Children’s Mental Health Week - 1st-7th February 2021
stormbreak support children’s mental health week and Place2Be! 
Can you (or can you help a child you live with, work with, care for) do a stormbreak every day to Express Yourself?
Try one of our stormbreaks suggested below and check out stormbreak.org.uk/pathway for more.
Five ways to help ‘Express yourself!’ for children’s mental health week 2021.
Being creative and finding ways to express ourselves helps us feel good about ourselves and to know how much we matter.
At stormbreak we believe that when children move and combine this with creativity and self-expression, we can help them to feel hopeful, excited, balanced and enriched. Knowing and sensing how they are feeling inside and being able to express this through movement and through conversations with those they trust, is the foundation to being mentally and physically well for life.
As trusted adults our own mental health is important too, so moving and being creative ourselves, is an opportunity to feel balanced and good about ourselves as well. By showing children how we are creative, by joining with them to move and to express ourselves, enables us to share in their experience, to enjoy time together and allows us all to feel good, feel energised, hopeful and connected.
For children’s mental health week here are five fantastic ways of mentally healthy expressive movement!
1. Express and show Resilience
Expressing resilience through movement helps us to recognise when sometimes things are hard, we feel like giving up, we can feel alone in our struggles and feel the barriers are just too huge. But with the support of a trusted adult we know we can have another go, we know it’s ok to make mistakes, we know that we can take small steps at a time we can strengthen ourselves, develop courage and self-belief that we can do this and we will have success again! Expressing ourselves through movement helps us to shake off our doubts, it helps us to balance our minds and our bodies and to have the courage to bounce back and go for it again!
Enjoy our stormbreak ‘Feeling photo’ which helps us recognise the feelings we have that can be barriers for us sometimes and helps us to express them. Expressing our feelings help us to feel a sense of release and empowers us to build our resilience.
Stormbreak - Feeling Photo
Feeling photo · resilience
2. Express and connect in our Relationships
Having people around us who we care about and who care for us is special. Showing people how we feel and being able to express how we feel, helps us to feel connected and to feel we belong. When we can express how we feel through movement, through the words we say or through our body language it helps us to show we care and allows us to feel loved, secure and connected. Sometimes we can feel difficult feelings towards others or within ourselves if we fall out or disagree and this helps us know that we care. But talking, thinking and listening to each other and then being able to express how we feel, allows for relationships to mend and repair and this is an important part of life. Sharing time together, laughing, moving in togetherness is at the heart of wellbeing.
Our stormbreak monkey chatter helps us think about how our relationships are important and how they can change, they can break down but can also be repaired. It helps us to think about our feelings and our actions and to find ways to express ourselves through our relationships.
Stormbreak - Monkey chatter
Monkey chatter · relationships
3. Express and value Self-care
Expressing ourselves and valuing self-care is a central part of our well being. When we take time to notice how we are feeling and to then express, release or capture these feelings through our actions and movements, we can help ourselves to feel physically and mentally well. We can energise ourselves through movement or we can focus on our breathing, on mindful movement to regulate or calm us. By doing this we are actively expressing ourselves and putting ourselves first so that we can feel good inside.
Try our stormbreak monkey mind which helps us to listen to our thoughts and feelings and to then express, release, celebrate or connect with them.
Stormbreak - Monkey mind
Monkey mind · self-care
4. Express and believe in our Self worth
Expressing belief in ourselves and recognising our strengths and characteristics can help us to value and know our own self-worth. We can express our strengths and characteristics through movement and when we notice and take time to celebrate this about ourselves, we can feel good inside. Expressing and affirming what we like about ourselves and doing things we enjoy helps us to know we matter.
Our stormbreak pathfinder helps us to think about our own self-worth and to celebrate our achievements. It reminds us too that sometimes our trusted adults can reassure us and show us we matter too.
Stormbreak - Pathfinder
Pathfinder · self-worth
5. Express and celebrate Hope and Optimism
Expressing and celebrating hope and optimism can show us that sometimes we can shift our thoughts and feelings and create new pathways for now and in the future. By expressing and focussing on our dreams and goals, our aspirations and hopes, we can take steps along the way to reach them. Movement can help us to feel hopeful, it can lift our mood and can energise us to be open to opportunities.
Our stormbreak mood shift empowers us to express our feelings and to notice how these feelings can change. It shows us that we can have hopeful and uncomfortable feelings and that is ok, but we can also help shift and change feelings through movement and by expressing ourselves so that we can be optimistic now and in the future.
Stormbreak- Mood shift
Mood shift · hope and optimism
We hope you enjoy expressing yourself through these stormbreaks every day!
Have fun and take time to laugh, connect and express how you feel to celebrate your mental health now and for the future!
Register for the stormbreak challenge and complete a personal stormbreak journey earning awards and certificates along the way. Sign up at www.stormbreak.org.uk
