Introduction

Maintaining positive mental health and knowing where to go and what to do when mental health declines is helpful.  

Young Minds has a range of information to help children, young people and their parents and carers understand the thoughts and emotions that children and young people may experience.  

To find out more about getting help locally with mental health and wellbeing including what to do in a mental health crisis, see the local Children and young people mental health and wellbeing leaflet.  

Spotting Signs

Being more aware of when we aren’t feeling great makes it easier for us to do something about it before things get too bad. When we’re not feeling good, we might feel any of these: 

• Emotions including feeling low, stressed, worried, down, anxious, angry, scared, or irritable. 

• Physical sensations like your heart racing, butterflies in your stomach or feeling sick, breathing quickly, headaches, tense muscles, sweating, or feeling tired. 

• Thoughts that are racing, or constant worrying. Thoughts like, ‘I can’t do it’, ‘I’m useless’, or ‘Nobody likes me’. 

• Behaviours (the way we act) including avoiding things or people, snapping at people, eating too much or too little, sleep problems. 

These are all completely normal things to experience and noticing them means you can take steps to improve things. 

Breathing  

It’s such a simple thing but it really does help.  

Try these two breathing exercises, box breathing or  hand breathing. What do you notice? 

Talking

Try talking to someone, a parent or carer, or another adult you trust, this might be a teacher or youth worker or try one of the free helplines, (see the Children and young people mental health and wellbeing leaflet for helplines) …it’s better out than in! 

Mindfulness

• Why not try a mindfulness exercise: This video will guide you through a five senses mindful exercise.  

• This worksheet from Young Minds explains two easy mindfulness exercises you can try. 

• The Mental Health Foundation has produced this booklet to explain how you can use Mindfulness to support your mental health.  

Relaxing

Another technique is called progressive muscle relaxation:  This is particularly useful to do in bed if you’re finding it hard to get to sleep. 

For more mindful activities see: Mental health and wellbeing activities and resources.

Practicing self-care

It is important to practice self-care all the time not just when you are feeling low, this will help to maintain your wellbeing and will give you tools to cope when times get tough.  

Want more ideas about self-care? 

Here are some top self-care tips from South Gloucestershire children and young people created for Children’s Mental Health Week:

• Top self-care tips from South Gloucestershire children and young people 

There are lots of great national resources too:

• Video from Young Minds about Self Care 
• Self-Care Plan- Primary School age- Mentally Health Schools Booklet
• Self-Care Plan- Secondary School/ college age- Mentally Health Schools Booklet 

Your stress bucket

How we are feeling will affect our ability to deal with life’s ups and downs. 

Understanding what causes us to feel stressed, anxious or low can be the first step to making us feel better. Identifying positive coping strategies to deal with stress can help even further.   

The stress bucket analogy thinks about the stresses coming in and the coping strategies that support us to manage that stress without becoming overwhelmed. Take a look at this video for more info 

The 5 ways to wellbeing

Connecting to the 5 ways of wellbeing. is good for your wellbeing.  Which are connect with others, be physically active, learning new skills, give to others, pay attention to the present moment (mindfulness). 

Further Mental Health Tips from the Mental Health Foundation can be found in a downloadable document  here.  

Further resources for children and young people  

Further resources for parents and carers