Self-kindness is incredibly important for children and it’s easy to understand why. Self-kindness helps us feel better about ourselves, be kinder to others and even perform better at times when life feels difficult.
Self-kindness is amazingly beneficial.
Studies say that if we can be kind to ourselves we can feel better and even perform better.
Studies on self-compassion have linked it to greater emotional resilience, more caring relationships and less reactive anger.
Researchers found that people who are compassionate to themselves are much less likely to be depressed, anxious, and stressed, and are much more likely to be happy, resilient, and optimistic about their future.
You can see why you’d want to teach self-kindness to children, right?
But understanding is not enough.
Self-kindness is a skill… which means that you get better at it with practice
You want to teach your brain to find that state more often and it doesn’t happen merely by knowing how valuable it is.
Instead, you want to build those pathways in your brain and keep grooving them to make it easier to access thoughts and feelings of self-compassion and to finally make it a habit.
How then do you practice self-kindness?
Here’s one simple activity you can try together with me and then do with your children to nurture self-kindness.
So, let’s do a quick self-kindness activity together…
Self-kindness activity for children ( and grown-ups, too )
I’ll pick one kindness card from my deck of Ultimate Mindfulness And Growth Mindset Cards and we’ll practice together :-)
Thank you for watching! I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can comment here on Youtube if you wish.
If you liked this activity and want more activities you can do together with children then…
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“The Most Important Mindfulness Book You’ll Ever Buy” – Helen Hudson
Ultimate Mindfulness Activity Book – 150 Playful Mindfulness Activities for Kids and Teens (and Grown-Ups too!)
Wishing you many heartwarming moments with your children :-)
Chris Bergstrom
Chief Mindfulness Ninja @ Blissful Kids
#1 Best-Selling Author of:
Ultimate Mindfulness Activity Book: 150 Playful Mindfulness Activities for Kids and Teens
★★★★★ Awesome
“Bought this book for my 6 year old, but even my 3 and 15 yo love the activities.”
★★★★★ Cute and calming
“With the craze being all about baby sharks, it’s a great idea to take it and use it to help our kids calm down themselves. I’m a therapist and look forward to using this with my kid clients.”
Chris Bergstrom is a bestselling mindfulness author, a leader in the field of mindfulness, the founder of BlissfulKids.com, a blog dedicated to children’s mindfulness, and a dad who is thrilled to practice mindfulness with his son. He is a certified mindfulness facilitator and trained to teach mindfulness to students in K-12. He’s also known as “the dad who tried 200+ mindfulness activities” and has taught meditation for more than 15 years.
Love the growth mindset cards and the way you shared it with all of us. It really resonated with me and I will share it with others. Thanks for being real, authentic and sharing kindness to ourselves and others. Keep going, keep sharing. All the best!
Thank you so much Jana for your support, it really means a lot to me <3 :)
I am a family therapist and look forward to your card deck coming out. Having to work online for now, I find your tools and strategies very useful.
I can be kinder to myself by remembering that I can fix every problem my client families have. I am offering new ways of doing things, but change takes time. I provide high quality, feedback informed treatment and my clients are getting their money’s worth. I have what it takes.
Hi Abby, thank you for writing and your support <3 I know how you feel, it's such a important thing to remember. Change takes time... even if we want to fix everything right away. I'm going to keep that in mind at work. Thank you so much for sharing!! :)