The best things to do to help boost your mood!

Children’s Mental Health Week (7-13)

This week is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the importance of children and young people’s mental health.

Children should not have to face mental health problems alone and Place2Be’s national campaign for Children’s Mental Health Week, helps to ensure every child has easy access to mental health support whenever they need it.

In support of this campaign, we thought we’d share some of our ideas in helping children and adults to boost their mental health and challenge you to a well-being challenge!

Just choose from one of the following activities opposite and below to help boost your mood and overall wellbeing.

Talk and share

Communication is important, whether it’s with a friend, family member or counsellor.

Talking things through helps you to release tension, rather than keeping it inside. It helps strengthen your relationships and connect with people.

Lots of people find talking to a counsellor (if you need extra support) about things that are troubling them, very helpful.

Alternatively, there are many therapies available such as reflexology, acupuncture or massage therapies that can help with emotional tension and stress related symptoms.

Do some exercise

Even moderate exercise releases chemicals in your brain that help lift your mood.

It can also help you sleep better, give you more energy and keep your heart healthy.

Choosing an exercise that you enjoy helps and doing it with a friend or whilst listening to music can help to keep you motivated.

Adults should aim for 150 minutes a week and children 60 minutes.

Choose a well-balanced diet

Making healthy choices about your diet can make you feel emotionally stronger.

Remember, you’re doing something positive for yourself, which can help boost your self-esteem. You’re also more likely to make better food choices in the future.

A good diet also helps your brain and body work efficiently too.

Aim to have a balanced diet that includes all the main food groups and also reducing the amount of sugar you consume to avoid those highs and lows you can feel.

Enjoy yourself

Doing things that you enjoy is good for your emotional wellbeing.

Doing something you’re good at, such as cooking or dancing along to your favourite tune, is a great way to enjoy yourself, have some fun and help give yourself a sense of achievement.

Try to avoid things that seem enjoyable at the time but make you feel worse afterwards, such as drinking too much alcohol or eating junk food.

Help others

Research shows that helping other people and those in need, will help to lift your mood.

So do a favour for a friend, look after a loved one, donate to charity or volunteer.