Preparing for a mentally healthy life
Childhood and adolescence is an exciting period in life as young people discover and learn new things about themselves and the world they live in every day. It can also be a stressful time with many changes and different life experiences. Often, young people can experience high levels of stress, which may lead to feelings of anger and anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression.
Fortunately, there are many ways in which children and adolescents - with the help of their teachers, parents and guardians - can tackle these feelings of stress, anger, and so on to ensure that they live as mentally healthy a life as possible. Our #MindYourSelfie resources can make a great difference in this.
Teachers play a key role in the promotion of positive mental health for young people, and, through these resources, have the power to brighten up the classroom and their student’s self-esteem through a range of different activities and exercises.
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See more about our resources
Our free suite of resources includes:
- A series of guided relaxation audio exercises that introduces the practice of mindfulness to children
- Free eBooks designed to give practical tips and advice on mental health
- Printable mindfulness colouring sheets that can help students feel more relaxed
- Wellness Journals which provide young people with a template to record their feelings and thoughts
- A Wellness Action Calendar which suggests daily, positive actions students can take
- A Wellness Wall banner to create a space in classrooms or schools where everyone is welcome to read and contribute to a wellness wall
- A Selfie ‘Steem activity that invites students to share positive messages about one another
- The Selfie Tips Origami Chatterbox game that encourages children to think positively about themselves
- Our #FrameOfMind resource and teacher's companion guide which explores different mental health themes.
We regularly update our #MindYourSelfie resources, so watch out for new additions coming soon!
Minding Yourself, Minding Nature
Minding Yourself, Minding Nature is our nature workbook for secondary schools. Especially developed together in partnership with BirdWatch Ireland, Leave No Trace and Biodiversity in Schools, the workbook explores the link between nature and mental health and offers lots of different nature-based activities for young people to try in school and at home.
The workbook, available in both English and Irish language versions, looks at why and how the natural world is important for our health and wellbeing. It suggests ways we can connect with nature in daily life to support our wellbeing. It also looks, in turn, at ways we can look after the natural world, and some of the reasons why this is important.
Worry Lorry
At times, we can all feel anxious or worried. There are things that we can all do to help reduce that anxiety, like taking a few minutes for our Worry Lorry activity.
To get started, you’ll need to download and print the activity sheet. Then, write down the things that make you worried or play on your mind on the lorry.
Think about the things that make you feel good and help your worries to disappear, and then share them with the second lorry driver below. Focus on these positive things as you colour in the rest of the sheet, and notice how your worries are driven away!
Wellbeing Action Calendar and Self-Care Timetable
Our mental health and wellbeing calendar suggests daily actions that children and young people can undertake to promote positive mental health and mindfulness. As it doesn't set dates or times, the calendar can be customised so that you have the flexibility to use it whenever suits you. There are also English and Irish language versions available.
Our Self-Care Timetable for primary schools also shares a different wellbeing activity that children can do each day of the week to mind their wellbeing.
Mindfulness exercises
Our #MindYourSelfie series of guided relaxation audio exercises introduce mindfulness and meditation to young people. These exercises, which can be practiced in the classroom, engage students in body relaxation practices, which not only help to improve students' mindfulness, but also enhance their abilities to relieve tension built up in the body and mind.
Mindful Colouring
Mindfulness can improve our wellbeing. Our mindful colouring activities help children and young people to feel more relaxed by bringing their attention to the present moment as they focus on how to choose and apply colour in our specially-created designs.
Primary Schools
Secondary Schools
Wellness Journals
Our Wellness Journals provide young people with a template to record their feelings and thoughts as a once-off assignment or as a daily activity.
Mental health ebooks for the classroom
All of our #MindYourSelfie resources can be used in school, but some are designed with the classroom especially in mind. To start, our #MindYourSelfie mental health eBooks are designed to share practical tips on mental health that teachers can use as they work with their class. Every week, students spend more time in the classroom than anywhere else, meaning that their teachers are uniquely placed to promote positive mental health. These eBooks aim to provide useful advice on creating connections with students, raising awareness of mental health, and embedding positive attitudes towards it.
Classroom presentations on mental health
We developed two classroom presentations, hosted by child and adolescent psychotherapist, Dr Colman Noctor, and designed to educate students in primary and secondary school about how they can take care of their own mental health. The presentations give meaningful and practical ways that young people can look after their wellbeing. Topics covered include everything from building resilience and valuing our sense of self-worth, to understanding the relationships we have with ourselves and dealing with comparison culture.
Wellness Wall
Our Wellness Wall helps to promote positive, encouraging messages of wellness within the walls of your school. To get started, download the Wellness Wall banner below (or send us an email to request one). Then, check out our guides - also below - for details on how to use the banner in primary or secondary schools. You can use the banner to mark your chosen wall and create a space where everyone is welcome to read and contribute to it. Invite students and staff to write and share upbeat, helpful notes and messages of how they think wellness looks, sounds, and feels: the more creative, the better!
Film resource and companion guide
Our #FrameofMind film resource features clips from some of the shortlisted films to our Frame of Mind short film competition, which explore mental health themes affecting or important to young people. The film can be used to start a classroom discussion about mental health and wellbeing. Your teacher’s companion guide has been developed to accompany the film and to share more information on the film's topics. It also provides questions and discussion points for your class. We recommend setting up to one hour for viewing this film and completing the exercises in the guide.
Selfie ‘Steem
Our Selfie 'Steem activity encourages students to share positive messages about and with one another. Each student writes their name or places their photo in the centre of the Selfie 'Steem sheet, which is then passed around the class. Other students then write positive messages about their classmates - such as that they are kind, caring, or fun to be around - on the sheet.
The exercise shows how, even though we can think of lots of compliments for other people, it can be very hard to compliment ourselves, thus teaching students the importance of learning to be kind to themselves.
Origami Chatterbox
How can you teach children to think positively about themselves?
One simple way is to start discussing the topic of positive thinking through a fun, simple game, like our Origami Chatterbox.
Start by inviting students to fold the Origami Chatterbox.
To do this, they can follow the instructions in the downloadable folding craft sheet. Once students have folded their Chatterbox, the game can begin.
Step 1 | Students play in teams of two. The first student asks the other to pick a number. They then work the Chatterbox back and forth as they count up to the number out loud.
Step 2 | The first student asks the second student to pick one of the numbers on view inside the Chatterbox. Then, the first student works the Chatterbox back and forth again, counting up to the number chosen by their friend.
Step 3 | The second student makes a final selection of one of the numbers on view inside the Chatterbox. The first student raises up the flap to reveal the positive message!
Step 4 | Start all over again - either with the same friend or another student!