Boosting a Child’s Resilience and Emotional Wellness
Emotional wellness means that one can express emotions, feel empathy and compassion, have healthy relationships, communicate freely, be responsible, accept help, and bounce back when facing adversity. It is crucial to have emotional wellness when being resilient in the face of adversity. Since adversity is an integral part of life, we can’t hide children from it. Instead, we can promote resilience and emotional wellness by giving them the tools to cope.
Check out these tips to boost your child’s resilience and emotional wellness.
- Spend quality time with your children every day without any distractions, showing them that they are important and teaching them how to have healthy relationships.
- Ask your child about their day. Make them question what parts were good and bad. Ask them why this is the case. Help them to understand their feelings about the day.
- Praise your child’s effort when doing things like helping around the house, working on homework, participating in sports, and getting along with others.
- If your child is resisting, acting out, or engaging in unwanted behaviors, before you react, take several slow, deep breaths to strengthen your ability to stay calm and then ask them what’s upsetting them. This strategy helps you get to the root of the issue and address the real problem to determine a real solution.
- Ask your child, “What do you need?” to accomplish what you ask them to do. This question helps them to think about themselves and to understand their needs and personality better.
- Show them that you care about their feelings, beliefs, hopes, and dreams – their identity. Avoid negative labels and judgments about who they are. It’s good for your children to be true to themselves.
- Teach your kids empathy and compassion. They will learn by watching you. Teaching them how to be compassionate, kind, and caring when someone is hurting or needy is important in the world today.
