Try it out
5 Ways Holiday Challenge
Here is an activity challenge to try out. We’ve heard lots about the 5 a day message for fruit and veg to help our bodies be healthy, well, the 5 Ways to Wellbeing are actions that help us to feel emotionally balanced. Think of them as a ‘5 a day’ for your mental health. Aim to choose one activity from each of the different ways to try each day. Repeat your favourites but do try as many of them as you can – you might discover new favourites!
Click the thumbnail below to view and download the activity suggestions.
Soundscapes for listening activities
Rainforest Walk
Wind and Rain
Woodland Walk
Beside the Seaside
Sensory Grounding – A Calm Collection
This is a simple activity using your senses to really take notice of your surroundings. Ideally, get outside to do this but the principle applies to wherever you may be.
Milkshake Breathing
This very short video provides a simple visualisation to help with steady, controlled breathing for self-soothing. Use the technique when experiencing tricky emotions that may cause more rapid breathing.
Safe and Happy Space
This short video suggests the ingredients for a positive visualisation, a ‘safe space’ to take your attention to when it’s not so easy to place yourself in your physical safe space.
Eating with Attention
This short video helps you to think about how you can take your attention to the sensory experience of eating. Slow down, take notice and enjoy.
Dandelion Clock
Try this short visualisation to help calm a busy mind.
Doodle Draw
This video introduces how a simple drawing activity can be used to focus attention on sights and sounds.
Stop and Take a Breath
This is a simple focusing technique that can be used alone or as a lead in to other focusing activities. The 7:11 breath is the ideal but the main aim is to steady your breathing and lengthen the out breath.
Time for Sleep
A number of the young people that I’ve been working with have found that they have been experiencing difficulty getting to sleep. This is a short, guided meditation to help ready the body and mind for sleep. The video can be viewed here or better still, download the audio file to a device to listen to with eyes closed.
Below is a collection of resources to support a range of short focusing activities. Do subscribe to the LearnHappy YouTube channel for the latest videos.
The PDFs are free to download and print, simply click on the thumbnails.
Colour Collection
Texture Collection