health just as much as our physical health, and having a toolkit can provide us with the necessary support when navigating those ups and downs, the hardships of life.
By creating a mental health toolkit, you can cultivate self-awareness, resilience, and coping mechanisms that empower you to better handle stressors and setbacks. Your toolkit may include practices like mindfulness, journaling, breathing exercises, self-care activities, and seeking support from friends, family, or professional resources. It is essential to personalize your toolkit based on your unique needs and preferences, ensuring that you have a range of tools to access when needed. Investing time and effort into building a mental health toolkit is a proactive step towards promoting your mental well-being and developing a strong foundation for emotional resilience. And you’re here today to do just that with the MOOD Kit – so let’s dive in.
By creating a mental health toolkit, you can cultivate self-awareness, resilience, and coping mechanisms that empower you to better handle stressors and setbacks. Your toolkit may include practices like mindfulness, journaling, breathing exercises, self-care activities, and seeking support from friends, family, or professional resources. It is essential to personalize your toolkit based on your unique needs and preferences, ensuring that you have a range of tools to access when needed. Investing time and effort into building a mental health toolkit is a proactive step towards promoting your mental well-being and developing a strong foundation for emotional resilience. And you’re here today to do just that with the MOOD Kit – so let’s dive in.
The Benefits: Why add Mindfulness to your Toolkit
Mindfulness is all about paying attention to what's happening in the here and now, with a friendly open attitude. It helps you feel calmer and more peaceful, while also being good for both your mind and body. By practicing mindfulness, you can reduce stress, anxiety, and sadness, and improve focus, memory, and mood.
Mindfulness means being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings with kindness. It helps you notice what’s happening in the moment, like feeling the sun on your face, its feeling the weight of the ball in your hands when you’re just about to shoot for a basket, its feeling tears roll down your cheeks or recognizing tension in your body. When you practice mindfulness, you get better at noticing how you're feeling and what you're thinking. This helps you understand yourself more and connect better with others. It lets you pause, catch your breath, and choose how to respond in the moment, instead of just reacting.
Practicing mindfulness through activities like breathing, movement, and creativity can help you understand your emotions better and make better choices. Plus, it’s great for your physical health! Mindfulness can lower blood pressure, help you sleep better, and even boost your immune system, making you feel better inside and out. One last thing – mindfulness practices be A LOT of fun too!
Mindfulness means being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings with kindness. It helps you notice what’s happening in the moment, like feeling the sun on your face, its feeling the weight of the ball in your hands when you’re just about to shoot for a basket, its feeling tears roll down your cheeks or recognizing tension in your body. When you practice mindfulness, you get better at noticing how you're feeling and what you're thinking. This helps you understand yourself more and connect better with others. It lets you pause, catch your breath, and choose how to respond in the moment, instead of just reacting.
Practicing mindfulness through activities like breathing, movement, and creativity can help you understand your emotions better and make better choices. Plus, it’s great for your physical health! Mindfulness can lower blood pressure, help you sleep better, and even boost your immune system, making you feel better inside and out. One last thing – mindfulness practices be A LOT of fun too!
Quick Tips
Model Presence
It’s helpful to show others how to be in the moment by setting aside your phone and other distractions whenever you can. I invite you to give it a try and see how it feels!
Modifying
A Mindful Breath
In most of the exercises, I'll often start by inviting you to take a mindful breath. Mindful breathing is a simple way to focus on the present moment by paying attention to each inhale and exhale. Healthy breathing includes small pauses at the end of each breath, but when we’re stressed, we often forget these pauses. By slowing down the breath and extending the exhale, we can help kids relax and notice how their feelings change.
About Posture
Exercises invite you to sit, stand, lie down or move. These exercises can often be practised in anyway, the posture should feel easy and natural. Here are a few tips:
It’s helpful to show others how to be in the moment by setting aside your phone and other distractions whenever you can. I invite you to give it a try and see how it feels!
Modifying
- You know your child best so feel free to adapt the activities based on their needs in the structure of your home. If something is not possible or if it feels unpleasant, you can still practice the general idea of the exercise and just modify in ways that work for you. Maybe this means laying down or asking for help.
- Activities may feel different from one day to the next, so remind your child that with mindfulness it’s simply about the noticing. Different activity prompts have been provided, you decide which to explore.
A Mindful Breath
In most of the exercises, I'll often start by inviting you to take a mindful breath. Mindful breathing is a simple way to focus on the present moment by paying attention to each inhale and exhale. Healthy breathing includes small pauses at the end of each breath, but when we’re stressed, we often forget these pauses. By slowing down the breath and extending the exhale, we can help kids relax and notice how their feelings change.
About Posture
Exercises invite you to sit, stand, lie down or move. These exercises can often be practised in anyway, the posture should feel easy and natural. Here are a few tips:
- If sitting or standing, roll the shoulders up by the ears and let them drop down, relax the shoulders, arms and hands down.
- Open the chest through the heart and push the shoulders back and down
- You might imagine a string pulling the top of the head upward to help keep the back straight, but not rigid.
- Incorporate any items you may wish to help you feel relaxed, including any comfort items such as blankets, a mat, pillows, stuffies, etc.
- Eyes open or closed is always an invitation – if open, keep them at a soft gaze, gently focus on a point in front of you
Important Classroom Considerations (for educators)
Should you be using this resource for your classroom, educators are strongly encouraged to review these important classroom considerations:
- It's important to ensure the space is trauma-informed, and helping, not hurting.
- No one should be forced to close their eyes or sit in a certain way, always offer a choice. For example, there’s no need to hold your hands in a certain way or a certain body posture.
- If there is violence in the classroom, for example, and students aren’t feeling safe, this isn’t a space to practice anything deep like mindfulness.
- To build a space that feels safe, consider setting clear boundaries that are predictable; group agreements can be supportive.
- Know that paying attention to the present moment, won’t always make a person feel calmer, but practising mindfulness over time builds on this strategy that can be useful to stay calm in more stressful situations.
- Every person, every student is on their own journey, so it’s important to avoid forcing them into the practice. If you notice they’re struggling, you can ask them if they need any support but simply planting the seed with the invitation to practice is enough.
- You know your students best so feel free to adapt the activities based on their needs in the structure of your classroom. If something is not possible or if it feels unpleasant, you can still practice the general idea of the exercise and just modify in ways that work for you and your group. Maybe this means laying down or asking someone for some help.
- Activities may feel different from one day to the next, so remind students that with mindfulness it’s simply about the noticing.
- Different activity prompts have been provided, you decide which to explore.
Prefer to Unplug?
It's possible to adapt this Series and go tech-less.
For the ''PAUSE' videos, scripts are provided. Option to print and read at your own pace and flow.
For the 'PLAY' activities, PDFs are available for instruction purposes and generally screens are not necessary. Option to print PDFs.
For the ''PAUSE' videos, scripts are provided. Option to print and read at your own pace and flow.
For the 'PLAY' activities, PDFs are available for instruction purposes and generally screens are not necessary. Option to print PDFs.
Disclaimer
MOOD Kit is not a replacement for professional support, medical treatment or medication but a resource. Although mindfulness practices can be very helpful to many people, there are some circumstances under which practicing mindfulness is not recommended, such as if you’ve experienced a recent trauma, severe depression, psychosis, dissociative disorders, active suicidal ideation, or substance abuse. If you have concerns, please consult with your healthcare provider before using this resource.
