Five simple ways you can help your family’s emotional wellbeing

Hi I’m Louise from Society Of Self-esteem and I help people break-free from yo-yo dieting and build confidence and self-esteem. Building your self-esteem is vital for achieving your goals in life and an important part of this is looking after your emotional well-being.  So I’m going to share with you five really simple things you can do regularly with your family that can help you all feel well.  What’s more, these are things that don’t have to cost the earth!

Connect with others

Connecting with other people regularly is essential as we’re sociable creatures.  Try joining a club to meet like-minded people or pick up the phone to have a chat with a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while.  For the little ones there are loads of different activities that are fun and help with building confidence too, such as Pyjama Drama or sports clubs.  Many clubs offer taster sessions for free so you can see if you or the kids like it before you sign-up.  If you’re a new parent check out your local NCT, Sure Start or other baby groups.  I’ve found it invaluable myself going along to my local Bumps & Babies groups for a safe place to let my little girl explore while I chat to other new parents – you suddenly don’t feel so alone!

Be active

We all know that physical activity is good for our bodies, but did you know it’s good for your mental health too?  It can help you sleep better and feel less anxious and irritable.  You don’t have to slog it out at the gym or even go to a formal exercise class; do something you enjoy that you will keep doing regularly.  You could get the bikes out and go for a family bike ride.  Take a trip to your local park or green space to have a game of tag with the little ones.  You might need to get the wellies & waterproofs on as Autumn draws in, but that just means you get to kick up the falling leaves and jump in a few muddy puddles! 

Take notice

This is all about being curious about life and the world around you – something little ones are really good at.  You can encourage your children to continue this by making a game of it.  As we wave goodbye to summer, point out the changing colours of the trees.  See what birds or creepy crawlies you can spot in your garden or local green space.  Take the time to stop and live in the moment.  Encourage the little ones to regularly stop and appreciate what’s good about life and talk about how they are feeling.

Keep learning

Learning new things is really important for giving you a sense of achievement.  Unfortunately, sometimes school can take the fun out of learning with all the tests and standards.  You can put the fun back into learning by focusing on things that you and the children really want to learn about.  Try taking up a hobby – you don’t need to pay for classes these days, there are loads of free tutorials for all sorts of things on YouTube.  See if there’s something you can all learn together as a family like a new language, or you could try identifying the trees/animals you spotted when you were out and about ‘taking notice’.

Give

Giving to others can really give you a boost. It doesn’t have to mean giving money to charity, it could be about giving your time or little things such as making the effort to be nice and smile at people even if you feel rubbish.  You could spend time with an elderly neighbour who struggles to leave the house or even just hold a door open for a stranger.  You could teach the little ones about manners such as saying please and thank you.  How about getting the kids to bag up old toys or clothes that they no longer wear and taking a trip to a charity shop?  Something simple we like to do is buy an extra item of food at our weekly food shop and put them in a box to collect for our local foodbank.

Have a think about what you could do and see how you feel if you regularly include the five ways in your life.

If you’d like more tips on building confidence and self-esteem or managing your weight for life, then sign up to my newsletter and you’ll get my FREE e-book on self-motivation.  The guide is aimed at long-term weight management, but the principles can be applied to anything you want to achieve!  Click here to get your copy.

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